Patent ID: 7858829

Claim:
A process for preparing polyether alcohols of the general formula (I) by alkoxylating compounds of the general formula R 1 (XR′) m in a microstructured reactor with parallel-connected channel arrays for carrying out chemical reactions between substantially liquid reactants, optionally in the presence of a solid catalyst, the chemical process taking place in spaces which are formed by two or more substantially plane-parallel plates or layers, wherein the reactants are mixed individually in each reaction channel in monophasic liquid form and a heat exchanger apparatus, specifically a cooling or heating apparatus, is provided, and the reactor is designed for pressures of up to about 800 bar and temperatures in the range from —about 30° C. to about 400° C., wherein the hydraulic diameter of the channels is less than 2 mm; which comprises mixing the compound R 1 (XR′) m and a suitable catalyst and introducing them into the reactor, feeding thereto a number of equivalents of alkylene oxide selected from the group consisting of from about 1 to about 300 and from about 2 to about 150, directly or at a plurality of points, into the reactor and mixing them with the compound R 1 (XR′) m , catalyst and/or subsequent products thereof, reacting them in the reaction channels at a temperature in the range from 50 to 300° C. and a pressure in the range of from 11 to 800 bar, and subsequently cooling the product mixture, where R 1 is a mono- or polyvalent organic radical, m is a an integer of from 1 to 10, n is an integer from 1 to 200, R 2 in the molecule is uniformly or differently hydrogen and/or a substituted or unsubstituted organic radical, X is O, S, NH or NR′, and each R′ is independently, a hydrogen, a substituted or unsubstituted organic cyclic or acyclic wherein the residence time of the reaction mixture in the reaction channel is selected from the group of times consisting of from about 1 to about 600 seconds, from about 50 to about 400 seconds and from about 100 to about 300 seconds.