Patent ID: 8609906

Claim:
A process for preparing C 1 -C 4 -oxygenates from a reactant stream A which comprises a C 1 -C 4 -alkane or a mixture of C 1 -C 4 -alkanes, by a) branching off a substream B of the reactant stream A and allowing it to react in a reactor with oxygen or an oxygenous gas stream C, which converts a portion of the C 1 -C 4 -alkane or a portion of the mixture which comprises C 1 -C 4 -alkanes to C 1 -C 4 -oxygenates, b) removing at least 90 mol % of the C 1 -C 4 -oxygenates formed from the product stream D resulting from step a) to form a remaining low boiler stream E and a high boiler stream F which comprises the C 1 to C 4 oxygenates removed, which comprises combining the low boiler stream E with the reactant stream A without further workup and without combination with the substream B downstream of the branching site of the substream B.