PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16129375
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-09
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["562", "118000"]

Abstract:
The present invention relates to a process for operating a plant for preparing an alkanesulfonic acid, wherein said alkanesulfonic acid is prepared by oxidation of an alkylmercaptan, dialkydisulfide and/or dialkylpolysulfide and the one or more alkyl radicals of the alkylmercaptan, dialkydisulfide and/or dialkylpolysulfide are identical with the alkyl radical of the alkylsulfonic acid to be prepared, characterized in that the oxidation is performed in the presence of an at least stoichiometric amount of an oxoacid of nitrogen, e.g. nitric acid, relative to the amount of said alkylmercaptan, dialkyldisulfide and/or dialkylpolysulfide during the start-up phase of the plant of the plant, wherein the start up phase comprises the steps adding an oxoacid of nitrogen to the reactor, adding sulfur-containing reactant progressively so that it is converted to alkanesulfonic acid, filling up the compile volume of the reactor by adding progressively sulfur-containing reactant and if needed oxoacid of nitrogen to make sure that it is in excess, once the reactor is full, transitioning out of the start-up phase by adding an oxygen containing fluid, and during the running phase, keeping the reaction volume full by balancing the volume of product withdrawn with the volume of sulfur-containing reactant added.

Claim (Index 1):
A process for operating a plant for preparing an alkanesulfonic acid, wherein said alkanesulfonic acid is prepared by oxidation of an alkylmercaptan, dialkydisulfide and/or dialkylpolysulfide, such that the oxidation is performed in the presence of an at least stoichiometric amount of an oxoacid of nitrogen relative to the amount of said alkylmercaptan, dialkyldisulfide and/or dialkylpolysulfide during the start-up phase of the plant, the process comprising:\n i) providing an oxoacid of nitrogen in a reactor, ii) feeding at least one of an alkylmercaptan containing stream, a dialkydisulfide containing stream, and a dialkylpolysulfide containing stream into the oxoacid of nitrogen in the reactor to give an alkanesulfonic acid containing product mixture, and iii) repeating step ii) until the available inner volume of the reactor is filled completely with the alkanesulfonic acid containing product mixture obtained in step ii), iv) feeding additional oxoacid of nitrogen into the reactor, when the amount of oxoacid of nitrogen provided in step i) is not enough to fill the available inner volume of the reactor with the product mixture obtained in step ii), v) feeding an oxygen containing fluid stream into the reactor, when the available inner volume of the reactor is completely filled with the product mixture obtained in the step ii) and/or in the step iii), vi) removing at least part of the alkanesulfonic acid containing product mixture from the reactor, and vii) feeding at least one of an alkylmercaptan containing stream, a dialkydisulfide containing stream, and a containing stream into the reactor to yield a reaction mixture, wherein said alkylmercaptan, dialkyldisulfide and/or dialkylpolysulfide is identical with the alkylmercaptan, dialkyldisulfide and/or dialkylpolysulfide of any of the preceding steps, wherein the volume of the alkylmercaptan, dialkyldisulfide and/or dialkylpolysulfide containing stream, fed into the reactor in step vii), equals the volume of the product mixture removed from the reactor in step vi).

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 15.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.30435
- Patent Class: 562.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15102842', '15778802', '15774847', '13069939', '13061751']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6847739329239158
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5051594401478785
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6668124836463121
- Mean Citation Score: 189.93477
- Max Citation Score: 251.39203
- Similarity Product: 180.43326133922696

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test