PATENT

3066. -----.[RUHRCHEMIE, A.G.] [Process for Producing Esters Serving as Solvents or Softeners.] German Patent Appl. --, R 600, filed Jan. 26, 1942.  FIAT Reel K-30, frames 7,732-7,735; PB 73,587; TOM Reel 39, bag 3,453, item 1; TOM Reel 36, bag 3,454, itme 36, 4 pp.; Meyer Transl. PC-S-V, Oxo, vol. 1, chap.29, 1948, p. 70.

Alcohols, which have been obtained either through the direct catalytic action of CO and H2 on olefins containing 1 less C atom or through subsequent reduction of the oxo products formed by the catalytic action of water gas on olefins, are etherified in known manner by heating with one another, or ethers are prepared in the specified manner by utilizing only 1 of the components derived from the catalytic action of water gas on olefins.  By the reaction of CO and H2 on olefins at temperatures 50°-200° and pressures of about 50 atm. or more in the presence of catalysts containing Fe, Ni, or Co activiated with ThO2, MgO, or Al2O3 and supported on carriers such as kieselguhr, mixtures of oxo compounds, chiefly aldehydes, are formed which are obtained through addition of the carboxyl group and of H2 to the initial olefins in the branched or unbranched position.  These oxo compounds can finally be converted through reduction in the manner described into alcohols.  Alcohols, which are used in the formation of ethers, also can be produced directly by the action of CO and H2 on olefins in presence of the catalysts already mentioned.  It is necessary, in this case, when using such catalysts that higher temperatures prevail than in preparing oxo compounds.  The process is of special significance since it is the 1st time that the large-scale production of any number of ethers in satisfactory amounts and of a high degree of purity has become possible.