| abstract |
The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of 2-ethylhexanal by catalytic hydrogenation of 2-ethylhex-2-enal, wherein the hydrogenation is carried out in a plurality of two or more series-connected loops, wherein each loop involves the use of one reactor, which comprises: (a) feeding 2-ethylhex-2-enal and hydrogen to an upper part of a reactor to catalytically hydrogenate said 2-ethylhex-2-enal to produce a hydrogenation product, (b) recycling a portion of said hydrogenation product back into said upper part of said reactor, (c) feeding the remainder of said hydrogenation product from said reactor to an upper part of a subsequent reactor wherein 2-ethylhex-2-enal is catalytically hydrogenated to produce a subsequent hydrogenation product, and wherein a portion of said subsequent hydrogenation product has been recycled and is fed with said remainder of said hydrogenation product to said upper part of said subsequent reactor, (d) repeating step (c) until the subsequent reactor is the last reactor, (e) recovering the remainder of said subsequent hydrogenation product from said last reactor, and (f) obtaining 2-ethylhexanal from the product of step (e).\! |