Berthoux Jean

Bio: Berthoux Jean is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Aromatic hydrocarbon. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 22 citations.

Formation, purification and recovery of phthalic anhydride

Abstract: Phthalic anhydride of commercially acceptable quality is recovered in high (94-96%) yields from a mixture containing, on a weight basis, from 70 to 90% o-phthalic acid, 1.5 to 20% water, 0.3 up to 13% benzoic acid, 0.2 up to 2% o-toluic acid, 0.2 to 1% 2-carboxybenzaldehyde, 0.1 up to 2% phthalide and from 1.3 up to 10% higher boiling materials by rapid dehydration of o-phthalic acid to its anhydride and rapid evaporation thereof followed by contact of the resulting vapor mixture with an inert reflux liquid in a fractionation zone to remove water and to provide a partial purification of the anhydride, removal of phthalide therefrom by only heating said partially purified anhydride in the presence of a catalytic amount of an alkali metal hydroxide having a molecular weight of at least 56 followed by fractionation of the phthalide-free mixture. Such process is more commercially attractive than melting said mixture containing 70 to 90% o-phthalic acid to dehydrate it to its anhydride and recovering the anhydride by fractionation because such apparently simple process cannot produce phthalic anhydride of a color or purity to be commercially acceptable nor can it provide an anhydride product substantially free of phthalide.

Process for the production of aromatic carboxylic acids

Abstract: Disclosed is an improved process for the continuous production of aromatic carboxylic acids by the liquid-phase oxidation of an alkyl aromatic compound with an oxygen-containing gas in the presence of oxidation catalyst which effectively utilizes the heat of reaction in the process of removing excess water generated from the reaction and minimizes the loss of solvent used as the carrier for the reaction catalyst. Operation of the process is improved by removing reactor off-gas directly into a water removal column for distillation. A portion of distillate condensed from the overhead aqueous vapors of the water removal column is refluxed to the fractionating zone of the water removal column. A bottoms liquid of partially de-watered process solvent obtained from the water removal column is sprayed into the reactor above the phase separation of the gas/liquid contents thereby enriching the water content of the reactor off-gas to improve the efficiency of the water removal column without additional heat input beyond that of the heat of reaction.

Methods of forming polycrystalline compacts

Abstract: Methods of forming a polycrystalline compact for use in an earth-boring tool include sintering a plurality of hard particles with catalyst material to form a polycrystalline material that includes a plurality of inter-bonded particles of hard material integrally formed with the catalyst material and introducing at least a portion of the polycrystalline material to a reactive material to remove at least a portion of the catalyst material contained within the polycrystalline material. The reactive material may include at least one of a molten glass, an ionic compound, a leaching liquor, and a chemical plasma. The reactive material may be introduced to the polycrystalline material at a temperature of greater than or equal to a melting point thereof.

Method of making halophthalic acids and halophthalic anhydrides

Abstract: A method of preparing a halophthalic acid is disclosed which comprises the steps of contacting in a liquid phase reaction mixture at least one halogen-substituted ortho-xylene with oxygen and acetic acid at a temperature in a range between about 120° C. and about 220° C. in the presence of a catalyst system yielding a product mixture comprising less than 10 percent halogen-substituted ortho-xylene starting material, a halophthalic acid product, and less than about 10,000 ppm halobenzoic acid and less than about 1000 ppm halophthalide by-products based on a total amount of halophthalic acid present in the product mixture. In addition methods for the preparation of halophthalic anhydride, and recovery of high purity acetic acid from an aqueous acetic acid stream comprising HCl, which is generated during the preparation of the halophthalic acid are also disclosed.