Process for preparing halohydrins from olefins

A halohydrin is obtained by reacting an olefine with a halogen in an aqueous medium comprising water and an organic liquid which is miscible with both the water and said olefine. The term olefine includes substituted or unsubstituted, straight chain or branched chain or cyclic mono or poly-olefinic compounds. The process is particularly suited to olefines containing 8 to 24 carbon atoms and may be applied to an olefine which is normally gaseous, e.g. ethene, in admixture with other gases. Preferably the volume ratio of the organic liquid to water in the reaction medium lies between 6 : 4 and 9 : 1 and the reaction temperature does not exceed 55 DEG C. Examples employ hexadecene-1 and C13-C15 olefines; as organic liquids are mentioned acetone, acetaldehyde, chloral, methyl ethyl ketone, tetrahydrofuran, dioxan, butylamine, pyridine, butyric acid, ethanol, propanol-1 and t-butanol, whilst bromine and chlorine are the halogens employed. The method of continuous working is also exemplified.