Industrial Process for Acetals Production in a Simulated Moving Bed Reactor

The present invention is an industrial process for the preparation of acetals using a simulated moving bed (SMB) reactor system to accomplish the conversion of reactants (aldehyde and alcohol) and simultaneously, the separation of the reaction products (acetal and water) by selective adsorption. The SMB reactor consists of a set of interconnected columns packed with an acid solid (or mixture of acid solids: catalysts and adsorbents) effective for catalyzing the reaction between aldehydes and alcohols and for separating the reaction products by selective adsorption of at least one product. In a general embodiment, this process involves (1) feeding a mixture of aldehydes and alcohols and a desorbent which is the alcohol, to a simulated moving bed reactor; (2) reacting aldehydes and alcohols to form acetals; and (3) removing from the simulated moving bed reactor two liquid streams, a first liquid stream comprising a solution of acetal in the desorbent (raffinate), a second liquid stream comprising the water formed and the desorbent (extract).