Nitration process

Claim 1

Continuous process for making an organic nitrate mixture containing a substantial amount of an alkoxyalkyl nitrate, said process comprising: (A) forming an alcohol mixture of (i) about 50-95 wt % of a primary alcohol containing 4 to about 12 carbon atoms and (ii) about 5-50 wt % of an alkoxyalkanol having the structure R'--O R"--.sub.n OH wherein R' is an alkyl group containing 1-12 carbon atoms, R" is a divalent aliphatic hydrocarbon group containing 2-4 carbon atoms and n is an integer from 1-4; (B) forming an acid mixture consisting essentially of about 10-25 weight percent HNO 3 and 50-75 weight percent H 2 SO 4 , the balance being water; (C) concurrently feeding said alcohol mixture and said acid mixture to a reaction zone forming a nitration mixture, said feeding being at a ratio such that (i) the moles of HNO 3 is at least 1.05 times the combined moles of said primary alcohol and said alkoxyalcohol in said alcohol mixture fed to said reaction zone and (ii) the moles of H 2 SO 4 is at least 0.55 times the total moles of water, said primary alcohol and said alkoxyalcohol in the combined alcohol mixture--acid mixture feed, said feeding being at a rate which provides an average residence time in said reaction zone of about 3-10 minutes, said nitration mixture being maintained at a temperature of about -10° C. to 15° C.; (D) removing said nitration mixture from said reaction zone at a rate which maintains a substantially constant nitration mixture volume in said reaction zone; (E) separating an organic nitrate mixture from said organic nitrate mixture containing a substantial amount of an alkoxyalkyl nitrate.