Process for the production of ether and alcohol

Claim 1

A process for producing ether containing at most relatively minor amounts of water which comprises: (a) contacting at least one light olefin with water in an olefin conversion unit in the presence of an acidic zeolite as catalyst to provide an aqueous mixture of alcohol and ether, the olefin conversion unit being operated under conditions which are effective to provide alcohol by the reaction of olefin and water therein and ether by the dehydration of alcohol and/or by the reaction of olefin and alcohol therein; (b) introducing the aqueous mixture of alcohol and ether into a distillation unit supplied with at least a part of the ether layer recovered from a downstream decantation operation, said distillation unit being operated under conditions which are effective to provide an azeotropic overheads fraction comprising ether, water, oligomer and minor amounts of alcohol, and a bottoms fraction comprising a major amount of alcohol and a minor amount of ether; (c) introducing the azeotropic overheads fraction into a decanter unit operated under conditions which are effective to provide an ether layer containing at most negligible amounts of water and an aqueous product containing negligible amounts of alcohol; and, (d) introducing at least part of the ether layer into the distillation unit to reduce the water content of the final ether product.