INTEGRATED PROCESS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY PREPARING ALKALI METAL METOXIDES

Abstract

The present invention relates in a first aspect to an integrated process for simultaneously preparing n mixtures P(i) comprising alkali metal methoxides and methanol, comprising preparing one or more alkali metal methoxides in n reactive distillation columns K(i) under reactive distillation conditions from n streams H(i) and n streams G(i) comprising methanol, thereby obtaining n vapor top streams W(i) comprising methanol and water; and obtaining n bottom streams P(i) comprising alkali metal methoxides A(i)OMe and methanol; said process further comprising feeding at least a portion of a first vapor stream W(1) into a bottom portion of a rectification column D at position I(1); and at least partially condensing at least a portion of a second vapor stream W(2), thereby obtaining an at least partially condensed stream WC(2), and feeding at least a portion of the WC(2) stream into a rectification column at position I(2).A second aspect of the present invention is directed to a chemical production unit for carrying out a process according to the first aspect; and a third aspect of the present invention relates to using a chemical production unit according to the second aspect or a process according to the first aspect for simultaneously producing n mixtures P(i) comprising alkali metal methoxides and methanol.