Eastman Chemical acetate esters

From 1946 to mid-1987, Farbenfabriken Bayer AG in Germany was the European producer of cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), and cellulose acetate propionate (CAP) before closing its faciUties. Bayer s exit from the cellulose acetate mixed esters business leaves Eastman Chemical Co. in the United States as the sole producer of CAB/CAP resins. 

Acetate esters including ethyl acetate and isobutyl acetate are produced from acetaldehyde by Eastman Chemical using the Tishchenko route. In this process, an aluminum oxide catalyst is used to facilitate the conversion of ethanol via acetaldehyde to acetates. Acetates represent the largest use for acetaldehyde now that acetic acid is made primarily from methanol. 

Eastman Chemical uses this route in their coal to chemicals facility in Kingsport, Tennessee. By-product acetic acid from downstream cellulose esters manufacture is used to react with methanol to form the methyl acetate reactant [13]. An alternative scheme when by-product acetic acid is... 

A systematic synthesis of sucrose esters began at the Research Ledaoratories of Tennessee Eastm m,in 1956. Simultaneously, evaluation of these preparations as potential commercial products with special emphasis as components of surface coatings was conducted by the Technical Service and Development Laboratories of Eastman Chemical Products. From this cooperative effort, success came in the form of a very unusual and unique compound, the mixed acetate-isobutyrate ester of sucrose - SAIB. 

Major producers for the acetate solvents include E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company, Eastman Chemical Company, Exxon Chemical Company, Hoechst Celanese Chemical Company, Shell Chemical Company, and Union Carbide Corporation. In addition, Arco Chemical Company and The Dow Chemical Company produce some of the glycol ether acetates discussed in this chapter. The high boiling-point acetates produced by Exxon are sold under the trade-name of Exxate, while the alkyl propionates are sold under the tradename of Ucar by Union Carbide. The dibasic esters sold by DuPont carry the common designation DBE (dibasic ester) solvent. The glycol ether acetates are products of the Arco Chemical, The Dow Chemical Company, Eastman Chemical Company and Union Carbide Corporation. The trademarks for these glycol ether acetates are shown in Table 13.1. 

Five different kinds of fibers were used for the study. Cotton fiber is the base fiber, and four types of binder fibers, ordinary cellulose acetate (OCA), plasticized cellulose acetate (PCA), Eastar Bio copolyester unicomponent (Eastar), and Eastar Bio copolyester bicomponent (Eastar/PP) fibers. The chemical name of Eastar Bio copolyester is poly(tetramethylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PTAT). The cotton fiber used in this research as the carrier fiber was supplied by Cotton Incorporated, Cary, NC. The scoured and bleached commodity cotton fiber had a moisture content of 5.2%, a micronaire value of 5.4 and an upper-half-mean fiber length of 24.4 mm. Both the OCA and PCA binder fibers were provided by Celanese Corporation, Charlotte, NC while the Eastar and Eastar/PP bicomponent binder fibers selected for this study were produced by Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, TN. The plasticizer used in PCA binder fiber is triethyl citrate ester (C12H20O7) with a weight concentration around 2%. The bicomponent Eastar/PP has a sheath core structure with Eastar as the sheath and PP as the core. The properties of these selected fibers are listed in Table 10.3. 

Methanol is an ideal starting material for the synthesis of many chemicals. It is the most important feedstock for the large-scale commercial production of acetic acid and formaldehyde. Additionally, a variety of other chemicals such as methyl esters, methyl halides and methyl ethers can be produced from it. Tenessee-Eastman s recent pioneering commercialization of a coal-based process for acetic anhydride production illustrates the growing importance of methanol as chemical feedstock. 

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