Propoxylation of fatty amines: Switching from batch to flow

Abstract The ethoxylation and propoxylation of fatty amines are important industrial reactions commonly performed in de‐intensified semi‐batch reactors. The present study aims to intensify these reactions by transferring the process to continuous processing. Therefore, the propoxylation of octylamine, as model system, was performed in a batch reactor and in a micro tubular reactor. The micro tubular reactor operated with a single liquid phase at 15 bar pressure. The batch study found valuable kinetic and solubility information in the temperature range of 120°C‐160°C. Moreover, a switch‐flow method in the micro tubular reactor combined with inline FTIR gave a more detailed understanding of the reaction kinetics. In the micro tubular reactor, all PO was added in the feed according to stoichiometry, which led to a process intensification factor of 3.7 compared to fed‐batch gas phase addition at maximum 2 bar.