Method for working up distillation residues from isocyanate production

1. A process for the preparation of an isocyanate, comprising:

a) phosgenating of a primary amine to obtain a crude process product comprising the corresponding isocyanate,

b) working up of the crude process product obtained under a), wherein the working up comprises at least one distillation step in which monomeric isocyanate, as the distillate, and a distillation residue comprising monomeric isocyanate are obtained,

c) working up of the distillation residue obtained under b) by spraying the distillation residue and a carrier gas into a reactor, the distillation residue and the carrier gas flowing vertically downwards, so that the monomeric isocyanate vaporizes partly to completely and a dried residue which has been largely to completely freed from monomeric isocyanate and a stream comprising monomeric isocyanate are obtained.

2. The process according to claim 1 , comprising removing the stream comprising the monomeric isocyanate in a lateral take-off of the reactor and removing the residue from the reactor below this lateral take-off.

3. The process according to claim 1 , in which the temperature of the distillation residue when sprayed into the reactor is from 20° C. to 300° C. and the temperature of the carrier gas when sprayed into the reactor is from 150° C. to 500° C.

4. The process according to claim 1 , in which the distillation residue is sprayed into the reactor under an absolute pressure of from 1.0 bar to 300 bar by means of a pressure nozzle.

5. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising spraying a release agent selected from the group consisting of talc, chalk, inorganic pigments and completely polymerized residue is into the reactor.

6. The process according to claim 2 , in which a fluidized bed of a fluidizing gas fed from the bottom and solid particles is established in the reactor below the lateral take-off for the stream comprising the monomeric isocyanate.

7. The process according to claim 1 , in which the distillation residue (in step b) is obtained by concentration of the bottom product of a distillation step in a thin film evaporator, climbing film evaporator, failing film evaporator, long tube evaporator, helical tube evaporator, forced circulation flash evaporator or paddle drier or in a combination of these apparatuses, to obtain a gas phase comprising monomeric isocyanate and the distillation residue, as a liquid phase.

8. The process according to claim 1 , in which the isocyanate is selected from the group consisting of toluylene-diisocyanate, diphenylmethane-diisocyanate, 1,6-hexamethylene-diisocyanate, isophorone-diisocyanate and diisocyanatodicyclohexylmethane.

9. The process according to claim 8 , in which the isocyanate is toluylene-diisocyanate.