Processes for preparing low-chlorine isocyanates

1. A process comprising: providing an amine reactant; and reacting the amine reactant with a stream of phosgene in a reaction zone to form a product comprising a corresponding isocyanate; wherein the phosgene stream has a CO content of 0.5% by weight or more.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein reacting the amine reactant with the stream of phosgene is carried out such that formation of droplets in the reaction zone is excluded.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the phosgene stream has a CO content of 1% by weight or more.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the phosgene stream has a CO content of less than 8% by weight.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the phosgene stream has a CO content of 1 to 8% by weight.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the phosgene stream has an HCl content of 0.1% to 10% by weight.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein reacting the amine reactant with the stream of phosgene is carried out in the presence of an inert medium comprising one or more components selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, chlorobenzene, dichlorobenzene and mixtures thereof.

8. The process according to claim 5 , wherein reacting the amine reactant with the stream of phosgene is carried out in the presence of an inert medium comprising one or more components selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, chlorobenzene, dichlorobenzene and mixtures thereof.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein reacting the amine reactant with the stream of phosgene is carried out in the reaction zone at a temperature of 200 to 570° C. and an absolute pressure of 0.8 to 3 bar.

10. The process according to claim 8 , wherein reacting the amine reactant with the stream of phosgene is carried out in the reaction zone at a temperature of 200 to 570° C. and an absolute pressure of 0.8 to 3 bar.

11. The process according to claim 9 , wherein pressure in one or both of a feedline for the amine reactant and a feedline for the stream of phosgene is 20 to 2000 mbar greater than the pressure in the reaction zone, and wherein pressure downstream of the reaction zone is 10 to 500 mbar less than the pressure in the reaction zone.

12. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the amine reactant and the stream of phosgene each independently have a linear flow rate into and through the reaction zone of 1 to 100 m/s, and wherein amine reactant and the stream of phosgene have an average contact time with each other in the reaction zone of 0.01 to 15 seconds.

13. The process according to claim 11 , wherein the amine reactant and the stream of phosgene each independently have a linear flow rate into and through the reaction zone of 1 to 100 m/s, and wherein amine reactant and the stream of phosgene have an average contact time with each other in the reaction zone of 0.01 to 15 seconds.

14. The process according to claim 1 , wherein reacting the amine reactant with the stream of phosgene is carried out adiabatically.

15. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the corresponding isocyanate comprises an aliphatic or cycloaliphatic isocyanate comprising less than 200 ppm of compounds having hydrolyzable chlorine.

16. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the corresponding isocyanate comprises an aromatic isocyanate comprising less than 100 ppm of compounds having hydrolyzable chlorine.

17. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the stream of phosgene is supplied to the process directly from a phosgene generation process without intervening purification.

18. The process according to claim 17 , wherein the phosgene generation process comprises a reaction of CO and chlorine with a molar excess of the CO over the chlorine of 2 to 20%.

19. The process according to claim 17 , further comprising recovering unreacted phosgene from the reaction of the amine reactant and the stream of phosgene, and mixing the recovered phosgene with the phosgene supplied directly from a phosgene generation process before the stream of phosgene enters the reaction zone.

20. The process according to claim 18 , further comprising recovering unreacted phosgene from the reaction of the amine reactant and the stream of phosgene, and mixing the recovered phosgene with the phosgene supplied directly from a phosgene generation process before the stream of phosgene enters the reaction zone.