Microreaction technology was used to investigate the continuous oxidation of 2-butoxyethanol to form 2-butoxyacetaldehyde. Major objective was a total conversion at high yields by suppressing the unwanted by-product butoxyacetic acid. The process is a liquid-liquid reaction with an oxidant based on bleach and bromide in the presence of catalytic amounts of 4-hydroxy TEMPO. The well-defined isothermal conditions in a microreaction system help to obtain information about necessary requirements for a continuous macroscopic system. For optimization, different mixing principles were examined. A variation of residence time unit in combination with a subsequent continuous quench gave a good estimation of the macroscopic reaction time within such a system. The parameter study also included investigations about the influence of temperature and stoichiometry.
