Patent ID: 6306263
Filing Date: 2001-10-23
Classification: B01D,C07B,C07C,Y10S

Abstract:
A process for separating minor impurities from a glycol ether ester which comprises introducing a mixture of the glycol ether ester and impurities into a fractional distillation column having an upper and lower section at a feed point in the upper section of the column and introducing a stream of liquid water stripping component into said column at or below the glycol ether ester feed point, providing heat to the column by means of a bottoms reboiler in amount just sufficient to vaporize the stream of liquid water stripping component and account for heat losses, removing an overhead vapor stream comprised of substantially all of the introduced water stripping component together with at least a predominance of the impurities, removing a liquid bottoms stream comprised predominantly of the glycol ether ester and heating the bottoms to vaporize at least a portion thereof, returning a portion of the vaporized bottoms to provide sufficient heat to the column to vaporize the stream of liquid water stripping component, and recovering glycol ether ester reduced in impurities.