Patent ID: 8476464

Claim:
A process for separating acetaldehyde from ethylene oxide, comprising: introducing a feed stream including, based on its weight, ethylene oxide in a range of about 5 to about 95 percent by weight, to a first section of an ethylene oxide purification column, where the column includes the first section and a second section located above the first section; separating the feed stream into a gas phase portion of the feed stream, where the gas phase portion of the feed stream includes ethylene oxide, acetaldehyde, water, and other impurities, and a liquid phase portion of the feed stream including ethylene oxide and water, where the liquid phase portion exits the bottom of the column as an ethylene oxide-water stream that is from 1 to 10 weight percent ethylene oxide based on a total weight of the ethylene oxide-water stream and includes 1 to 65 weight percent of the acetaldehyde of the feed stream; and separating via a number of separation stages the ethylene oxide from acetaldehyde, water, and other impurities that enter the second section from the first section by heating to produce a purified ethylene oxide exit stream.