Patent ID: 8530618

Claim:
A process for recovering a polymer, comprising injecting steam, and optionally liquid water, into a polymer solution, said polymer solution comprising: said polymer, a C2-C6 linear aliphatic alcohol, a polar aprotic organic solvent (PAOS) that has an azeotrope with water, and an apolar organic compound that is miscible with the PAOS and immiscible with water and that acts as a phase separation agent (PSA), the boiling point of which is below that of the water/PAOS azeotrope, wherein the amount of steam injected into said solution is sufficient to give rise to the substantial removal of the PSA via stripping and of the PAOS via azeotropic distillation, and the total amount of water added to said solution from said steam and optional liquid water is sufficient to give rise to the precipitation of the polymer via phase inversion, and wherein the polymer solution consists of an organic phase in which an aqueous phase is optionally dispersed; the process is conducted such that a liquid aqueous phase is added to the organic phase in an amount that is insufficient to give rise to phase inversion; and said steam is injected into the liquid medium thus obtained so that at least one part of the PSA is removed therefrom before phase inversion in an amount such that the C2-C6 linear aliphatic alcohol makes the organic phase more hydrophilic during the phase inversion that gives rise to the precipitation of the polymer.