Patent ID: 7071348

Claim:
A process for the recovery and purification of olefinically unsaturated nitrites from a process stream comprising: (a) contacting a process stream comprising olefinically unsaturated nitrile with an aqueous quench liquid in a quench apparatus to produce a gaseous quench effluent comprising olefinically unsaturated nitrile; (b) contacting the gaseous quench effluent with a liquid comprising water in an absorber apparatus to form an aqueous mixture comprising absorbed olefinically unsaturated nitrile; (c) withdrawing from the absorber apparatus a side-draw stream comprising water and a stream comprising olefinically unsaturated nitrile; (d) introducing the stream comprising olefinically unsaturated nitrile to a first distillation column where the stream comprising olefinically unsaturated nitrile is distilled in an extractive distillation to form a fraction comprising olefinically unsaturated nitrile, and (e) directing the side-draw stream comprising water to the first distillation column for the extractive distillation of the olefinically unsaturated nitrile in the first distillation column.