Patent ID: 8298500

Claim:
A process for purifying epichlorohydrin comprising: (1) distilling and/or fractionating a feed stream comprising epichlorohydrin, dichlorohydrin(s), up to 5 weight-percent of one or more substances other than dichlorohydrin having a boiling point at the distillation and/or fractionation pressure that is higher than the boiling point or epichlorohydrin at the same pressure, and optionally one or more substances other than epichlorohydrin having a boiling point at the distillation and/or fractionation pressure that is lower than or equal to the boiling point of epichlorohydrin at the same pressure, wherein the distillation and/or fractionation is carried out at a pressure below atmospheric pressure and temperature sufficient to separate a vapor phase effluent comprising epichlorohydrin from a liquid phase effluent comprising dichlorohydrin(s), epichlorohydrin, and one or more substances other than epichlorohydrin and dichlorohydrin; wherein the distillation/fractionation of this step (1) is conducted at a temperature not greater than 150° C.; and wherein the distillation/fractionation of this step (1) is carried out to retain at least 5 weight-percent epichlorohydrin in the liquid effluent stream produced by this step (1); (2) passing at least a portion of the liquid effluent stream produced in step (1) directly to a dichlorohydrin dehydrochlorination process, and subjecting the at least a portion of the liquid phase effluent of step (1) to a dichlorohydrin dehydrochlorination process for converting the dichlorohydrin(s) present in the liquid phase effluent to epichlorohydrin; and (3) recovering the vapor phase effluent of step (1) comprising purified epichlorohydrin.