Patent ID: 8853459

Claim:
A method of reducing color of a composition including one or more amines, comprising the steps of: (a) providing the composition, wherein the composition has an initial color; (b) heat treating the composition in the presence of at least one weak acid for a period in the range from about 3 minutes to about 150 hours; wherein the weak acid has a pKa of at least about 1 and is selected from a carboxlic acid, a dicarboxylic acid, an anhydride of a dicarboxylic acid, and combinations of these; and (c) after heat treating, using at least a separation technique to recover at least a portion of the amines from the heat treated composition in a manner such that the recovered portion has less color relative to the initial color, wherein the separation technique is selected from distillation, extraction, chromatography, and combinations of these.