Patent ID: 6899743

Claim:
A process for treating a mixture of two or more organic compounds, the process comprising: (a) performing a membrane separation step by: (i) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side; (ii) providing a driving force for transmembrane permeation; (iii) passing the mixture as a feed fluid stream across the feed side; (iii) withdrawing a residue fluid stream from the feed side; (iv) withdrawing from the permeate side a permeate vapor stream enriched in at least one organic compound compared with the feed fluid stream; (b) providing a dephlegmator having a coolant flow side and a gas stream flow side and adapted for partial condensation of a gas stream by providing countercurrent flow between the rising gas stream and a falling condensate stream; (c) passing at least a portion of the permeate vapor stream into the dephlegmator as a feed gas stream; (d) flowing a coolant across the coolant flow side in heat-exchanging relationship with the feed gas stream; (e) withdrawing an overhead vapor stream from the dephlegmator; (f) withdrawing a bottoms condensate stream from the dephlegmator.