Patent ID: 8471077

Claim:
A process for recovering dichlorohydrin(s) from a mixture comprising dichlorohydrin(s), water, one or more compounds selected from monochlorohydrin(s), ester(s) of chlorohydrin(s), and multihydroxylated-aliphatic hydrocarbon compound(s) and/or ester(s) thereof, and, optionally, one or more substances comprising chlorinating agent(s), catalyst(s), ester(s) of catalyst(s), and/or heavy byproducts, wherein the process comprises: (a) distilling or fractionating the mixture under reflux conditions to separate from the mixture a first vapor-phase effluent stream having a first temperature and comprising at least dichlorohydrin(s) and water; (b) cooling the first vapor-phase effluent stream of step (a) nonadiabatically to a second temperature lower than the first temperature of step (a) to condense a fraction of the first vapor-phase effluent stream of step (a) to produce a first condensed liquid-phase effluent stream and a second vapor-phase effluent stream having the second temperature; (c) separating the first condensed liquid-phase: stream of step (b) into action and a second fraction; (d) recycling the first fraction of step (c) to step (a) as reflux for step (a); and (e) cooling the second vapor-phase effluent stream of step (b) nonadiabatically to a third temperature that the second temperature of the second vapor-phase effluent stream to condense at least a fraction of the second vapor-phase effluent stream of step (b) to produce a second condensed liquid-phase effluent stream and, optionally, a third vapor-phase effluent stream having the third temperature, wherein the second temperature of step (b) is selected to produce a first condensed liquid-phase effluent stream containing more than 50 weight-percent dichlorohydrin.