Process for separating heavy by-products and catalyst ligan from a vapour stream comprising aldehyde

A process for separating heavy by-products and catalyst ligand from a vapour stream comprising aldehyde, the heavy by-products and the catalyst ligand, the process comprising:

• passing the vapour stream to a fractionator in which the vapour stream is contacted with liquid aldehyde which removes at least a portion of the catalyst ligand and at least a portion of the heavy by-products from the vapour stream;
• recovering a liquid bottom stream, comprising removed catalyst ligand, removed heavy by-products and some of the aldehyde, from the fractionator;
• recovering a scrubbed vapour stream from the fractionator;
• condensing a first portion of the scrubbed vapour stream to create the liquid aldehyde, for reflux back to the fractionator;
• and recovering a second portion of the scrubbed vapour stream as a product aldehyde stream, wherein the liquid bottom stream is passed to a separation system to separate at least some aldehyde from the liquid bottom stream to create a recovered aldehyde stream, comprising the separated aldehyde, and a waste stream comprising the removed catalyst ligand and the removed heavy by-products.