Monomer and diluent recovery

A process for the separation and recovery of a three-component, hydrocarbon-containing feed comprising olefin monomer, 1-olefin comonomer, and hydrocarbon diluent in two distillation zones having a common accumulation zone wherein the overhead streams from both distillations are combined, condensed and the condensate formed and passed to the common accumulation zone is divided into a feed portion for the second distillation and a reflux portion for the first distillation which comprises

• (a) passing said feed to a first distillation zone and therein subjecting same to distillation conditions sufficient to remove a bottoms stream comprising materials present in the feed heavier than said comonomer, a side stream comprising 1-olefin comonomer substantially free of other materials and an overhead vapor stream comprising olefin monomer and hydrocarbon diluent,
• (b) condensing said overhead vapor stream to form a condensate comprising diluent and monomer and passing said condensate to an accumulation zone,
• (c) removing condensate from said accumulation zone and passing at least a portion of said condensate as feed to a second distillation zone and passing the remainder of said condensate as reflux to an upper portion of said first distillation zone,
• (d) subjecting said portion of condensate in said second distillation zone to distillation conditions sufficient to remove a bottoms stream comprising diluent substantially free of olefin monomer, a side stream comprising hydrocarbon diluent and olefin monomer, and a overhead vapor stream comprising hydrocarbon diluent and olefin monomer, and
• (e) combining said overhead stream in (d) with said overhead stream in (a) prior to condensing in (b) and condensing the combined overhead streams and passing condensate thus formed to said accumulation zone in (b).