Separation process

A process for the distillation of a product stream containing HCl, HF, and fluorocarbons which form close boiling azeotropes with HF and in which a lighter one of said fluorocarbons is present in an amount of no more than 20% by weight with respect to a heavier one of said fluorocarbons, said process comprising:

• introducing the product stream into a main distillation column to separate said product stream into light ends containing HCl and heavy ends containing said fluorocarbons and HF;
• withdrawing a vapor sidestream containing the close boiling azeotropes of said fluorocarbons with HF;
• and introducing the sidestream into a rectifying column equipped with a condenser and operating with a high reflux ratio such that the lights derived from the rectifying column contain no more than 50% by weight of the heavier fluorocarbon/HF fraction relative to the lighter fluorocarbon/HF fraction, the heavy ends being re-introduced into the main distillation column.