Purification of alkylene carbonates

A process for providing a purified alkylene carbonate from a crude alkylene carbonate comprising the steps of:

• a) providing a crude alkylene carbonate by reacting carbon dioxide with an alkylene oxide in a reactor in the presence of a suitable catalyst;
• b) subjecting the crude alkylene carbonate to evaporation in a first evaporator to form a first evaporator overhead containing alkylene carbonate and a first evaporator bottoms stream containing the catalyst, and recycling the first evaporator bottoms stream to the reactor;
• c) subjecting the first evaporator overhead to evaporation in a second evaporator to form a second evaporator overhead containing light components present in the first evaporator overhead and recycling the light components to the reactor;
• and
• d) contacting the bottoms stream from the second evaporator with carbon to form a high purity alkylene carbonate product.