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US 8,273,927 B2Granted
Alcohol fractionation
OwnerJohn E. Staufferinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process is provided for the recovery of alcohol from its aqueous solution by dissolving caustic in the solution to generate a phase separation. One layer contains the alcohol product and the other layer waste water. By recovering and recycling the caustic, a self-contained process is realized.
Claims1
A continuous process for the recovery of alcohol from an aqueous solution of the alcohol comprising the steps of:
- adding caustic to the solution to cause the partition of the solution into an alcohol rich phase and an aqueous phase;
- separating the two phases;
- recovering alcohol from the alcohol rich phase by evaporation;
- removing water from the aqueous phase by evaporation;
- and
- recycling streams of dissolved caustic from each of the evaporation steps to the addition step.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.