Recovery of butanol from a mixture of butanol, water, and an organic extractant

• Main Authors: PARTEN WILLIAM D, VRANA BRUCE, GRADY MICHAEL CHARLES, XU YIHUI TOM
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.01.2015
• Subjects: ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS; BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION ORPROCESSING OF GOODS; ENZYMOLOGY; FERMENTATION OR ENZYME-USING PROCESSES TO SYNTHESISE A DESIREDCHEMICAL COMPOUND OR COMPOSITION OR TO SEPARATE OPTICAL ISOMERSFROM A RACEMIC MIXTURE; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGYGENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION; SPIRITS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; VINEGAR; WINE

A process for recovering butanol from a mixture comprising a water-immiscible organic extractant, water, butanol, and optionally a non-condensable gas, is provided. The butanol is selected from 1-butanol, 2-butanol, isobutanol, and mixtures thereof. An overhead stream from a first distillation column is condensed to recover a mixed condensate. An entrainer is added to at least one appropriate process stream or vessel such that the mixed condensate comprises sufficient entrainer to provide phase separation of the organic and the aqueous phases to provide for recovery of the butanol.