SEPARATION OF AN AZEOTROPIC MIXTURE BY DISTILLATION IN A DISTILLATION COLUMN BY A PROCEDURE SIMILAR TO EXTRACTIVE DISTILLATION

摘要

Abstract of the Disclosure: A mixture which is azeo-tropic or which behaves almost azeotropically and isdifficult to separate by distillation, is separated intotwo pure or substantially pure fractions by distillation,by adding a further component, using a procedure which issimilar to extractive distillation and is carried out in adistillation column, a section of which is divided into afeed part and a take off part by means of a separatingunit which is effective in the longitudinal direction andcompletely or partially prevents cross-mixing of liquidstreams and/or vapor streams. In this process, the azeo-tropic mixture is fed as bleed streams to the feed partand to the take off part, in each case at or near the top,and one of the two pure or substantially pure fractions isremoved as a top product from the distillation columnwhile the other is removed as a side product from the takeoff part.