Distillation process for the production of dehydrated ethanol

US4541897A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Chemische Werke Huels Aktiengesellschaft · US

Inventors

• August Sommer
• Rainer Brucker · Castrop-Rauxel, DE
• Wilhelm Heitmann · Herne, DE
• Norbert Wozny · Marl, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 27, 1982
• Grant date: Sep 17, 1985
• Expiry date: Oct 27, 2002

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S203/14
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A distillation process for the production of dehydrated ethanol from dilute aqueous solutions of ethanol characterized in that the distillation is performed in a two-column system wherein the first column--for rectification--is operated under such a pressure that the second column--for dehydration--is heated exclusively with the vapors of the first column; in the first column the concentration of the dilute aqueous ethanol is effected to an ethanol concentration below the composition of the binary ethanol-water azeotrope; the separation of water is effected from the lower layer of the condensed head product of the second column; the separation of impurities and entrainers, having a lower boiling point than ethanol, is effected at the head of the first column and that of impurities, having a higher boiling point, above the feed point of the dilute aqueous solution in the first column; and, in the second column, the dehydration is effected by means of entrainers, with the addition of a fuel component or fuel, to which the ethanol is to be added, if required, while separating the aqueous phase as a head product.