PROCESS FOR SEPARATING SEC-BUTANOL FROM ETHYL ACETATE

摘要

A process for separating secondary-butanol impurity from ethyl acetate (EtAc ) by feeding the impure EtAc to a distillation column operating at a pressure of less than 1 bar absolute to provide (1) a stream comprising EtAc as a major component and (2) a residue or a second stream comprising at least some sec- butanol from said impure EtAc. The process can be applied to purifying EtAc derived from (a) catalytic reaction of ethylene with acetic acid followed by (b) a hydrogenation step. The 2-butanone impurity produced in step (a) is difficult to separate from EtAc, and step (b) converts it to sec-butanol whi ch can be separated by the reduced pressure fractionation of the invention.