Separation of methyl acetate from methanol by extractive distillation

摘要

Methyl acetate cannot be completely removed from methyl acetate - methanol mixtures by distillation because of the presence of the minimum binary azeotrope. Methyl acetate can be readily removed from mixtures containing it and methanol by using extractive distillation in which the extractive distillation agent is a higher boiling oxygenated, nitrogenous and/or sulfur containing organic compound or a mixture of these. Typical examples of effective agents are dimethylformamide; dimethylsulfoxide plus tetraethylene glycol, dimethylsulfoxide plus 1,5-pentanediol plus 1,6-hexanediol.