The Standard Oil Company

Ineos USA LLC

Richard Lee Wappelhorst

Paul A Jacobson

Mark C Cesa

Sanjay Purushottam Godbole

A process of producing HPLC grade acetonitrile (UV cutoff&#x3c;190) comprising a multistep distillation under reflux conditions followed by acidic ion exchange resin treatment to remove essentially all impurities from the acetonitrile.

Purification of acetonitrile by a distillative recovery/ion exchange resin treatment process

The method of the present invention comprises feeding crude acetonitrile containing acrylonitrile as an impurity and water into the upper portion of a distillation column, distilling the crude acetonitrile in the presence of the water for a time sufficient to allow substantially all of the acrylonitrile impurity to be vaporized in the presence of the water, removing substantially all of the acrylonitrile in an overhead stream exiting from the distillation column and recovering the crude acetonitrile substantially free of acrylonitrile impurity from the lower portion of the distillation column. In particular, the method can be utilized to produce HPLC grade acetonitrile (UV cutoff <190).

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Port Lavaca, TX, United States of America

Richard Lee Wappelhorst