The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 09, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 15, 1999
Kenneth A. Windhorst, Pampa, TX (US);
H. Robert Gerberich, Corpus Christi, TX (US);
Deborah A. Sitz, Panhandle, TX (US);
Nicole Garrett-Wallace, Pampa, TX (US);
R. Jay Warner, Corpus Christi, TX (US);
Celanese International Corporation, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL) is recovered from a mixture containing GBL and other heavy organics by a process of azeotropic distillation in the presence of a C,hydrocarbon as an azeotroping agent, wherein an azeotrope of GBL and the hydrocarbon is obtained as a distillate, which forms immiscible GBL-rich and hydrocarbon-rich phases, and the hydrocarbon-rich phase is decanted or isolated from the GBL-rich phase. By this process GBL can be efficiently separated from a large proportion of various compounds having boiling points close to that of GBL, e.g., the methyl-&ggr;-butyrolactones (MeGBL's).