284. BURTON, W. P. (M. W. Kellogg Co.). Separation of Organic Compounds. United States Patent 2,505,752, May 2, 1950: appl. filed June 19, 1947, Serial No. 755,654: 24 claims (Cl. 260-450). Chem. Abs., vol. 44, 1950, p. 7340.

Patent Abstracts

284. BURTON, W. P. (M. W. Kellogg Co.). Separation of Organic Compounds. United States Patent 2,505,752, May 2, 1950: appl. filed June 19, 1947, Serial No. 755,654: 24 claims (Cl. 260-450). Chem. Abs., vol. 44, 1950, p. 7340.

Hydrocarbons and oxygenated organic compounds can be separated from the aqueous and oil phases of Fischer-Tropsch products by the suggested process. The uncondensed gases are scrubbed with a polar solvent for oxygenated organic compounds. The gas obtained is recycled to the synthesis feed, and the extract is used to scrub the oil phase to obtain a 2d extract of water-soluble oxygenated organic compounds. The 2d extract is combined with the aqueous phase and sent to an alcohol stripper. The organic acids and a major part of the H₂O present are separated from alcohols and nonacidic oxygenated organic compounds and are removed as bottoms. Aldehydes boiling not higher than propionaldehyde are next separated from nonacidic compounds in the overhead from the alcohol stripper. The raffinate from scrubbing the oil phase is solvent extracted with the nonacidic compounds as solvent is an essential feature of the invention. The extract is given a wash-oil treatment to remove heavy hydrocarbons, and distilled methanol with any undissolved light hydrocarbons are taken overhead as azeotropes and recycled to the last extraction step. The hydrocarbonfree bottoms are treated with alkali to neutralize the acids and saponify the esters. Individual components are recovered by known means. 1 literature ref., 2 foreign patents, and 3 United States patents cited.