PATENT

3541. ----- [STANDARD OIL CO.]  Purification of Methanol.  British Patent 660,773, Nov. 14, 1951.  Chem. Abs., vol. 46, 1952, p. 8143.

Mixtures of MeOH and oxygenated hydrocarbons were fed to an intermediate point of a fractional distillation column and H₂O was fed to the top of the column at such a rate as to keep the internal reflux > 65 mole % H₂O.  The overhead products contained the oxygenated hydrocarbons, whereas aqueous solutions of MeOH were drawn off at the bottom.