BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Allyl alcohol is an important chemical of commerce which is produced by various methods including the lithium phosphate catalyzed isomerization of propylene oxide.

Allyl alcohol produced in this fashion usually contains a small but significant amount of n-propanol which is very difficuit to separate due to the closeness of the boiling points of allyl alcohol and n-propanol.

Extractive distillation procedures have been proposed for the separation of n-propanol and allyl alcohol using certain extractive distillation agents such as dimethyl sulfoxide, acetamide and ethyiene glycol phenylether, adiponitrile, dimethylformamide, sulfolane and the like. See U. S. Patent 4,601,791, for example.

The selection of an appropriate extractive distillation solvent is critical for accomplishing the distillation separation of closely boiling materials. The extractive distillation agent must be capable of enhancing the relative volatility of one component with respect to the other component in order that the separation be accomplished and also the solvent must be readily separable from the component with which it becomes associated. Although there are a great number of materials which have in the past been separated by extractive distillation procedures, the art at best is an empirical one and it is not feasible to ascertain in advance which solvents would accomplis a desired separation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, mixtures of close boiling allyl alcohol and n-propanol are separated by extractive distillation procedures using an extractive distillation solventselected from N-methyl pyrrolidone, propylene carbonate, and gamma-butyrolactone. Mixtures of these solvents can be used but this is not preferred. It has been found that these solvents enhance the volatility of n-propanol relative to allyl alcool, and through the use of these extractive distillation solvents, n-propanol can be separated overhead in an extractive distillation system and a stream comprised of allyl alcohol reduced in n-propanol content and also comprised of solvent can be separated as bottoms. The bottoms stream is resolved in a solvent stripper with the purified allyl alcohol recovered overhead and the bottoms solvent recovered for recycle to the extractive distillation process.

DETAILEDDESCRIPTION Reference is made to the following Table 1 which shows the effect of the addition of the various extractive distillation solvents on the relative volatilites of n-propanol and allyl alcohol. It can be seen that the extractive distillation solvents of the present invention are exceedingly effective in enhancing the relative volatility of n-propanol as compared to allyl alcohol and thus can be effectively employed in accomplishing the separation of these close boiling components.

The present invention provides a solvent extractive distillation process to accomplis the separation of allyl alcohol and n-propanol; the effective solvents are selected from N-methyl pyrrolidone, propylene carbonate and gamma-butyrolactone. The effectiveness of n-propanol and allyl alcohol separation is due to the enhancement of the volatility of n-propanol relative to allyl alcohol by the solvent. Experimental data

of relative volatilities of n-propanol with respect to allyl alcohol (1 wt% n-propanol in allyl alcohol @ 730 mm Hg) as a function of solvent concentration in the liquid are as follows: Table 1 N-Methyl Pyrrolidone in Liquid, wt% 0 52.4 83.3 Solvent/Feed Ratio 0 1.1 5.0 Rel. Volatility * 1.02 1.29 1.41 Propylene Carbonate in Liquid, wt% 0 53.2 83.0 Solvent/Feed Ratio 0 1.1 4.9 Rel. Volatility * 1.02 1.20 1.33 Gamma-butyrolactone in Liquid, wt% 0 51.9 83.1 Solvent/Feed Ratio 0 1.1 4.9 Rel. Volatility * 1.02 1.24 1.38 N-propanol/allyl alcohol As shown by the above data, n-propanol becomes more volatile with respect to allyl alcohol as the extractive solvent concentration is increased. An extractive distillation procedure using this discovery for accomplishing n-propanol and allyl alcohol separation is illustrated by the following: Crude allyl alcohol containing about 1 wt % n-propanol is fed to the near bottom of an extractive distillation column while solvent is fed near the top of the column, the extractive column typically has 30-50 theoretical trays. The extractive distillation column bottoms comprised of allyl alcohol and solvent are sent to a stripper having typically 20-35 theoretical trays for allyl alcohol and solvent separation while n-Propanol reduced allyl alcohol product is recovered as overhead from the column.

Solvent recovered as stripper bottoms is sent back to the extractive distillation column top. A

typical solvent to allyl alcohol feed weight ratio is from 1-10 to maintain an extractive solvent concentration on the distillation trays at an effective level.

A reflux to distillate weight ratio of 1-8 is appropriate and the solvent feed location should be at least several trays below the top to avoid significant solvent. The allyl alcohol feed tray should be located well below the solvent feed tray to provide sufficient extractive distillation stages to allow effective allyl alcohol and n-propanol separation. Trays in the stripping section are necessary to effectively strip residual n-propanol from allyl alcohol/solvent at the bottom of the extractive distillation column section.

For crude allyl alcohol containing lights and heavies, a heavies column may be added to the purification scheme before the extractive distillation column for heavies and aldehyde removal with caustic injection.

The extractive distillation column removes n-propanol as well as other light impurities. Product allyl alcohol with purity greater than 99% and less than 0.12 wt% n-propanol may be produced economically by the suggested method. In general, allyl alcohol containing minor amounts of n-propanol, eg. less than about 8 wt %, preferably less than about 4 wt % and most preferably 1 wt % or less are resolved by the process of the invention.

The following example illustrates practice of the invention using N- methyl pyrrolidone as the extractive distillation solvent.

Impure allyl alcohol containing 0.56 wt % n-propanol is fed at the rate of 9612 Ibs/hr to an extractive distillation column having 45 theoretical trays. The feed is at the 35th tray from the top. N-methyl pyrrolidone is fed to the 5th tray from the top at the rate of 48060 Ibs/hr.

An overhead stream is removed at 207°F and 15 psia at the rate of 288 Ibs/hr, this stream having a composition by weight of 9.4% n-propanol, 90.6% allyl alcohol and 0.3 ppm solvent.

A bottoms stream is removed at 341 °F and 17.2 psia and is passed to a stripping column having 30 theoretical trays at the 15th tray from the top. An overhead allyl alcohol stream containing 0.28 wt % n-propanol is

separated at the rate of 9315 Ibs/hr at 207°F and 15 psia. Bottoms solvent N-methyl pyrrolidone is removed at the rate of 48069 Ibs/hr and at 405°F and 16 psia and is cooled and recycled.

Results similar to the above are obtained with propylene carbonate and gamma-butyrolectone as solvents in the extractive distillation separation.