Studies on purification of 1,3-propanediol by molecular distillation

The separation of 1,3-propanediol using molecular distillation has been studied. The effects of operating temperature and feed flow rate through a sequential distillation strategy were investigated. The optimal experimental temperature was at 70°C for separating 1,3-propanediol and the by-product 2,3-butanediol. Meanwhile, the volume flow rate was 10 mL/min. As a result, the recovery of 1,3-propanediol and 2,3-butanediol were 87.6 and 87.5%, respectively. Furthermore, the integrated separation characteristic of 1,3-propanediol was evaluated through macrolevel and micro-level models. The separation factors of 1,3-propanediol versus 2,3-butanediol and glycerol were 0.11 and 1.07, respectively, affirming that the separation of 1,3-propanediol by molecular distillation was feasible.