Extraction of water-soluble organic acids

Claim 1

IN A CONTINUOUS PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY OF WATERSOLUBLE, ORGANIC, CARBOXYLIC ACIDS FROM A CRUDE AQUEOUS MIXTURE THEREOF CONTAINING LOW-BOILING, WATER-SOLUBLE, NON-ACID, OXYGENATED, ORGANIC COMPOUNDS AS CONTAMINNANTS, THE STEPS WHICH COMPRISES SUBJECTING SAID CRUDE MIXTURE TO EXTRACTION WITH A SUBSTANTIALLY WATER-INSOLUBLE SOLVENT FOR SAID ACIDS AND BOILING SUBSTANTILLY BELOW THE BOILING POINT OF ANY OF SUCH ACIDS, DISTILLING THE RESULTING AQUEOUS RAFFINATE FROM THE AFORESAID EXTRACTION STEP; COLLECTING AN OVERHEAD FRACTION COMPRISING SOLVENT, WATER AND LOW-BOILING CONTAMINANTS SOLUBLE IN SAID SOLVENT AND A BOTTOM FRACTION CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF WATER, ALLOWING SAID OVERHEAD TO STRATIFY INTO AN UPPER SOLVENT LAYER CONTAINING A MINOR AMOUNT OF SAID LOW-BOILING IMPURITIES WITH RESPECT TO THE SOLVENT PRESENT IN SAID UPPER LAYER AND A LOW AQUEOUS LAYER CONTAINING SAID LOW-BOILING IMPURITIES, RETURNING SAID UPPER SOLVENT LAYER TO THE ABOVEMENTIONED EXTRACTION STEP, AND WITHDRAWING SAID LOWER AQUEOUS LAYER FROM THE EXTRACTION SYSTEM.