Production of acetylene

Claim 1

A process as claimed in claim 1 for the purification of water-containing crude acetylene, which comprises the steps of ca. loading the gaseous effluent from step (b) with methanol vapor and condensing out of said laden effluent a liquid mixture comprising methanol, water and a hydrocarbon mixture consisting essentially of hydrocarbons of more than five carbon atoms, cb. separating the liquid effluent from step (ca) in a separating vessel into a hydrocarbon phase and a methanol/water phase still containing traces of hydrocarbons and acetylene, cc. distilling said methanol/water phase to give water as the bottoms product and methanol as the overhead product, and cd. recycling desorbed acetylene obtained from step (cc), said desorbed acetylene being laden with methanol vapor not condensed in said step (cc), to the condensation step (ca).