Patents by Inventor Deborah A. Sitz

Deborah A. Sitz has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Process for recovering &ggr;-butyrolactone from a mixture of heavy organics
    Patent number: 6299736
    Abstract: Gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL) is recovered from a mixture containing GBL and other heavy organics by a process of azeotropic distillation in the presence of a C8-C 10 hydrocarbon as an azeotroping agent, wherein an azeotrope of GBL and the hydrocarbon is obtained as a distillate, which forms immiscible GBL-rich and hydrocarbon-rich phases, and the hydrocarbon-rich phase is decanted or isolated from the GBL-rich phase. By this process GBL can be efficiently separated from a large proportion of various compounds having boiling points close to that of GBL, e.g., the methyl-&ggr;-butyrolactones (MeGBL's).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2001
    Assignee: Celanese International Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth A. Windhorst, H. Robert Gerberich, Deborah A. Sitz, Nicole Garrett-Wallace, R. Jay Warner