Abstract: High purity 1,3 butadiene is recovered from a C4 fraction containing butadienes, butenes, butanes, and acetylenes that is generated from a steam cracker by extractive distillation operating with no reflux or greatly reduced reflux conditions. This no reflux (or minimum reflux) technique is generally applicable to any butadiene recovery process in which at least one extractive distillation column (EDC) is used to separate 1,3 butadiene from other C4 components in the mixture. For an ED process with two EDCs, significant reductions in total energy requirements in the both EDCs can be achieved by appropriate reductions in the reflux in each column. The performances of both EDCs are unaffected even when operating at no reflux.