Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for the treatment of the aqueous stream coming from the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, comprising: —feeding the aqueous stream (1) containing organic by-products of the reaction to a distillation or stripping column (10); —collection from the column of a distillate (2) enriched in alcohols having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms and other possible volatile compounds—feeding the aqueous stream leaving the bottom of the column (3) to a reverse osmosis unit (20) and the production of two outgoing streams; —an aqueous stream (4) enriched in organic acids with from 1 to 8 carbon atoms; —a partially purified aqueous stream (5) with a low acid content.

Abstract: Disclosed is a process for separating metal catalysts based on ammonium and phosphonium phosphotungstates from reaction mixtures in which they are dissolved. The process is based on the use of semipermeable membranes and has found an useful application in the separation of the above said catalysts from mixtures obtained from alkenes and soybean oil epoxidation.