Abstract: Improved process and apparatus is disclosed for the recovery of acetylene from gas containing acetylene and ethylene comprising: contacting said gas with acetylene solvent to form a loaded solvent solution; heating said loaded solvent solution by passing through a first stream conduit of a heat exchange zone having a plurality of non-interconnecting stream conduits in heat exchange thermal contact; separating the resulting liquid/vapor into liquid and vapor phases; passing said liquid phase to a second stream conduit of said heat exchange zone passage to a downstream further acetylene separation purification step; and cooling warm denuded acetylene solvent by passage through a third stream conduit of said heat exchange zone and then further cooling before passage to said acetylene solvent contacting zone.