Separation of the catechol/4-methoxyphenol mixture by stripping crystallization

This work presents a novel separation scheme, stripping crystallization (SC), to separate the catechol/4-methoxyphenol mixture. While operated at a triple-point condition, in which the liquid mixture is vaporized and crystallized simultaneously due to the three-phase equilibrium, SC combines distillation and crystallization to produce pure crystals. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of applying SC to purify catechol in the catechol/4-methoxyphenol mixture. However, purifying 4-methoxyphenol by SC in the catechol/4-methoxyphenol mixture is rather difficult.