The invention relates to the use of a column with a separating wall as a purification/finishing column in a (meth)acrylic acid recovery method based on the use of two distillation columns in the absence of external organic solvent. The method according to the invention improves the energy balance for the method while improving the technical quality of the (meth)acrylic acid recovered. The method according to the invention further produces polymer-grade (or glacial) (meth)acrylic acid compatible with the production of high-molecular weight acrylic acid polymers.

The present invention includes a method for obtaining a higher purity cannabinoid solvent extract from a plant which comprises cannabinoids and/or terpenes. A solvent extraction is performed on the optionally dried plant material, followed by a step of removing high molecular weight impurities by a cooling step. Following the cooling step, the precipitate is removed and a higher quality filtrate is obtained which contains higher levels of purity of cannabinoids and/or terpenes than the starting solvent extract. The methods of the invention also include a method for obtaining crystallized THCa, which comprises obtaining a filtrate by the methods disclosed herein, or obtaining a solvent extract, and allowing crystallization of the THCa to occur. The filtrate, crystallized THCa, and residual filtrate remaining after crystallization of THCa can be used as starting materials for products that include cannabinoids and/or terpenes.

A method of forming lithium carbonate from a lithium-bearing solution including: evaporating the lithium-bearing solution to precipitate a first group of impurities; removing the first group of impurities to form a first purified solution; and performing a flash crystallisation step within a predetermined temperature range to crystallise a second group of impurities from the first purified solution; removing the second group of impurities from the first solution to form a second purified solution, wherein at least 90 wt % of lithium is recovered from the first purified solution; and reacting the second purified solution with a metal carbonate to form lithium carbonate of at least 90 wt % purity.

A dynamic process for purifying dicyclopentadiene from a mixed liquid hydrocarbon stream comprising dicyclopentadiene and one or more of a C.sub.5 paraffin, a C.sub.5 olefin, co-dimers, cyclopentadiene, benzene, vinyl norbornene, bicyclononadiene, propenyl norbornene, isopropenyl norbornene, methylbicyclononadiene, methyldicyclopentadiene, and various minor organic impurities is introduced, wherein the dicyclopentadiene is separated from the mixed liquid hydrocarbon stream by melt crystallizing sweating and collecting dicyclopentadiene.

The present invention relates to a process for enriching enantiomers from an enantiomer mixture by a fractionating melt crystallization in a melt crystallization apparatus. The invention specifically relates to a process for producing an enantiomer-enriched chiral terpene, in particular of D/L-Isopulegol. The process comprises: i) a crystallization step to obtain a crystallizate and a mother melt and removal of the mother melt from the crystallizate to afford a mother melt fraction; ii) sweating of the crystallizate obtained in step i) to afford a molten sweating fraction and iii) subsequent melting of the sweated crystallizate to afford a molten crystallizate fraction,
wherein the optical rotation at least of the sweating fraction is determined online using a polarimeter and the changeover from step ii) to step iii) is controlled online by means of at least one control unit.

A method of generating a refined a sugar stream that comprises xylose from a biomass hydrolysis solution, including contacting a biomass hydrolysis solution that includes a population of mixed sugars comprising xylose, an acid, and impurities, with a thermally-phase separable solvent such as a glycol solvent to form an extraction mixture; and separating from said extraction mixture a first stream including the thermally-phase separable solvent, acid, and impurities and a second, refined sugar stream that comprises xylose.

A processing unit for a liquid washing medium contaminated with sulphur oxides and/or nitrogen oxides, has an evaporation stage for concentrating the active components of the washing medium by an evaporator and/or by a heat exchanger, and has a collecting tank connected to the evaporator and/or to the heat exchanger. The collecting tank is configured as a crystallizer for removing sulfur oxides from the washing medium by crystallization of a sulphate, in particular of potassium sulphate. A separating device for carbon dioxide has a corresponding processing unit, and a method for processing a washing medium contaminated with sulphur oxides and/or nitrogen oxides uses a corresponding processing unit.

A method of generating a refined sugar stream that comprises xylose from a biomass hydrolysis solution including contacting a biomass hydrolysis solution that includes a population of mixed sugars comprising xylose, an acid, and impurities, with an extraction solvent to form an extraction mixture; and separating from said extraction mixture a first stream that includes the acid and a second, refined sugar stream that includes the extraction solvent and xylose. The extraction solvent is a tri-alkyl phosphine oxide, a dialkylsulfoxide, or a dialkylphosphite, or any combination thereof.

A vertically-integrated cannabis-related product production method is described, the method comprises, producing a distilled cannabinoid and/or a crystallized cannabinoid from cannabis plants, comprising: in a farming system, growing the cannabis plants, the cannabis plants comprise a cannabinoid; in an extraction system, extracting the cannabinoid from the cannabis plants; in a purification system, purifying the cannabinoid to produce a purified cannabinoid; and in a distillation and/or a crystallization system, distilling and/or crystallizing the purified cannabinoid to produce the distilled cannabinoid and/or the crystallized cannabinoid. Various ways to purify, distill, and process the cannabinoids are described. An insect pest management system may be integrated with the farming system to grow the cannabis plants in the presence of predatory mites which feed on insects and/or spider mites.

Metal compositions and processes for fractional crystallization of a molten crude tin mixture containing lead and silver are described. A process includes separating the molten crude tin mixture into a first silver-enriched liquid drain product at the liquid end of a crystallization step and a first tin-enriched product at the crystal end of the crystallization step whereby the first silver-enriched liquid drain product comprises on a dry weight basis 6.0-30.0% wt of lead, 70.0-91% wt of tin, 95.0-99.0% wt of lead and tin together, 0.75-5.00% wt of silver, and 0.24% wt of antimony. The first silver enriched liquid drain product also includes at least one of: 0.05-0.5% wt of arsenic; 0.05-0.6% wt of copper, 0.0030-0.0500% wt of nickel, at least 0.0010-0.40% wt of bismuth, at most 1.0% wt of iron, or at least 0.0005% wt of gold, the balance being impurities.