Table 1.

Purification of diols from aqueous and organic systems in comparison.

Step	Aqueous	Organic	Aim
centrifugation/filtration	yes	yes	catalyst removal
acid precipitation	yes	no	cell debris removal
organic extraction	yes	no	solvent change for following distillation
Distillation 1	yes	yes	volume reduction
silica gel chromatography	yes	yes	removal of intermediate and coproducts
Distillation 2	yes	yes	dry final product