0 7 m was inserted into the remaining orifice of the 3 neck flask at the upper end of the column was mounted a jacketed coil condenser connected to this was a wash bottle filled with 60 04 g of dilute sulphuric acid 1 mol l in which the ammonia which had been stripped out was absorbed for mass balancing the experiment time was approx 42 h within this time the ammonium salt was dissociated into the free acid and ammonia a conversion of approx 33 was achieved and the yield of alkylammonium 2 hydroxyisobutyrate was approx 26 in a three neck flask 106 g of trioctylamine toa were mixed with 20 g of 2 hydroxyisobutyric acid 2 hiba and separated thermally in a batch distillation the bottoms were heated by a heating mantle and the bottom temperature was measured continuously to reduce the partial pressure a nitrogen flow of approx 10 l h was passed into the bottom flask of the apparatus a trace heated column filled with random packings was secured to the flask connected thereto was a liebig condenser which condensed the distillate which was in turn collected in a round bottom flask a vacuum pump was used to establish a system pressure of 50 mbar the distillation was conducted.