A novel purification process is involved to obtain the high purity [N99%(by mass)] dodecanedioic acid (DC12). It involves a re-crystallization followed by molecular distillation from the crude product. The objective of this study is to investigate general conditions, feed rate, distilling temperature and vacuum, necessary for centrifugal distillation of DC12. Under the optimum conditions, distilling temperature 180 degrees C, pressure 30 Pa and feed flow rate 700 ml . h(-1), the purity of DC12 in the residence reached 97.55% with a yield of 53.18% by the analysis of gas chromatography. Multiple-pass distillation made a considerable contribution by improving the purity to 99.22%. Additionally, the effect of pretreatment (re-crystallization) on distillation process was revealed through a series of comparative experiments. (C) 2014 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.