Adsorptive separation of oils

D. D. Brooks OU-Dri Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, Adsorptive Separation of Oils. 

Koseoglu, S.S. E.W. Lusas. Aqueous, membrane and adsorptive separations of vegetable proteins. Proceedings of the World Conference on Vegetable Protein Utilization in Human Foods and Animal Feedstuff T.H. Applewhite, Ed. American Oil Chemists Society Champaign, IL, 1989 pp. 528-547. 

Fig. 6. Adsorption capacity of various dessicants vs years of service in dehydrating high pressure natural gas (39). a, Alumin a H-151, gas 27° C and 123 kPa, from oil and water separators b, siUca gel, gas 38° C and 145 kPa, from oil absorption plant c, sorbead, 136-kPa gas from absorption plant ...

Filter aids may be applied in one of two ways. The first method involves the use of a precoat filter aid, which can be applied as a thin layer over the filter before the suspension is pumped to the apparatus. A precoat prevents fine suspension particles from becoming so entangled in the filter medium that its resistance becomes exces-sive. In addition it facilitates the removal of filter cake at the end of the filtration cycle. The second application method involves incorporation of a certain amount of the material with the suspension before introducing it to the filter. The addition of filter aids increases the porosity of the sludge, decreases its compressibility, and reduces the resistance of the cake. In some cases the filter aid displays an adsorption action, which results in particle separation of sizes down to 0.1 /i. The adsorption ability of certain filter aids, such as bleached earth and activated charcoals, is manifest by a decoloring of the suspension s liquid phase. This practice is widely used for treating fats and oils. The properties of these additives are determined by the characteristics... 

Adsorption, which utilizes the ability of a solid adsorbent to adsorb specific components from a gaseous or a liquid solution onto its surface. Examples of adsorption include the use of granular activated carbon for the removal of ben-zene/toluene/xylene mixtures from underground water, the separation of ketones from aqueous wastes of an oil refinery, aad the recovery of organic solvents from the exhaust gases of polymer manufacturing facilities. Other examples include the use of activated alumina to adsorb fluorides and arsenic from metal-finishing emissions. 

Indeed, great emphasis was placed on the presentation of compounds in crystalline form for many years, early chromatographic procedures for the separation of natural substances were criticized because the products were not crystalline. None the less, the invention by Tswett (3) of chromatographic separation by continuous adsorption/desorption on open columns as applied to plant extracts was taken up by a number of natural product researchers in the 1930s, notably by Karrer (4) and by Swab and lockers (5). An early example (6) of hyphenation was the use of fluorescence spectroscopy to identify benzo[a]pyrene separated from shale oil by adsorption chromatography on alumina. 

Separation of milled solid materials is usually based on differences in their physical properties. Of the various techniques to obtain ore concentrates, those of froth flotation and agglomeration exploit differences in surface activities, which in many cases appear to involve the formation of complexes at the surface of the mineral particles. Separation by froth flotation (Figure 4) depends upon conversion of water-wetted (hydrophilic) solids to nonwetted (hydrophobic) ones which are transported in an oil-based froth leaving the undesired materials (gangue) in an aqueous slurry which is drawn off from the bottom of the separator. The selective conversion of the ore particles to hydrophobic materials involves the adsorption of compounds which are usually referred to as collectors. 4... 

Adsorption chromatography on silica is well suited to the separation of less polar compounds such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, fats and oils, and for the separation of isomers or compounds with differing functional groups. 

The efficacy of various normal and RP-TLC systems for the separation of the colour pigments of Capsicum annuum was compared. Neutral aluminium oxide, silica gel, diatomaceous earth, silica gel-diatomaceous earth 1 1, cellulose, cyano, diol- and amino modified silicas were employed as stationary phases for adsorption TLC. Polyamide and modified silica layers were used for RP-TLC as received, the other stationary phases were impregnated by overnight predevelopment in n-hexane - paraffin oil, 95 5 v/v. 

Butane is extracted from natural gas and is also obtained during petroleum refining. Butane can be obtained from natural gas by compression, adsorption, or absorption. All three processes were used in the early days of the LPG industry, but compression and adsorption were generally phased out during the 20th century. Most butane now is obtained from absorption and separation from oil. Very little butane is obtained from distillation. Gas stream from cracking units in the refining process contain appreciable amounts of... 

The asphaltenes are nonvolatile and remain in the residue when the crude is subjected to distillation. The resins are partially volatile and therefore may be present in the lubricating oil fractions of higher boiling point as well as in the residue. Among the many methods employed for the separation of these materials from the oil fractions are distillation, adsorption, chemical treatment, and precipitation by special solvents. 

In order to increase the yields of good quality, high viscosity lubricating oils which were in demand at that time, the industry was faced with the problem of developing more efficient methods for separating the oil from the asphaltic materials in the residue. In many cases the residue represented a substantial proportion of the crude oil. Investigations undertaken included chemical treatment with sulfuric acid (35), removal of the asphaltic materials with metallic chlorides (50, 66), and adsorption on clay (56). Solvent precipitation of the asphalts also was studied (11,18, 19, 38, 78). 

A part of the wax portion, which contained a considerable amount of oil in addition to the true wax, was further processed by fractionation by adsorption and by treatment with urea to form adducts of the latter with the n-paraffins. The wax portion was found to contain about 8% of aromatic hydrocarbons, which had been imperfectly separated from the main bulk of the aromatic hydrocarbons occurring in the extract oil portion. Of the remaining 92% of the wax portion, about 39% was determined to be n-paraffins and 53% cycloparaffins, with possibly a relatively small amount of branched paraffins. 

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