Benzene removal from water

Reddy, K. R. and Jeffery, A. A., 1988, Systems Effects on Benzene Removal from Saturated Soils and Ground Water Using Air Sparging Journal of Environmental Engineering, March, 1998, Vol. 124, No. 3, pp. 288-299. 

The two insoluble compounds precipitate and are removed from the water by filtration. Thus by the successive usage of cation and anion-exchange resins sodium chloride could be removed from water. An example of a cation-exchange resin is sulfonated styrene-divinyl-benzene polymer and an anion-exchange resin can be made by chloromethylating styrene-divinyl copolymer and replacing the chlorines with tr i me thy1ami ne. 

Benzene is the most water-soluble hydrocarbon and for this reason the most attractive financially to remove from water. If fit for reuse, it will yield about US 1/m of water. Benzene is generally used only when extremely pure and therefore extra costs will probably be incurred in working it up for reuse. With the possible exception of toluene, no other hydrocarbon solvent has a high enough solubility in water to make a significant positive contribution to water clean-up. 

Anilides. Dilute the acid chloride with 5 ml. of pure ether (or benzene), and add a solution of 2 g. of pure aniline in 15-20 ml. of the same solvent until the odour of the acid chloride has disappeared excess of aniline is not harmful. Shake with excess of dilute hydrochloric acid to remove aniline and its salts, wash the ethereal (or benzene) layer with 3-5 ml. of water, and evaporate the solvent [CAUTION ] Recrystallise the anilide from water, dilute alcohol or benzene - light petroleum (b.p. 60-80°). 

Furfuryl acetate. Reflux a mixture of 39 2 g. (34-8 ml.) of redistilled furfuryl alcohol, 48 g. of glacial acetic acid, 150 ml. of benzene and 20 g. of Zeo-Karb 225/H in a 500 ml. bolt-head flask, using the apparatus described under iaoPropyl Lactate. After 3 hours, when the rate of collection of water in the water separator is extremely slow, allow to cool, separate the resin by suction filtration, and wash it with three 15 ml. portions of benzene. Remove the benzene, etc., from the combined filtrate and washings under reduced pressure (water pump) and then collect the crude ester at 74-90°/10 mm. a small sohd residue remains in the flask. Redistil the crude ester from a Claisen flask with fractionating side arm pure furfuryl acetate passes over at 79-80°/17 mm. The yield is 14 -5 g. 

The 95% ethanol of Everclear is not an arbitrary concentration that the producer decided to stop at, mind you. It so happens that 95% ethanol and 5% water is a constant boiling mix that no more ethanol can be purified from. That 5% water is there to stay There are ways to remove that water such as producing a ternary azeotrope by the addition of benzene, but they are kind of a hassle and may... 

Note 2. Prepared by azeotropic removal of water from the commercial, water-containing product by means of benzene. This solvent was removed in a water--pump vacuum and the remaining mass was powdered. The water-containing acid appeared to work much less efficiently as catalyst. 

Diols that bear two hydroxyl groups m a 1 2 or 1 3 relationship to each other yield cyclic acetals on reaction with either aldehydes or ketones The five membered cyclic acetals derived from ethylene glycol (12 ethanediol) are the most commonly encoun tered examples Often the position of equilibrium is made more favorable by removing the water formed m the reaction by azeotropic distillation with benzene or toluene... 

Medium Boiling Esters. Esterificatioa of ethyl and propyl alcohols, ethylene glycol, and glycerol with various acids, eg, chloro- or bromoacetic, or pymvic, by the use of a third component such as bensene, toluene, hexane, cyclohexane, or carbon tetrachloride to remove the water produced is quite common. Bensene has been used as a co-solvent ia the preparatioa of methyl pymvate from pymvic acid (101). The preparatioa of ethyl lactate is described as an example of the general procedure (102). A mixture of 1 mol 80% lactic acid and 2.3 mol 95% ethyl alcohol is added to a volume of benzene equal to half that of the alcohol (ca 43 mL), and the resulting mixture is refluxed for several hours. When distilled, the overhead condensate separates iato layers. The lower layer is extracted to recover the benzene and alcohol, and the water is discarded. The upper layer is returned to the column for reflux. After all the water is removed from the reaction mixture, the excess of alcohol and benzene is removed by distillation, and the ester is fractionated to isolate the pure ester. 

Draper and Pollard [Science 109 448 1949] added 12% water, 0.1% aluminium (can also use zinc), and 0.05% NaHC03 to phenol, and distd at atmospheric pressure until the azeotrope was removed. The phenol was then distd at 25mm. Phenol has also been dried by distn from the benzene soln to remove the water- benzene azeotrope and the excess benzene, followed by distn of the phenol at reduced pressure under nitrogen. Processes such as this are probably adequate for analytical grade phenol which has as its main impurity water. Phenol has also been crystd from pet ether/ benzene or pet ether (b 40-60°). Purified material is stored in a vacuum desiccator over P2O5 or CaS04. 

---