Bulk aromatics separation

The carbon black (soot) produced in the partial combustion and electrical discharge processes is of rather small particle si2e and contains substantial amounts of higher (mostly aromatic) hydrocarbons which may render it hydrophobic, sticky, and difficult to remove by filtration. Electrostatic units, combined with water scmbbers, moving coke beds, and bag filters, are used for the removal of soot. The recovery is illustrated by the BASF separation and purification system (23). The bulk of the carbon in the reactor effluent is removed by a water scmbber (quencher). Residual carbon clean-up is by electrostatic filtering in the case of methane feedstock, and by coke particles if the feed is naphtha. Carbon in the quench water is concentrated by flotation, then burned. 

Xylene Isomeri tion. The objective of C-8-aromatics processing is the conversion of the usual four-component feedstream (ethylbenzene and the three xylenes) into an isomerically pure xylene. Although the bulk of current demand is for xylene isomer for polyester fiber manufacture, significant markets for the other isomers exist. The primary problem is separation of the 8—40% ethylbenzene that is present in the usual feedstocks, a task that is compHcated by the closeness of the boiling points of ethylbenzene and -xylene. In addition, the equiUbrium concentrations of the xylenes present in the isomer separation train raffinate have to be reestabUshed to maximize the yield of the desired isomer. 

Lube oil extraction plants often use phenol as solvent. Phenol is used because of its solvent power with a wide range of feed stocks and its ease of recovery. Phenol preferentially dissolves aromatic-type hydrocarbons from the feed stock and improves its oxidation stability and to some extent its color. Phenol extraction can be used over the entire viscosity range of lube distillates and deasphalted oils. The phenol solvent extraction separation is primarily by molecular type or composition. In order to accomplish a separation by solvent extraction, it is necessary that two liquid phases be present. In phenol solvent extraction of lubricating oils these two phases are an oil-rich phase and a phenol-rich phase. Tne oil-rich phase or raffinate solution consists of the "treated" oil from which undesirable naphthenic and aromatic components have been removed plus some dissolved phenol. The phenol-rich phase or extract solution consists mainly of the bulk of the phenol plus the undesirable components removed from the oil feed. The oil materials remaining... 

The silica gel surface is extremely polar and, as a result, must often be deactivated with a polar solvent such as ethyl acetate, propanol or even methanol. The bulk solvent is usually an n-alkane such as n-heptane and the moderators (the name given to the deactivating agents) are usually added at concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 5% v/v. Silica gel is very effective for separating polarizable materials such as the aromatic hydrocarbons, nitro hydrocarbons (aliphatic and aromatic), aliphatic ethers, aromatic esters, etc. When separating polarizable substances as opposed to substances with permanent dipoles, mixtures of an aliphatic hydrocarbon with a chlorinated hydrocarbon such as chlorobutane or methylene dichloride are often used as the mobile... 

The second part of the book covers zeolite adsorptive separation, adsorption mechanisms, zeolite membranes and mixed matrix membranes in Chapters 5-11. Chapter 5 summarizes the literature and reports adsorptive separation work on specific separation applications organized around the types of molecular species being separated. A series of tables provide groupings for (i) aromatics and derivatives, (ii) non-aromatic hydrocarbons, (iii) carbohydrates and organic acids, (iv) fine chemical and pharmaceuticals, (v) trace impurities removed from bulk materials. Zeolite adsorptive separation mechanisms are theorized in Chapter 6. 

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. 

If the tar oils are accompanied by small quantities of mineral oils, the latter may dissolve in the aromatic nitro-derivatives and so settle to the bottom of the vessel. In such case the deposited layer is separated and distilled in a small flask, only the first portions of the distillate, containing the bulk of the light mineral oils, being collected. This is treated with zinc and hydrochloric acid (cooling somewhat) to reduce the nitro-com-pounds, and diluted with water the amines formed dissolve in the water as hydrochlorides and the mineral oils separate as slightly coloured light drops. 

Bulk composition the make-up of petroleum in terms of bulk fractions such as saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes, separation of petroleum into these fractions is usually achieved by a combination of solvent and adsorption (q.v.) processes. 

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