Carbon monoxide, manufacture separation

Pure carbon monoxide is sometimes required as the sole product for petrochemical feedstock. In this case, raw syngas is first recovered from carbon dioxide and then hydrogen and carbon monoxide are separated. Hydrogen is always a by-product in the manufacture of syngas. It can be minimized but not eliminated. The hydrogen and carbon monoxide are separated and the hydrogen is either sold separately or burned as fuel. 

Continuous-Flow Stirred-Tank Reactors. The synthesis of j )-tolualdehyde from toluene and carbon monoxide has been carried out using CSTR equipment (81). -Tolualdehyde (PTAL) is an intermediate in the manufacture of terephthabc acid. Hydrogen fluoride—boron trifluoride catalyzes the carbonylation of toluene to PTAL. In the industrial process, separate stirred tanks are used for each process step. Toluene and recycle HF and BF ... 

In the past, methanol was obtained by heating wood without allowing the wood to burn. The products were collected, and methanol (sometimes called wood alcohol ) was separated by distillation. Today methanol is manufactured by reacting carbon monoxide with hydrogen gas. 

A.3.2 Route 1 The Manufacture by Faradaic Reform at Equilibrium of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, from Methane, followed by Oxidation in Two Separate Fuel Cells... 

Carbon dioxide is obtained commercially as the byproduct of a number of industrial reactions. For example, when calcium carbonate is heated to produce lime (CaO), carbon dioxide is released and captured as a by-product. The steam reforming (refining) of petroleum results in the production of a mixture of gases known as synthesis gas, consisting of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Carbon dioxide can be separated from the other components of synthesis gas for commercial uses. Carbon dioxide also produces as a by-product of the manufacture of ammonia (NH3) by the Haber-Bosch process. 

High pressure technology transfer and diversification took many avenues, though most new innovations continued to appear from BASF. First, in 1923, was methanol production at the Leuna ammonia factory, and based on the work of Matthias Pier. BASF had patented a high pressure methanol process in 1914, but no further studies were carried out until after G. Patart in France applied for a similar patent (1921). In this case the same equipment could be used to manufacture ammonia or methanol, according to demand. Synthesis gas, the mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, was used directly, without separation, to prepare methanol. In a similar way, isopropanol was manufactured under high pressures. 

If required, relatively pure carbon monoxide can be recovered by cryogenic separation (i.e. condensation at very low temperatures), use of selective scrubbing solutions (for example CUAICI4 in toluene, the COSORB process) or solid adsorbents, and by other methods. Some CO recovery techniques are also applicable to the CO-rich (c. 70% molar) off-gases from basic oxygen furnaces and the leaner off-gases from air blast furnaces produced in steel manufacture, though operations of this type are still limited. 

The importance of these areas becomes apparent the moment one visits a chemical plant or a petroleum refinery chemical reactors and separation units are the essential blocks of the processes involved in both places, as the typical example shown in Figure 1.5 demonstrates for the manufacture of methanol. [Carbon monoxide and hydrogen react at moderate pressures (50-100 atm) and temperatures (250-270°C)to form methanol. Following condensation, the unreacted gas is recycled, while methanol is recovered from the liquid mixture by distillation.]... 

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