Extractive distillation isoprene recovery

The principal route for production of isoprene monomer outside of the CIS is recovery from ethylene by-product C streams. This route is most viable where ethylene is produced from naphtha or gas oil and where several ethylene plants are located in relatively close proximity to the isoprene plant. Although the yield of isoprene per mass of ethylene is quite low, there is enough ethylene produced to provide a large portion of demand. Because of the presence of / -pentane in these streams which a2eotropes with isoprene, extractive distillation must be used to recover pure isoprene. Acetonitrile is the most common solvent, but dimethylformamide is also used commercially. 

The demand for isoprene for Butyl rubber led to the development of a recovery process for this Cj diolefin. Extractive distillation with acetone was the first process used but it has been replaced with acetonitrile (ACN ). The first step in the process is the fractionation of steam cracker debutanizer bottoms in a conventional two tower system to produce a C5 cut containing 30% isoprene. The first tower rejects C and heavier while the second rejects C4 and lighter materials. 

Draw carefully a flowsheet for the recovery of isoprene from a mixture of C5 hydrocarbons by extractive distillation with aqueous acetonitrile according to the following description. 

Extractive Distillation Recovery of Isoprene. A typical flowsketch and material balance of distillation and solvent recovery towers for extracting isoprene from a mixture of cracked products with aqueous acetonitrile appears in Figure 13.26. A description of the flowsheet of a complete plant is given in Example 2.10. In spite of the fact that several trays for washing by reflux are provided, some volatilization of solvent still occurs so that the complete plant... 

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