Extractive separating aromatic from

Aromatic and Nonaromatic Hydrocarbon Separation. Aromatics are partially removed from kerosines and jet fuels to improve smoke point and burning characteristics. This removal is commonly accompHshed by hydroprocessing, but can also be achieved by Hquid-Hquid extraction with solvents, such as furfural, or by adsorptive separation. Table 7 shows the results of a simulated moving-bed pilot-plant test using siHca gel adsorbent and feedstock components mainly in the C q—range. The extent of extraction does not vary gready for each of the various species of aromatics present. SiHca gel tends to extract all aromatics from nonaromatics (89). 

The largest use of NMP is in extraction of aromatics from lube oils. In this appHcation, it has been replacing phenol and, to some extent, furfural. Other petrochemical uses involve separation and recovery of aromatics from mixed feedstocks recovery and purification of acetylenes, olefins, and diolefins removal of sulfur compounds from natural and refinery gases and dehydration of natural gas. 

Originally, extractive distillation was limited to two-component problems. However, recent developments in solvent technology enabled applications of this hybrid separation in multicomponent systems as well. An example of such application is the BTX process of the GTC Technology Corp., shown in Figure 6, in which extractive distillation replaced the conventional liquid-liquid extraction to separate aromatics from catalytic reformate or pyrolysis gasoline. This led to a ca. 25% lower capital cost and a ca. 15% decrease in energy consumption (170). Some other examples of existing and potential applications of the extractive distillations are listed in Table 6. 

Krupp Uhde Aromatics Pyrolysis gasoline, reformate or light oils Extractive distillation process uses selective solvents to separate aromatics from feed streams 30 NA... 

Aromatics [benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX)] are obtained from refinery and petrochemical light naphtha streams. Aromatics are produced in the reforming process and in steam cracking. Extraction or various extractive distillation processes are used to isolate and separate aromatics from the naphtha streams. Typical extraction processes are based on tetraethylene glycol, sulfolane, N,N -methylpyrolidene, or morpholine. They produce a mixture of aromatics that are subsequently separated by distillation, extractive distillation, or—in the case of xylene isomers—differential adsorption or fractional crystallization. 

Separation of classes of components. If a class of components is to be separated (e.g., a mixture of aromatics from a mixture of aliphatics), then distillation can only separate according to boiling points, irrespective of the class of component. In a complex mixture where classes of components need to be separated, this might mean isolating many components unnecessarily. Liquid-liquid extraction can be applied to the separation of classes of components. 

TURBINE fuels), are both in demand. Solvent extraction is also extensively used to meet the growing demand for the high purity aromatics such as ben2ene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) as feedstocks for the petrochemical industry (see BTX PROCESSING FEEDSTOCKS,PETROCHEMICALS). Additionally, the separation of aromatics from aUphatics is one of the largest appHcations of solvent extraction (see Petroleum, refinery processes survey). 

M-iscellaneousFxtractions. Additional extractive separations using sulfolane involve (/) mercaptans and sulfides from sour petroleum (45) (2) /-butylstyrene from /-butylethjlbenzene (46) (J) mixtures of close boiling chlorosHanes (47) and (4) aromatics from kerosene (48—50), naphtha (49,51—53), and aviation turbine fuel (54). 

Extraction Solvent. Dimethyl sulfoxide is immiscible with alkanes but is a good solvent for most unsaturated and polar compounds. Thus, it can be used to separate olefins from paraffins (93). It is used in the Institute Fransais du Pntrole (IFF) process for extracting aromatic hydrocarbons from refinery streams (94). It is also used in the analytical procedure for determining polynuclear hydrocarbons in food additives (qv) of petroleum origin (95). 

In order to obtain pure aromatics, cmde reformate is extracted to separate the aromatics from unreacted paraffins and cyclop araftins. The aromatics are, in turn, separated by simple fractional distillation to yield high purity benzene, toluene, xylenes, and aromatics. 

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... 

Suitable organic solvents, such as ether, benzene, naphtha and the like, are more soluble than in water. This makes it possible to separate them from other substances which may accompany them in the water solution but which are not soluble in the solvents employed. Hence, one application of solvent extraction is the analytical determination of unsaponifiable oils and waxes in admixture with fatty material by submitting the mixture to vigorous saponification with alcoholic potash or, if necessary, sodium ethylate, and to dilute the product with water and extract with petroleum ether. The soaps remain in the aqueous solution while the unsaponifiable oils and waxes dissolved in the ether. The addition of a salt to an aqueous solution prior to extraction is sometimes practiced in some processes. In older processes, SOj is employed in the separation of aromatic and highly saturated hydrocarbons, taking advantage of the much greater solubility of the solubility of the aromatics and... 

The primary sources of toluene and xylenes are reformates from catalytic reforming units, gasoline from catcracking, and pyrolysis gasoline from steam reforming of naphtha and gas oils. As mentioned earlier, solvent extraction is used to separate these aromatics from the reformate mixture. 

The theory and development of a solvent-extraction scheme for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is described. The use of y-cyclodextrin (CDx) as an aqueous phase modifier makes this scheme unique since it allows for the extraction of PAHs from ether to the aqueous phase. Generally, the extraction of PAHS into water is not feasible due to the low solubility of these compounds in aqueous media. Water-soluble cyclodextrins, which act as hosts in the formation of inclusion complexes, promote this type of extraction by partitioning PAHs into the aqueous phase through the formation of complexes. The stereoselective nature of CDx inclusion-complex formation enhances the separation of different sized PAH molecules present in a mixture. For example, perylene is extracted into the aqueous phase from an organic phase anthracene-perylene mixture in the presence of CDx modifier. Extraction results for a variety of PAHs are presented, and the potential of this method for separation of more complex mixtures is discussed. 

Important applications of liquid-liquid extraction include the separation of aromatics from kerosene-based fuel oils to improve their burning qualities and the separation of aromatics from paraffin and naphthenic compounds to improve the temperature-viscosity characteristics of lubricating oils. It may also be used to obtain, for example, relatively... 

One particular method is designed to characterize Ce to C28+ petroleum hydrocarbons in soil as a series of aliphatic and aromatic carbon range fractions. The extraction methodology differs from other petroleum hydrocarbon methods because it uses n-pentane, not methylene chloride, as the extraction solvent. If methylene chloride is used as the extraction solvent, aliphatic and aromatic compounds cannot be separated. 

The separation of organic mixtures into groups of components of similar chemical type was one of the earliest applications of solvent extraction. In this chapter the term solvent is used to define the extractant phase that may contain either an extractant in a diluent or an organic compound that can itself act as an extractant. Using this technique, a solvent that preferentially dissolves aromatic compounds can be used to remove aromatics from kerosene to produce a better quality fuel. In the same way, solvent extraction can be used to produce high-purity aromatic extracts from catalytic reformates, aromatics that are essentially raw materials in the production of products such as polystyrene, nylon, and Terylene. These features have made solvent extraction a standard technique in the oil-refining and petrochemical industries. The extraction of organic compounds, however, is not confined to these industries. Other examples in this chapter include the production of pharmaceuticals and environmental processes. 

The separation of aromatics from complex mixtures of hydrocarbons may be effected to a considerable degree by distillation alone. For example, wide boiling (100 ° to 300 ° F.) hydroformates containing 40 to 50% aromatics can be fractionally distilled to obtain toluene and xylene concentrates of 70 to 80% aromaticity. Such an operation usually results in a recovery of only about 75% of the aromatics present, the balance being discarded in order to obtain high purity. However, when coupled with extraction processes, recoveries of 90 to 95% are realized. In this operation, the hydroformate is distilled into narrow-boiling fractions, some of which contain 60 to 70% aromatics for use as aviation... 

Extractive distillation was the basis of a process introduced commercially by the Shell Development Co. and put into operation in 1940 at the Houston refinery of the Shell Oil Co., Inc., for separating toluene from virgin stocks (6) subsequently it was used also on hydroformates and cracked naphthas. This process, shown diagrammatically in Figure 3, involves the production of a toluene concentrate by distillation to remove low and high boiling contaminants, which then is extractively distilled with phenol to separate the aromatics from the paraffin (5). The extract is obtained as a bottoms stream from the extractive distillation tower, and is further fractionated in a distillation tower to separate raw toluene from the phenol, after which the toluene is acid treated and redis-... 

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