Petrochemical Processing solvent extraction

The Phenox process (254) removes phenol (qv) from the efduent from catalytic cracking in the petroleum industry. Extraction of phenols from ammoniacal coke-oven Hquor may show a small profit. Acetic acid can be recovered by extraction from dilute waste streams (255). Oils are recovered by extraction from oily wastewater from petroleum and petrochemical operations. Solvent extraction is employed commercially for the removal of valuable... 

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). 

Vegetable oils have the potential to substitute a fraction of petroleum distillates and petroleum-based petrochemicals in the near future. Possible acceptable converting processes of vegetable oils into reusable products are transesterification, solvent extraction, cracking and pyrolysis. Pyrolysis has received a significant amount of interest as this gives products of better quality compared to any other thermochemical process. The liquid fuel produced from vegetable oil pyrolysis has similar chemical components to conventional petroleum diesel fuel. 

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. 

Gas-liquid bubble columns and gas-liquid-solid slurry bubble columns are widely used in the chemical and petrochemical industries for processes such as methanol synthesis, coal liquefaction, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and separation methods such as solvent extraction and particle/gas flotation. The hydrodynamic behavior of gas-liquid bubble columns and gas-liquid-solid slurry bubble columns are of great importance for the design and scale-up of reactors. Although the hydrodynamics of the bubble and slurry bubble columns has been a subject of intensive research through experiments and computations, the flow structure quantification of complex multi-phase flows are still not well understood, especially in the three-dimensional region. In bubble and slurry bubble columns, the presence of gas bubbles plays an important role to induce appreciable liquid/solids mixing as well as mass transfer. The flows within these systems are divided into two... 

SOLVENT extraction (liquid-liquid extraction) is the separation and/or concentration of the components of a solution by distribution between two immiscible liquid phases. A particularly valuable feature is its power to separate mixtures into components according to their chemical type. Solvent extraction is widely used in the chemical industry. Its applications range from hydrometallurgy, e.g., reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, to fertilizer manufacture and from petrochemicals to pharmaceutical products. Important factors in industrial extraction are the selection of an appropriate solvent and the design of equipment most suited to the process requirements. 

Aromatics are typically concentrated in product streams from the catalytic reformer. When aromatics are sought for petrochemical applications, they typically are extracted from the reformer product stream by solvent extraction or distillation extraction. A common solvent used is sulfolane new processes now use n-formylmorpholin as the extractive solvent.12... 

The PetroFCC process changes an FCC unit from a gasoline-producing device to a source of petrochemical feedstocks. It can provide both aromatic naphtha to an aromatics complex and light olefins to a polyolefins complex. Feedstock utilization can be further improved by recycling the raffinate by-product from BTX solvent extraction back to the PetroFCC reactor for conversion to light olefins. 

OTHER COMMENTS used as a gasoline additive for automotive, aviation and farm equipment used in solvent extraction processes, as a general laboratory solvent, and as a medium solvent for polymerization reactions used in the synthesis of amyl chlorides for intermediates in manufacture of paint, lacquer solvents, hydraulic fluids, paint removers, and miscellaneous petrochemicals used in the synthesis of polychlorocyclopentanes as intermediates in manufacture of fire-resistant polyester resins and paints, dye intermediates, and plasticizers use as a heat-exchange medium, a component of lighter fluids and blow-torch fuel, and in the manufacture of polystyrene beads for styrofoam production. 

Gycloaliphatics and Aromatics. Cychc compounds (cyclohexane and benzene) are also important sources of petrochemical products (Fig. 14). Aromatics are ia high concentration ia the product streams from a catalytic reformer. When aromatics are needed for petrochemical manufacture, they are extracted from the reformer s product usiag solvents such as glycols (eg, the Udex process) and sulfolane. 

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