Separation technologies/processes energy consumption

So, Sulfolane and Carom, ca 1997, are two current rival processes. Sulfolane has a slight advantage over Carom ia energy consumption, while Carom has 6—8% less capital for the same capacity Sulfolane unit. In 1995, Exxon (37) commercialized the most recent technology for aromatics recovery when it used copolymer hoUow-fiber membrane ia concentration-driven processes, pervaporation and perstraction, for aromatic—paraffin separation. Once the non aromatic paraffins and cycloparaffins are removed, fractionation to separate the C to C aromatics is relatively simple. 

A major challenge will be to develop new processes or step-up technologies that increase the yield and/or selectivity, use cheaper raw materials, decrease energy consumption, minimize the product separation and purification needs and lower capital investment. Iimoyative step-out technologies can still have a major impact on existing processes. An excellent example of such an accomplishment is the reactive distillation process developed by Eastman Chemicals for production of methyl acetate by via the reaction [2]... 

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. 

The applications of membrane technology have grown significantly in the last decade. Some advantages of membrane technologies are continuous performance, low energy consumption, modular stmcmre, and easy installation or automation. Due to this, nowadays membrane processes have become an ideal complement or even a suitable replacement of conventional separation processes (evaporation, chemical precipitation, ion exchange, etc.). 

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