A New Approach to Dearomatization of Gasoline by Ionic Liquid and Liquid–Liquid Extraction

Petroleum Science and Technology , Volume 29, Issue 22, 2011

A New Approach to Dearomatization of Gasoline by Ionic Liquid and Liquid–Liquid Extraction

N. Farzin Nejad (a, b) & E. Karimi Zand (a)

a Analytical Department, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Tehran, Iran

b Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Authors develop a separation technology for the selective recovery of the aromatic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) from gasoline by extraction.

They optimized a liquid–liquid extraction method using ionic liquid (IL) simultaneously for selected aromatic hydrocarbons in gasoline. 1-Butyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetrachloroaluminate ionic liquid or [BMIM][AlCl4] was used to extract aromatic compounds from gasoline. [BMIM][AlCl4] was found to be effective for the selective removal of aromatic hydrocarbons from gasoline. The dearomatization experiments were carried out with a 1:1 volume ratio of ionic liquid to gasoline for 60 min at 50°C. The aromatic hydrocarbons removal selectivity followed the order benzene > toluene > xylene > ethylbenzene.

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