Long Term Pilot Plant Experience on Aromatics Extraction with Ionic Liquids

Separation Science and Technology, Volume 47, Issue 2, 2012, pages 337-345
Special Issue: Ionic Liquids: Challenging the Frontiers of Separations Processes
Long Term Pilot Plant Experience on Aromatics Extraction with Ionic Liquids
Wytze (G.W.) Meindersmaa*, Ferdy (S.A.F.) Oninka, Antje R. Hansmeiera & André B. de Haana
a Department of Chemical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Abstract
The Department of Chemical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, hasbeen conducting pilot plant trials with various contactors and different ionic liquids for petrochemical model feeds as well as real refinery feeds.
Their pilot plant contains a Rotating Disc Contactor with a height of 6 m and a diameter of 60 mm. Up to 100 kg of ionic liquid and 200 L of feed are applied in experiments. In this paper, the hydrodynamic and mass transfer performance of a rotating disc contactor has been characterized for toluene/n-heptane, a model FCC feed and a real LCCS refinery feed using 3-methyl-N-butyl-pyridinum dicyanamide ([3-mebupy]N(CN)₂) as the ionic liquid. Experiments with the real LCCS feed demonstrated comparable extraction performance to the model FCC feed.
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