Co-solvent effects for aromatic extraction with ionic liquids

Journal of Molecular Liquids, Volume 180, April 2013, Pages 145–153
Co-solvent effects for aromatic extraction with ionic liquids
C.V. Manohar, Tamal Banerjee, Kaustubha Mohanty
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781039, Assam, India
Abstract
Offers an attempt to solve the current problems associated with ionic liquid (IL) mediated liquid–liquid extraction such as large viscosity and high cost. Researchers examined the performance of IL-solvent mixtures, rather than of pure ILs as extractant.
They separated benzene (aromatic component) from hexane (aliphatic component) by using the extractant IL-Acetonitrile. They conducted quaternary LLE experiments i.e., IL(1)-Acetonitrile(2)-Benzene(3)-Hexane(4) at T = 298.15 K and 1 bar pressure. 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium based ionic liquid coupled with the anions ethylsulphate [EtSO4] and Acetate [Ac] was used to separate benzene using the IL and acetonitrile as the solvent. They observed that for both the systems, the hexane composition in extract phase and the solvent composition in raffinate phase are nearly zero. This implies that a mixture of IL-Acetonitrile can be beneficial, since it avoids cross-contamination, a common problem with conventional solvents.
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