Ionic liquid selection and performance evaluation for the separation of methylcyclohexane/tuluene by extractive distillation

The effectiveness of an extractive distillation process relies on the choice of the extractive solvent. The conventional methodology to select solvents is based on Group Contribution Methods. Ionic liquids have shown several advantages over conventional solvents used in extractive distillation and liquid-liquid extraction processes. However, there is no existing methodology to select ILs as solvents for ED processes due to the lack of experimental data, their low capacity and unavailability of group contribution parameters for most IL systems. The objective of this work is to establish a systematic solvent selection methodology for ED processes for the separation of aromatics/non-aromatics mixtures employing ionic liquids.