Solute recovery from ionic liquids : a conceptual design study for recovery of styrene monomer from [4-mebupy][BF4]

M.T.G. Jongmans, J. Trampé, B. Schuur, A.B. Haan, de

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    26 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Extractive distillation using ionic liquids (ILs) is a promising technology to separate the close-boiling mixture ethylbenzene/styrene. A proper solvent regeneration is crucial to obtain a technical and economic feasible process. In this work, several regeneration technologies were studied to recover styrene from the IL [4-mebupy][BF4] using Aspen Plus. Stripping with a hot gas (N2 or ethylbenzene), supercritical CO2 extraction, distillation by adding a co-solvent, and evaporation were investigated. It was found that the IL that was fed as solvent to the extractive distillation column should have a purity of at least 99.6 wt% to maintain the purities of the top and bottom products from the extractive distillation column. This purity could not be obtained with an evaporator using mild conditions (T = 130 °C, Tcondenser = 20 °C). From the process models and the economic evaluation for a typical production capacity of 500,000 mta, the conclusion can be drawn that evaporation using very low pressures (P <10 mbar) and stripping with ethylbenzene are the most promising technologies to recover styrene monomer from the IL [4-mebupy][BF4].
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)148-161
    Number of pages14
    JournalChemical Engineering and Processing : Process Intensification
    Volume70
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

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