Phillips Petroleum Company

Fu-Ming Lee

Ronald E Brown

Marvin M Johnson

Ivar Martin Dahl

Alan D Eastman

Ronald G Abbott

David P Mann

Odd Ivar Eriksen

Robert B Eldridge

Robert L Hair

Anthony L Rouse

Robert J Mitchell

Robert H Pahl

Disclosed is a process for removing acid soluble oils, produced as an undesirable by-product of an HF catalyzed alkylation reaction, from a liquid containing a sulfone compound. The process includes the use of a solvent to extract the acid soluble oils from a sulfone-containing fluid that has previously been neutralized by a treating step.

Alkylation catalyst regeneration

A process for separating C.sub.2 -C.sub.4 alkenes from C.sub.1 -C.sub.6 alkanes comprises the presence of water vapor in the alkene/alkane feed and the use of an Ag.sup.+ -exchanged sulfonated copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene and perfluorovinyl ether having been prepared by one of several specific ion-exchange methods.

Use of silver-exchanged ionomer membranes for gas separation

An extractive distillation process for separation ethers (in particular methyl t-butyl ether or ethyl t-butyl ether), aliphatic hydrocarbons (in particular isobutane and/or isobutene) and alcohols (in particular methanol or ethanol) employs as solvent sulfolane(s) and/or dialkyl sulfone(s), or N-(.beta.-mercaptoalkyl)-2-pyrrolidone(s), or a mixture of N-alkyl-2-pyrrolidone(s) and either sulfolane(s) or glycol compound(s).

Extractive distillation of alcohol/ether/hydrocarbon mixtures

The separation of alkadienes from close-boiling alkenes by extractive distillation employs as solvent either N-(.beta.-mercaptoethyl)-2-pyrrolidone alone, or a mixture of N-(.beta.-mercaptoethyl)-2-pyrrolidone and either N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone or cyclohexanol, or a mixture of cyclohexanol and tetraethylene glycol. The separation of cycloalkadines from close-boiling alkadienes by extractive distillation employs N-(.beta.-mercaptoethyl)-2-pyrrolidone as solvent.

Separation of unsaturated hydrocarbons by extractive distillation

The separation of alkadienes from close-boiling alkenes by extractive distillation employes as solvent N-methyl-2-thiopyrrolidone, alone or in admixture with unsubstituted sulfolane (cyclotetramethylene sulfone), or a mixture of unsubstituted sulfone and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. The separation of cycloalkadienes from close-boiling alkadienes by extractive distillation employs N-methyl-2-thiopyrrolidone as solvent.

Separation of olefinic hydrocarbons by extractive distillation

Aromatic hydrocarbons containing 6-10 carbon atoms per molecule are separated from close-boiling olefinic hydrocarbons by extractive distillation employing as solvent either N-methyl-2-thiopyrrolidone alone, or a mixture of N-(.beta.-mercaptoethyl)-2-pyrrolidone and N-methyl-2-thiopyrrolidone, or a mixture of N-(.beta.-mercaptoethyl)-2-pyrrolidone and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone.

Extractive distillation of mixtures containing aromatic and olefinic

An extractive distillation process for separatin at least one C.sub.4 -C.sub.10 alkene (monoolefin) from at least one close-boiling alkane employs a solvent mixture of (a) at least one saturated alcohol (preferably cyclohexanol) and either (b1) at least one sulfolane (preferably cyclotetramethylene sulfone) or (b2) at least one glycol compound (preferably tetraethylene glycol) or (b1)+(b2).

Separation of alkenes from close-boiling alkanes

An extractive distillation process for separating at least one C.sub.2 -C.sub.4 alkene (preferably propylene) from at least one close-boiling alkane (preferably propane) employs propylene carbonate as solvent, optionally in admixture with a minor amount of water.

Extractive distillation of low boiling alkene/alkane mixtures

An extractive distillation process for separating at least one C.sub.4 -C.sub.10 alkene (monoolefin) from at least one close-boiling alkane (paraffin) employs as solvent a mixture of (a) at least one N-alkyl-2-pyrrolidone, preferably N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and either (b1) at least one sulfolane compound (preferably cyclotetramethylene sulfone) or (b2) at least one glycol compound (preferably tetraethylene glycol) or both (b1) and (b2).

Separation of alkenes from alkanes

An extractive distillation process for separating at least one C.sub.4 -C.sub.10 alkene (monoolefin) from at least one close-boiling alkane employs solvent at least one N-mercaptoalkyl-2-pyrrolidone, preferably N-(.beta.-mercaptoethyl)-2-pyrrolidone, optionally in admixture with at least one N-alkyl-2-pyrrolidone, preferably N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone.

Separation of monoolefins from paraffins

Extractive distillation processes for separating aromatic hydrocarbon(s) or cycloalkane(s) or alkene(s) from close-boiling alkane(s) are carried out with a solvent including at least one N-alkyl-2-thiopyrrolidone compound, preferably N-methyl-2-thiopyrrolidone. Optionally, the solvent additionally contains a cosolvent, preferably tetraethylene glycol or N-(.beta.-mercaptoethyl)-2-pyrrolidone or unsubstituted sulfolane.

Extractive distillation of hydrocarbon mixtures

A process for catalytically cracking a hydrocarbon-containing feed stream, preferably having an API.sup.60 gravity of about 5-30, wherein at least a portion of off-gases is treated so as to remove C.sub.2 -C.sub.4 olefins therefrom, and the off-gas stream having a reduced olefin content is then recycled to the catalytic cracking zone.

Catalytic cracking process

A process for producing anhydrous ethanol from an ethanol-water mixture feedstock comprising subjecting the feedstock to distillation in a first distillation zone to produce an overhead vapor of from about 80 to about 90 weight percent ethanol, subjecting the thus produced overhead vapor to extractive distillation in an extractive distillation zone to produce anhydrous ethanol vapor overhead of about 99.5 weight percent ethanol and a solvent-rich bottom stream, and stripping the solvent-rich bottom stream and recycling the thus produced lean solvent bottom stream to the extractive distillation zone and recycling the thus produced overhead vapor stream to the first distillation zone. Also disclosed is a system for performing the process.

Dehydration of alcohol with extractive distillation

A vapor-liquid extractive distillation process utilizing a dialkyl sulfone containing 4 to 8 carbon atoms per molecule and at least one percent water as the solvent. The process according to this invention is of particular applicability in separating aromatics from nonaromatics in a BTX stream. The solvent system operates particularly well with relatively large amounts of water.

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Bartlesville, OK, United States of America

Fu-Ming Lee