• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.129-135
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• 2006

In this study, computer modeling and simulation works were performed to obtain nearly pure toluene product from toluene containing non-aromatic compounds using sulfolane as a solvent through an extractive distillation process. NRTL liquid activity coefficient model was adopted for phase equilibrium calculations and Aspen Plus release 12.1, a commercial process simulator, was used to simulate the extractive distillation process. In this study, it was concluded that the toluene product with a purity of 99.8 percent by weight and a recovery of 99.65 percent was obtained through an extractive distillation process.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.3241-3247
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• 2012

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been extensively investigated as promising alternatives to conventional organic solvents such as sulfolane and N,N-dimethylformamide for the selective extraction of aromatic hydrocarbons from the $C_6-C_{10}$ hydrocarbon mixtures produced from the cracking processes of naphtha and light oils. The most important advantage of ILs over conventional organic solvents is that they are immiscible with aliphatic hydrocarbons, and thus the back extraction of ILs from the raffinate phases and top hydrocarbon-rich layers is not necessary. In this paper, a brief review on the state of the art in the utilization of ILs for aromatics separation is presented.