RT Journal Article
T1 Cyclic carbonates as solvents in the dearomatization of refinery streams: Experimental liquid–liquid equilibria, modelling, and simulation
A1 Ayuso Sebastián, Miguel Aythami
A1 García González, Julián
A1 Mateo Fernández, Sara
A1 Rodríguez Somolinos, Francisco
A1 Belinchón, Alejandro
A1 Navarro, Pablo
A1 Palomar, José
AB Obtaining aromatic hydrocarbons from refinery streams is one of the most concerning issues that the petrochemical industry currently faces. Now, the presence of azeotropes between aromatic and nonaromatic compounds in gasoline fractions demands the employment of organic solvents such as sulfolane to obtain benzene, toluene, and xylenes by liquid–liquid extraction. Several alternatives have been evaluated during the last decades to overcome the drawbacks related to the use of these solvents, being their replacement with ionic liquids one of the most promising so far. Nonetheless, the ionic liquids’ complex synthesis routes and lack of availability at large production still limit their industrial implementation. Recently, cyclic carbonates have emerged as a double solution related to CO2 fixation and designer solvents availability, the latter showing interesting extractive and physical properties which could reduce the environmental impact associated with the use of conventional solvents and ionic liquids in aromatic extraction processes. However, the availability of experimental data is scarce and only predictive models are available. In this work, firstly, the extractive properties of five cyclic carbonates (propylene, vinylethylene, glycerol, ethylene, and vinylene carbonates) were experimentally determined for wide composition ranges of several ternary systems {aliphatic/methylcycloalkane + aromatic + cyclic carbonate}. Afterwards, the NRTL, UNIFAC, and COSMO-SAC models, were used to fitor predict the liquid–liquid equilibria of those ternary systems. Finally, the aromatic extraction process from reformer gasoline with propylene carbonate as solvent was simulated in Aspen Plus with the COSMO-SAC model, comparing its performance with that of sulfolane to check its suitability at process scale.
PB Elsevier
SN 0167-7322
YR 2023
FD 2023-06
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/130868
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/130868
LA eng
NO Miguel Ayuso, Sara Mateo, Alejandro Belinchón, Pablo Navarro, José Palomar, Julián García, Francisco Rodríguez, Cyclic carbonates as solvents in the dearomatization of refinery streams: Experimental liquid–liquid equilibria, modelling, and simulation, Journal of Molecular Liquids, Volume 380, 2023, 121710, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2023.121710.
NO Article history: Received 28 November 2022 Revised 26 January 2023 Accepted 21 March 2023 Available online 31 March 2023.
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
NO Comunidad de Madrid
DS Docta Complutense
RD 25 feb 2026