Separation of aromatic solvents from oil refinery reformates by a newly designed ionic liquid using gas chromatography with flame ionization detection

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether the new ionic liquid, N,N-dimethyl-2-oxopyrrolidonium iodide, synthesized in our laboratory is a suitable solvent for the separation of aromatic components benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes from petroleum mixtures (reformates) in liquid–liquid extraction. In pursuance of the above aim, a method to extract all components of a mixture, containing four aromatic components simultaneously, was developed. A new ionic liquid and a previously used liquid were compared for their extraction abilities. These ionic liquids were, respectively, N,N-dimethyl-2-oxopyrrolidinium iodide and 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium ethyl sulfate. The concentrations of each benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes component in the extract and raffinate phases were measured by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection as volume percent to determine the extraction ability of the ionic liquids. The results obtained for both the reformate samples and model mixtures indicated that the new ionic liquid was effective as an extracting solvent for the recovery of aromatic components from reformates. Also the analysis results, using gas chromatography with flame ionization detection, for the reformate samples were as good as the results obtained by a local oil refinery. The extraction results also show that the developed method is very suitable for the separation and analysis of aromatic components in reformates.