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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Separation of butene-1 and butene-2 using extractive distillation

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5406336

In steam cracking plants and in catalytic crackers large amounts of C/sub 4/ hydrocarbons are produced. The butadiene contained therein is often extracted and the isobutene converted into MTBE with methanol. To date, only a few plants have used the residual C/sub 4/ raffinate (raffinate 2) for isolating chemical raw materials. Most of the raffinate 2 produced is used in the fuel sector, a principal reason being that separation and recovery of the substances of interest, i.e. butene-1 and butene-2, has so far been possible only with a great deal of effort and expense owing to the close proximity of those components' boiling-point curves. There has been no lack of endeavours to reduce the effort and expense involved by way of extractive distillation using suitable solvents. While the results achieved were encouraging, they did not produce the decisive breakthrough. This furnished an incentive for our chemists and engineers, who can draw on a wealth of experience with extractive distillation processes for aromatics recovery, to look for a solvent which would make the separation of C/sub 4/ hydrocarbons an economically viable proposition.

OSTI ID:
5406336
Report Number(s):
CONF-870822-
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English