There is industrial incentive to extract aromatics from ethylene cracker feeds, but the conventional sulfolane solvent was found not economical by Meindersma and coworkers. Ionic liquids (ILs) have long been considered alternative aromatic extraction solvents. This work develops energy-optimum aromatic extraction processes for an ethylene cracker feed using IL solvents. We avoid pitfalls of using simplified feeds and a priori thermodynamic property estimates, with the largest set of experimentally regressed UNIQUAC binary parameters for the IL, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis([trifluoromethyl]sulfonyl)imide ([EMIM][NTf2]). We screen process energy and operating conditions for [EMIM][NTf2] and sulfolane at varying aromatic feed contents and find [EMIM][NTf2] favorable at low aromatic feed contents. Adding light and heavy components of the ethylene cracker feed necessitates process modifications. Our novel steam-assisted extractive distillation developed for [EMIM][NTf2] is also suitable for sulfolane. We show that the [EMIM][NTf2] solvent can reduce 10.7% of energy consumption compared to sulfolane using the same novel process.

中文翻译：

---

使用离子液体 [EMIM][NTf2] 开发能源最佳芳烃萃取工艺

从乙烯裂解装置进料中提取芳烃存在工业动机，但 Meindersma 及其同事发现传统的环丁砜溶剂并不经济。长期以来，离子液体 (IL) 一直被认为是替代性芳烃萃取溶剂。这项工作为使用 IL 溶剂的乙烯裂解装置原料开发了能量最佳的芳烃萃取工艺。我们避免使用简化提要和先验的陷阱热力学性质估计，其中最大的一组实验回归的 UNIQUAC 二元参数用于 IL，1-乙基-3-甲基咪唑双（[三氟甲基]磺酰基）亚胺（[EMIM][NTf2]）。我们筛选了 [EMIM][NTf2] 和环丁砜在不同芳烃进料含量下的工艺能量和操作条件，发现 [EMIM][NTf2] 在低芳烃进料含量下有利。添加乙烯裂解装置进料的轻组分和重组分需要工艺改进。我们为 [EMIM][NTf2] 开发的新型蒸汽辅助萃取蒸馏也适用于环丁砜。我们表明，与使用相同新工艺的环丁砜相比，[EMIM][NTf2] 溶剂可以减少 10.7% 的能耗。