Pervaporation process employing permeate recycle
AssigneeExxon Research & Engineering Co.
InventorTan J. Chen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The selectivity of a membrane pervaporation aromatics/non-aromatics separation process is unexpectedly improved by the recycle of permeate to the separation process for co-processing with fresh feed. The selectivity obtained is greater than that achieved by processing either the feed or a recycle permeate stream by itself.
Claims5
A method for increasing the selectivity of a membrane pervaporation aromatics/nonaromatics separation process comprising contacting a feed stream comprising aromatics and non-aromatics with an aromatics selective membrane in a pervaporation zone, recovering an aromatics rich permeate and an aromatics lean retentate from said pervaporation zone, and recycling part of the aromatics rich permeate directly to the inlet of said pervaporation zone wherein said recycled permeate and fresh feed are combined, and coprocessing said mixture of fresh feed and recycled permeate through said pervaporation zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.