US 8,133,469 B2Granted

Processes for conjointly producing bromine and calcium chloride

AssigneeAlbemarle Corporation

InventorsJoe D. Sauer, George W. Cook, Jr., Tyson J. Hall

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Abstract

Processes are provided for conjointly producing Br2 and a concentrated aqueous solution containing at least about 5 wt % CaCI2, based on the weight of the concentrated aqueous solution, from an HBr-rich recycle stream and a feed brine dilute in CaCI2. wherein the aqueous HBr-rich stream is produced from an HBr-rich recycle stream and a portion of the feed brine. Such processes can comprise feeding the HBr-rich recycle stream and a liquid comprising a portion of the feed brine, either together or separately to an HBr absorption tower; producing an aqueous HBr-rich stream in the HBr absorption tower; feeding the aqueous HBr-rich stream and, optionally, a portion of the feed brine to a bromine tower, oxidizing bromide moieties within the bromine tower with CI2 to produce Br2; recovering Br2 from the bromine tower, removing a bromide-depleted bottoms from the bromine tower, such bottoms containing HCI; adding a Ca++ source to the bromide-depleted bottoms to convert substantially all of the HCI in the bottoms to CaCI2, and, as necessary, removing water from the treated bottoms to produce the concentrated aqueous solution.

Claims1

Dependent claims

A process comprising:

(a) feeding an HBr-rich recycle stream comprising amine by-products from one or more commercial processes and having a pH of less than about 4 and a liquid comprising feed brine dilute in CaCl2 and comprising at least about 10 wt % NaCl based on the total weight of the feed brine, either together or separately to an HBr absorption tower;
(b) producing an aqueous HBr-rich stream in the HBr absorption tower;
(c) feeding (i) at least a portion of the aqueous HBr-rich stream, and (ii) a portion of the feed brine, either together or separately to a bromine tower, such that production of shock-sensitive-by-products in the bromine tower is minimized;
(d) oxidizing bromide moieties within the bromine tower with Cl2 to produce Br2;
(e) recovering Br2 from the bromine tower;
(f) removing bromide-depleted bottoms from the bromine tower, such bottoms comprising less than about 35 wt % HCl;
(g) adding a Ca++ source to the bromide depleted bottoms to convert substantially all of the HCl in the bottoms to CaCl2;
(h) as necessary, removing water from the treated bottoms from (g) to produce a concentrated aqueous solution comprising from about 5 wt % CaCl2 to about 40 wt % CaCl2;
and
(i) recovering the concentrated aqueous solution comprising from about 5 wt % CaCl2 to about 40 wt % CaCl2.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.