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US 8,709,238 B2Granted
Process for separating crude tall oil for processing into fuels
AssigneeUop LLC
InventorJohn A. Petri
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Crude tall oil is subjected to a distillation process that substantially removes impurities. The process produces a combined pitch and a distillate of free fatty acids and rosin acids from two vacuum columns. The distillate stream is amenable to further downstream hydroprocessing.
Claims20
A method for separating crude tall oil comprising:
- introducing crude tall oil into a flash zone of a stripping column to separate the crude tall oil into a liquid and a vapor, the stripping column being under vacuum;
- stripping the liquid in a stripping zone of the stripping column below the flash zone forming a heavy pitch bottoms stream and an overhead vapor stream, the overhead vapor stream comprising free fatty acids, rosin acids, heads, and light pitch;
- introducing the overhead vapor stream from the stripping column into a second column between a stripping zone and a rectification zone, the second column under vacuum, to separate the overhead vapor stream from the stripping column into a light pitch bottoms stream and a distillate stream, the distillate stream consisting essentially of the free fatty acids, rosin acids, and heads.
A method for separating crude tall oil comprising:
- introducing crude tall oil into a flash zone of a stripping column to separate the crude tall oil into a liquid and a vapor, the stripping column being under vacuum, the stripping column having no reflux and no reboiler;
- stripping the liquid in a stripping zone of the stripping column below the flash zone forming a heavy pitch bottoms stream and an overhead vapor stream, the overhead vapor stream comprising free fatty acids, rosin acids, heads, and light pitch;
- introducing the overhead vapor stream from the stripping column into a second column between a stripping zone and a rectification zone, the second column under vacuum, to separate the overhead vapor stream from the stripping column into a light pitch bottoms and a distillate stream, the distillate stream consisting essentially of the free fatty acids, rosin acids, and heads.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.