Systems and processes for the production of isophthalic acid and terephthalic acid

A process for converting a feed stream comprising at least ortho-xylene, meta-xylene, para-xylene, and ethylbenzene into at least one product stream comprising isophthalic acid and terephthalic acid (IPA/TA), said process comprising the steps of:

• a. providing said feed stream comprising 1 to 25 wt % ethylbenzene, 20 to 80 wt % meta-xylene, 5 to 30 wt % ortho-xylene and 0.5 to 20 wt % para-xylene;
• b. removing ethylbenzene from said feed stream to produce an ethylbenzene depleted feed stream by using selective adsorption onto a molecular sieve type of media;
• c. removing ortho-xylene from said ethylbenzene depleted feed stream to produce an ortho-xylene and ethylbenzene depleted feed stream containing meta-xylene and para-xylene;
• d. oxidizing said ortho-xylene and ethylbenzene depleted feed stream to produce a product stream, said product stream comprising IPA/TA in a ratio of 1:5 to 5:1, wherein the oxidizing step is carried out using a catalyst that is selected from the group consisting of cobalt, manganese and palladium and includes a hydrogenation promoter and is carried out at a temperature ranging from 200° C. to 550° C., a pressure ranging from 0 psig to 1000 psig, a WHSV of between 0.1 hr−1 to 200 hr−1 and a hydrogen/hydrocarbon molar ratio of between 1 and 5;
• e. drying said product stream in a dryer to remove residual solvent and water;
• f. removing a substantially purified IPA/TA product stream;
• g. dissolving said product stream;
• and
• h. separating said IPA and said TA from said dissolved product stream.