Leaching Of Ionic Liquid From A Fixed Bed

• Main Author: Ahmad Sazali, Ahmad Faisal
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2012
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/10534/1/2011%20-%20Leaching%20of%20Ionic%20Liquid%20from%20a%20Fixed%20Bed.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/10534/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

The effect of hydrocarbon solvent, operating temperature and solid support on the leaching of supported ionic liquid phase is studied in this research project. Supported ionic liquid phase catalysis has already been applied in gas phase applications because to its stability, its application in liquid phase however requires coordination of the ionic liquid and reactants to avoid leaching. Leaching causes contamination of the product phase causing an increase in costs due to product purification and catalyst deactivation which is caused by cross solubility and mechanical removal. To adhere to the given project timeline and to make the project feasible only a certain number of variables are tested. The tested variable includes three types of hydrocarbon solvent, which are n-heptane, n-dodecane and toluene. The temperature at which the experiment is conducted is also manipulated at 25°C, 35°C, 45°C. The experiment was conducted in a batch operated method where hydrocarbon solvent is flowed from a reservoir to a glass column containing a constant amount of supported ionic liquid phase. Water is then washed with the hydrocarbon and analysed using the conductivity meter and atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results showed that aromatics cause more leaching than n-alkanes. For n-alkane, varying operating temperature had a negligible effect on leaching.