Premium
Analysis of the elimination process of polymerisation inhibitors from styrene by means of adsorption
Author(s) -
Rivero María J,
Ibáñez Raquel,
Ortiz M Inmaculada
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of chemical technology and biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1097-4660
pISSN - 0268-2575
DOI - 10.1002/jctb.744
Subject(s) - adsorption , styrene , natural rubber , freundlich equation , langmuir , work (physics) , chemistry , process (computing) , mass transfer , pilot plant , scale up , thermodynamics , chemical engineering , polymerization , scale (ratio) , absolute deviation , styrene butadiene , chromatography , materials science , process engineering , organic chemistry , mathematics , copolymer , engineering , computer science , polymer , physics , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics , operating system , statistics
Abstract This work is focused on the analysis, modelling and scale‐up of a process of styrene purification. The first step in synthetic rubber production is to eliminate 4‐ tert ‐butylcatechol (TBC) which is added to styrene to prevent homopolymerisation during transport and storage. This process is carried out on an industrial scale by means of adsorption onto activated alumina. Equilibrium experiments at 10 °C correlated to the Langmuir–Freundlich equation:$$ q = {1.73 \times 10^{-3}\, C^{0.50} \over 1 + 8.36 \times 10^{-3}\, C^{0.50}} $$ with a weighted standard deviation of 3.38%. Fixed bed column experiments were carried out on a laboratory scale to obtain breakthrough curves. A mathematical model that considers film and pore mass transfer resistances described satisfactorily the experimental results with a value of D p = 3.96 × 10 −9 m 2 s −1 which was obtained from correlation of experimental data to simulated curves. Finally, a pilot plant was built and operated in order to verify the validity of the mathematical model and parameters obtained previously. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry