SEPARATION OF TOLUENE TRICHLOROTRINITROBENZENE MIXTURE WITH CO2 AT ELEVATED PRESSURES

A flow apparatus was used to study the separation of toluene from a liquid mixture containing mainly toluene and TCTNB (trichlorotrinitrobenzene) with CO2 at elevated pressure. Experimental results indicated that toluene of 100% purity could be obtained when the operating pressures were below the critical pressure of the CO2-toluene mixture. The most appropriate operating conditions were found to be at a temperature of 311 K and at a pressure of 61.2 atm. Because the solubility of toluene in CO2 for the system CO2-toluene-TCTNB was found to be close to that for the binary system CO2-toluene, the data for the latter system could be used to model the present extraction operation. The effects of several packings, including glass beads of different sizes and structure packing, on mass transfer rate were also measured in this work. The data indicated that the interphase mass transfer resistances played an important role during the extraction.