Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Parameters Influencing the Performance of a Horizontal Styrene-Water Separator

The separation of immiscible liquids plays an important role in the oil and petrochemical industries. In the outlet stream of a catalytic reactor of dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene to styrene monomer, water is present because it is used as high pressure steam to provide reaction heat. Therefore, aqueous and immiscible organic phases should be separated in a horizontal separator before fractionation. The objective of this work is to study the separation of ethyl benzene, styrene, and water in a horizontal pilot scale separator. Experiments showed that the performance of the separator is affected by feed flow rate and composition. Furthermore, the thickness of mesh installed in the inlet zone of the separator has an effect on the hydrodynamic behavior of the separator and its performance.