Batch Separation of Styrene/Ethyl Benzene/Water Dispersions

The separation of immiscible liquids is an important process in 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 a high pressure steam to provide reaction heat. Therefore, aqueous and immiscible organic phases should be separated in a horizontal separator before fractionation. The aim of this work is to study the batch separation of ethyl benzene and styrene from water. Different mixtures of water, styrene and ethyl benzene were prepared using different amounts of organic compounds and various mixing rates. The experiments show that the separation time of ethyl benzene and water mixtures are more than that for styrene and water mixtures. Furthermore, increasing the mixing rate increases the separation time because the dispersity of the system increases, but it has more effects on water/ethyl benzene mixtures.