Tuesday, November 6, 2007
329f

Adsorptive Separation of Chloronitrobenzene

Akekasit Leardsakulthong1, Pramoch Rangsunvigit1, and Santi Kulprathipanja2. (1) The Petroleum and Petrochemical College,Chulalongkorn University, Chula 12,Phyathai road,10330, bangkok, Thailand, (2) UOP,A Honeywell Company, 25 East Algonquin Road,Des Plaines, IL 60017-5016, USA, Des Plaines, IL 60017-5016

Chloronitrobenzenes (CNBs) are used in numerous industries including pesticides, fungicides, pharmaceuticals, preservatives, photochemicals and rubber. There are 2 methods in preparing the CNBs. One is by nitration of chlorobenzene(CB) in the presence of mixed acid, which gives a mixture of about one-third o-CNBs and two-thirds p-CNBs and a small amount of m-CNB. The other method is by chlorination of nitrobenzene. The later method will produce an isomeric mixture containing the meta isomer as the major chloronitrobenzene constituent. To separate p-, o- and m-CNB isomers from each other, a suitable separation process is needed to be developed. This work, an adsorptive process is investigated as a potential CBN isomers separation. Preliminary adsorption results using X and Y zeolites with various cations exchanged are promising. Detail information will be presented and discussed.