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The Separation Of Piperylene Concentrate By Extractive Distillation, Mary Jane Curnutte

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Piperylene concentrate, the five-carbon olefin and diolefin by-product of ethylene production, is being produced in increasing quantities as liquid feedstocks become more prevalent. At present, the concentrate is used primarily in resin production for the adhesives industry. Since this use is economically unattractive, a separation of the concentrate into pure compounds is industrially desirable. The evaluation of the effectiveness of several solvents for extractive distillation of piperylene concentrate was performed. This study resulted in the selection of acetonitrile as the most effective and most economical solvent investigated. Various distillation conditions were studied and optimization was based on these results.