Aromatics Extraction

Our Design Solutions and Technologies for Aromatics Production

  • Divided wall fractionation
  • Toluene Disproportionation

  • Coke oven light oil hydrorefining
  • Dealkylation of Aromatics

  • Selective hydrogenation of pyrolysis gasoline
  • Olefin Removal Units 1
  • 1 Whitening or Clay Treating, Hydrorefining

Paramax Alliance

Through an alliance with thyssenkrupp Uhde (Paramax Alliance), Axens also offers the Morphylane® process for licensing within grassroots aromatics complexes that produce para-xylenes and other petrochemical products within the product value chain.

Morphylane® extractive distillation

The purpose of the Morphylane® extractive distillation (ED) process is to produce high-purity aromatics products. A special characteristic of the Morphylane® ED process is its use of the solvent
N-formylmorpholine (NFM), which combines optimum selectivity and solvent efficiency.

Advantages of NFM

N-formylmorpholine (NFM)

  • High Permanent Thermal and Chemical Stability
  • Single Component Solvent

  • No Corrosive Effect
  • Low Basic Nitrogen Content

  • No Toxicity // Non Hazardous
  • Small Solvent Inventory

  • No Need to Add Water
  • Low Price

thyssenkrupp Uhde's Morphylane® process for aromatics extraction boasts:

  • maximum product purity

  • high yields

  • extremely low energy consumption.

Process flow sheets for aromatics extraction

The Morphylane® process is a technology for recovering high-purity aromatics from reformate, pyrolysis gasoline, coke oven light oil and synthetic feedstock sources using extractive distillation (ED).

In thyssenkrupp Uhde’s proprietary Morphylane® ED process, a single-compound solvent, N-Formylmorpholine (NFM), alters the vapor pressure of the components to be separated. The vapor pressure of the aromatics is lowered more than that of the less soluble non-aromatics, thus allowing the two to be separated.

 

thyssenkrupp Uhde has applied its divided wall column (DWC) technology to its extractive distillation (ED) process (single-column Morphylane® process), bringing about capital savings compared to the conventional two-column design. A dividing wall in a vertical column permits two distillation steps to be performed in one vessel with a reduced number of heat exchangers and peripheral equipment items.

 

thyssenkrupp Uhde's single-column Morphylane® process for aromatics recovery offers advantages such as:

  • increased aromatics recovery with a lower equipment count

  • recovery of TDI grade toluene aimed at reducing the gasoline pool

  • upgrade in toluene product purity through revamping existing toluene fractionation capacity

Brochure