Evaluation of Some Organic Solvents for Refining Diesel Fuel Fraction

Abstract

Abstract Using solvent extraction, we studied the oil refining process of diesel fuel fraction (boiling range 212°C to 343°C) crude oil from the Suez oil petroleum company (Cairo, Egypt). We used organic solvents such as dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), furfural, mixtures of N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) + ethylene glycol (EG) as an antisolvent as well as dimethylformamide (DMF) + (EG). In addition, we determined the critical solution temperature (CST) of the examined solvents with the feedstock. The efficiency of pure and mixed solvents has been evaluated in terms of yield and characteristics of the raffinates obtained. We evaluated the selectivity (β) as well as the solvent power (K) of the examined solvents. The ternary miscibility diagrams of the systems' diesel fuel fraction (pure and mixed solvents) have also been determined.