A New Approach to Dearomatization of Gasoline by Ionic Liquid and Liquid-Liquid Extraction

The objective of this article was the development of a separation technology for the selective recovery of the aromatic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) from gasoline by extraction. A liquid liquid extraction method using ionic liquid (IL) was optimized simultaneously for some aromatic hydrocarbons in gasoline. 1-Butyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetrachloroaluminate ionic liquid or [BMIM][AlCl4] was used to extract aromatic compounds from gasoline. [BMIM][AlCl4] was found to be effective for the selective removal of aromatic hydrocarbons from gasoline. The dearomatization experiments were carried out with a 1:1 volume ratio of ionic liquid to gasoline for 60 min at 50 degrees C. The aromatic hydrocarbons removal selectivity followed the order benzene > toluene > xylene > ethylbenzene.