Olefins removal by Acid treatment?

[reena1957]

Hi,
Can anyone help me whether Olefins in C6 -C8 range can be removed by strong sulfuric acid(95%) treatment? We tried in laboratory to do this with 95% H2SO4 on a 96% pure(rest paraffins&Olefins&cyclos) Toluene cut and we could not get any aqueous phase separation We were trying to get pure Toluene from Benzene removed Pygas( C7+) by distillation avoiding the standard Solvent extraction - like they do in Coke oven plants. They also employ Distillation followed by acid treatment followed by caustic neutralization and then water washing and a final distillation to get 98% pure Toluene. When we tried to replicate the process we failed in the acid wash step. We cannot afford Hydrogenation. Where did we go wrong?

 

[epoisses]

Not sure where you went wrong, but trace olefins from pygas are usually removed by claytreating (H2SO4 treated clay from Sudchemie, Tonsil or equivalent), you could try that instead.