Extraction of Carboxylic Acids from Hydrocarbon Using Silica as Solid Adsorbent

This project has introduced a new method to extract naphthenic acid from the
hydrocarbon. Themethod is by using silica bedimmobilized with ionic liquids as a solid
adsorbent to extract the naphthenic acid. In this study, four different types of ionic
liquids which areEMIM DEP, BMIM DCN, BMIM OTF, BMIM MeS04 are evaluated.
These ionic liquids have been immobilized to silica gel 0.063mm with 1:2 ratio which
acted as solid adsorbent to extract acid from model oil. Model oil is contained of 2.7
wt% hexanoic acid and 1.0 wt% benzoic acid in dodecane. The carboxylic acid
extraction mechanism is studied by performing solid phase extraction with silica
immobilize with ionic liquids. The EMIMDEP immobilized silica showed highest acid
removal from both model oil and capacity of EMIM DEP to extract acid is proved by
multiple stagesextractionwith 100%removal for each stages.