Process for the recovery of acetylene from gaseous mixtures containing same

摘要

1,125,833. Purifying acetylene. MONTECATINI EDISON S.p.A. 11 May, 1966 [29 May, 1965], No. 20880/66. Heading C5E. In a solvent extraction process for purifying acetylene obtained by cracking hydrocarbons, wherein the acetylene-containing solvent is degassed in countercurrent to an acetylene stream to produce acetylene, solvent and a gaseous acetylene-rich effluent also containing impurities such as CO 2 and ethylene, the effluent is (instead of being recycled as such) solvent-extracted to remove most of the acetylene contained therein, the resulting solvent stream being recycled to the solvent undergoing degassing, preferably at a position where the gas phase in contact with the solvent in the degassing zone has substantially the same acetylene/impurity ratio as the gas dissolved in the recycled solvent stream. The residue from the solvent-extracted gaseous effluent may be either removed from the system or recycled to join the cracked gas fed to the system, depending on the quantity of residual acetylene contained therein. In Examples, the solvent used is N-methyl pyrrolidone. The process provides improved plant capacity since the solvent extraction zone does not have to cope with large quantities of recycled acetylene.