Process design for separating C4 mixtures by extractive distillation

C4 components are useful in industry and should be separated as individuals. A new process was proposed to separate them by extractive distillation, with the advantages of low equipment investment, energy consumption and liquid load in the columns. One principle to improve the extractive distillation process was put forward. Moreover, the analysis of operation state of the new process was done. There were eight operation states found for the whole process, but only one operation state was desirable. This work provides a way to effectively separate C4 mixtures and helps the reasonable utilization of C4 resource.