Sulphonation Technology in the Detergent Industry

Book excerpt: This book is about Sulph(on)ation Technology in its technical entirety, aiming at superiority in final product quality, raw material utilisation, sustained plant reliability and safety, minimisation of liquid effluent and gaseous emissions; it is about the total quality of the operation. It will be of value to engineers and chemists who are, or will be, involved in the practical daily operation of sulphonation plants or R&D activities. The book can also be used as a tool for the teacher in preparing fmal year projects in a chemical engineering curriculum. The book covers sulphonation of alkylbenzenes, primary alcohols, alcohol ethers, alpha-olefIns and fatty acid methyl esters, with a strong emphasis on the sulphur-based S~/air sulphonation technology. The first part deals with raw material specifications, hazards, storage, handling and physical properties. In the following section the process chemistry is discussed, indicating main chemical reactions, undesired parallel and consecutive reactions, exothermal heat effects and all other process chemistry data that are relevant for process selection and equipment design. The section about the actual process equipment from the various plant equipment suppliers (Ballestra, Chemithon, Mazzoni, Meccaniche Modeme and Lion Corp.) takes into account the chemical reaction engineering aspects derived from the sulphonation technology processing chemistry. Product quality, product storage and handling, product safety and physical properties are the contents of the next section. The effluent handling and exhaust gas treatment of the SOiair sulphonation technology are further discussed in detail.