Abstract: Abstract Sulfolane extractive distillation process was successfully commercialized at the 210kt/a benzene extraction unit of Hainan Refinery. The operation results showed that the benzene purity and recovery rate were 99.99% and 99.67%, respectively; the crystallizing point of benzene was 5.43℃. The energy and material consumption of the unit was low, for instance, the steam and sulfolane consumption for processing per ton feed was 0.538 t and less than 1 g, respectively. Besides, some problems and solutions during the operation, such as isolation from oxygen and control of chlorine content to suppress the degradation of sulfolane and proper adjusting the clay activity during the purification of benzene, were introduced.

Key words: sulfolane, extractive distillation, benzene, full scale