UCLA Internet Report 2001: Surveying the Digital Future Year

Dual desorbent composition and dual temperature techniques as improvements for simulated moving-bed adsorption-desorption separation processes whereby certain hydrocarbons can be separated from mixtures containing various unsaturated and/or saturated aliphatic and/or aromatic hydrocarbons. The dual desorbent composition technique is implemented by employing a strong desorbent stream in the desorption zone and a weaker desorbent stream in the rectification zone of a simulated moving-bed countercurrent adsorption-separation system; while the dual temperature concept envisions the temperature differentiation between the desorption zone and the remaining zones of said separation system in order to both minimize the desorbent requirement and enhance the purity of the separation products. A combined use of both the dual desorbent composition and the dual temperature techniques can further improve the performance of said simulated moving-bed system.