• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.166-172
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• 2022

A method of efficiently purifying high value-added indole among components of coal tar absorption oil was studied using a step-by-step process of extraction-distillation-crystallization. The coal tar absorption oil used in this study contains 1.2% naphthalene, 0.1% quinoline, 0.4% isoquinoline, 6.4% indole, 21.0% 1-methylnaphthalene, 48.8% 2-methylnaphthalene, and 11.7% biphenyl as main components. For the separation and purification of indole, methanol was first used as a solvent to separate indole species in the coal tar absorption oil into an extract phase. And then methanol was recovered by distillation. Subsequently, an extraction solution where methanol was removed was mixed with normal hexane, and then crystallized to recover indole having a purity of 99.3%. Based on the experiments of this study, a purification process scheme for indole in coal tar absorption oil was proposed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.330-336
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• 2014

Purification of indole contained in model coal tar absorption oil was examined by extraction-distillation-crystallization combination. The absorption oil consists of nine components such as four kinds of nitrogen heterocyclic compounds (9.2% quinoline, 2.4% iso-quinoline, 4.7% indole, 2.4% quinaldine), three kinds of bicyclic aromatic compounds (14.2% 1-methylnaphthalene, 31.8% 2-methylnaphthalene, 23.5% dimethylnaphthalene), 5.5% biphenyl and 3.3% phenyl ether. 99.5% indole was recovered by combination of formamide extraction-distillation-solute crystallization using n-hexane. Furthermore, the recovery process of indole contained in coal tar absorption oil was studied by using the experimental results obtained by each operation of this work.