Adsorption process for organic base recovery from aqueous brine solutions

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Preferred Embodiments Preferably the process of the present invention is utilized for the adsorption, desorption and recovery of one or more amines, amine salts, substituted guanidines, substituted guanidinium salts or mixtures thereof.
More preferably, the present invention is utilized for the adsorption, desorption, and recovery of one or more of said organic bases present either singly or as a mixture.
Most preferably, the present invention is utilized for the adsorption, desorption, and recovery thereof.
The term "amine salt" refers to the ionic salts of primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary ammonium ions, and these compounds as well as guanidinium salts are nitrogen compounds.
The preferred compounds recoverable by the process of the present invention are tertiary and quaternary ammonium and hexasubstituted guanidinium salts.
These preferences arise naturally from the selection of catalysts and co-catalysts employed in the aforementioned reactions.
Thus depending on the particular starting materials and products desired and such conditions as kinetics, solubility, steric factors and degree of polymerization, different catalyst systems will be employed.
Under varying circumstances, one catalyst system may be preferred over another.
The catalysts employed in these reactions present process management difficulties which the present invention alleviates.
High molecular weight amines and their salts have a tendency to function as surfactants in addition to fulfilling a catalytic role in the process, hindering, for example, the break-up of a polymerization emulsion; thus their continued presence is generally not preferred.
When low molecular weight amine or amine salts are used as catalysts, the high solubility of the resulting organic ammonium salts renders most materials ineffective for separating the ammonium compounds from the water solvent, aggravating losses.
By providing a means for recovering such amines or amine salts, the preferred lower molecular weight amine or amine salt phase transfer catalysts or co-catalysts may be more advantageously employed because losses due to aqueous solubility are minimized