Abstract
Polycyclic aromatic (PCA) hydrocarbon-rich extender oils were to be banned by December 2009, which gave rise to challenges for the oil and rubber industries. In the present work, removal PCA from distillate aromatic extracts (DAE) by absorption and solvent extraction were studied. When the ratio of solvent-sample was 8:1, 81.2% PCA in DAE was removed by three-stage countercurrent extraction using dimethyl sulfoxide as the extractant, which simulated industrial continuous flowsheet. Using the extraction-absorption processing, the content of PCA in DAE was further decreased to 2.93%. The properties of the oil sample after removal PCA accorded with the requirements of eco-friendly aromatic-rich rubber extender oil.