| abstract |
A method for purifying a spent acid catalyst from an acid catalyzed chemical reaction (3) that generates a mixture of a product, spent acid and tar, includes the steps of separating (5) the mixture of product, spent acid, and tar into a product fraction and a spent acid fraction, said spent acid fraction comprising a mixture of spent acid and tar, and separating the spent acid fraction by liquid-liquid coalescence (8) using a coalescing media as a knotted mesh or the like, into a tar fraction and a de tarred spent acid fraction. The fluidized tar and the de tarred spent acid can each be further processed (12,14) to produce concentrated acid. |