Exxonmobil Chemical Patents Inc.

Other

Dennis Jay Davoren

Richard Henry Schlosberg

Edmund John Mozeleski

Charles Morris Yarbrough

Carl Robert Beck

Linda J Broadbelt

Ned C Haubein

Seth McConkie Washburn

Doron Levin

Bryan A Patel

Vijay Swarup

Hans Georg Korsten

Krishnan Sankaranarayanan

Milind Ajinkya

Michael Alan Better

Kenneth Joseph Buturla

James Oliver Meredith

Paul E Burton

Timothy P Dean

John P Motlow

Brian William Roberts

Carl Stotz Katzenstein

The invention is directed to improvements in the indirect hydration process for the production of alcohols that enable high alcohol yield by increasing ether recycle in an olefin hydration process, such as the hydration process to produce isopropyl alcohol (IPA) from propylene or the hydration process to produce sec-butyl alcohol (SBA) from butylene.

Olefin hydration process

The invention concerns a system and process for alcohol production.

System for alcohol production

This invention relates to a process for the production of an alcohol, the process comprising (a) reacting an olefin and water in the presence of a catalyst under conditions sufficient to form a crude alcohol stream comprising alcohol, and a dialkyl ether; (b) separating at least a portion of the crude alcohol stream into an alcohol-containing stream and a dialkyl ether stream; (c) contacting at least a portion of the dialkyl ether stream with an ether decomposition catalyst, the ether decomposition catalyst comprising a mixed metal oxide having the following composition XYZOwhere X is at least one metal selected from Group 4 of the Periodic Table of Elements, Y is at least one metal selected from Group 3 (including the Lanthanides and Actinides) and Group 6 of the Periodic Table of Elements and Z is at least one metal selected from Groups 7, 8, and 11 of the Periodic Table of Elements; m, n, p, and q are the atomic ratios of their respective components and, when m is 1, n is from about 0.01 to about 0.75, p is from 0 to about 0.1, and q is the number of oxygen atoms necessary to satisfy the valence of the other components, to form a crude dialkyl ether decomposition stream comprising alcohol and olefin; (d) recovering at least a portion of the olefin from the crude dialkyl ether decomposition stream; and (e) recycling at least a portion of the olefin recovered in step (d) to step (a).

Process for alcohol production by selective ether decomposition

A method for production of pivalic acid comprising the steps of: (a) reacting isobutylene, carbon monoxide, and a first catalyst to produce a reaction mixture; (b) contacting the reaction mixture with water, thereby producing a crude acid product having pivalic acid and oligomeric neo-carboxylic acid; (c) separating the pivalic acid and the oligomeric neo-carboxylic acid from the crude acid product; (d) reacting the oligomeric neo-carboxylic acid with a source of carbon monoxide at a temperature of less than 200&#xb0; C. in the presence of a second catalyst to produce a Ccarbocation product, wherein the first and second catalyst are either the same or different; and (e) reacting the Ccarbocation product with water; thereby producing pivalic acid having an overall yield of at least 80 wt. %.

Cracking of neo-C9 and neo-C13 carboxylic acids to either pivalic acid or methyl pivalate

A process for producing high purity isopropyl alcohol. In one embodiment, the process includes the steps of: (a) feeding a feed stream comprising at least about 99.9 wt. % isopropyl alcohol into a separation column; (b) separating the isopropyl alcohol into an overhead stream taken overhead from the separation column and a bottoms stream taken as bottoms from the separation column; and (c) removing the high purity isopropyl alcohol at a point: (i) below where the feed stream enters the separation column but above the bottoms stream, or (ii) above where the feed stream enters the separation column but below the overhead stream. The high purity isopropyl alcohol has a metals content of less than about 1 ppb and a water content of less than about 100 ppm. Optionally, the process includes the step of passing the high purity isopropyl alcohol through an ion exchange resin after removing the high purity isopropyl alcohol from the separation column, thereby forming an ultra-high purity isopropyl alcohol that contains less than 100 ppt of any metal impurity.

Process for producing ultra-high purity isopropanol

A method for production of pivalic acid comprising the steps of: (a) reacting isobutylene, carbon monoxide, and a first catalyst to produce a reaction mixture; (b) contacting the reaction mixture with water, thereby producing a crude acid product having pivalic acid and oligomeric neo-carboxylic acid; (c) then separating the pivalic acid and the oligomeric neo-carboxylic acid from the crude acid product; (d) then reacting the oligomeric neo-carboxylic acid with a source of carbon monoxide at a temperature of less than 200&deg; C. in the presence of a second catalyst to produce a C carbocation product, wherein the first and second catalyst are either the same or different; and (e) reacting the C carbocation product with water; thereby producing pivalic acid having an overall yield of at least 80 wt. %.

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Baton Rouge, LA, United States of America

Dennis Jay Davoren