Sasol Technology (pty) Limited

Sasol Technology Proprietary Limited

Sasol Chemical Industries Limited

Kevin Blann

Matthew James Overett

John Thomas Dixon

Esna Killian

Annette Bollmann

David Hedley Morgan

Hulisani Maumela

Fiona Millicent Hess

Arno Neveling

Stefanus Otto

Stephen John Evans

Moses Mokgolela Mogorosi

Richard Neil Walsh

Munaka Christopher Maumela

Denise Louisette Venter

Molise Stephen Mokhadinyana

Craig McGregor

Deon De Wet-Roos

Michael Joseph Zogg, Jr

Timothy Wayne Gambrel

Nicolaus Ladislaus Stark

Michael James Green

Nonhlanhla Jillian Phelembe

Jan-Albert Van Den Berg

Aletta Du Toit

Umesh Ramdhani

Werner Janse Van Rensburg

Natasha Brigman

Dawid Johannes Joubert

Cedric Wahl Holzapfel

Tyrone McKnight

Kenny Tenza

Palesa Nongodlwana

Lana Pepler

Kipchirchir Andrew Boit

Elzet Grobler

Hamdani Ahmed Mahomed

Craig Mcgregor

Tyrone Mcknight

Hulisani 31 San Raphael Maumela

Umesh Rhamdhani

A method of cleaning fouled process equipment which includes a process vessel () fouled by an organic foulant, includes spraying a hydrocarbon stream at a pressure of at least 69 bar(g) at fouled surfaces inside the process vessel () thereby to dislodge the organic foulant from the fouled surfaces. The hydrocarbon stream is sprayed from at least one nozzle () located inside the process vessel (). The hydrocarbon stream is at a temperature below the melting point of the organic foulant or below the melting point of a major component of the organic foulant when the organic foulant is a multi-component organic foulant. The dislodged foulant is removed from the process vessel ().

Cleaning of process equipment

A process for the tetramerization of ethylene includes contacting ethylene with a catalyst under ethylene oligomerization conditions. The catalyst comprises a source of chromium, a ligating compound, and an activator. The ligating compound includes a phosphine that forms part of a cyclic structure.

Tetramerisation of ethylene

A process for the oligomerization of ethylene to predominantly 1-hexene or 1-octene or mixtures of 1-hexene and 1-octene includes contacting ethylene with a catalyst under ethylene oligomerization conditions. The catalyst comprises a source of chromium, a diphosphine ligating compound, and optionally an activator. The diphosphine ligating compound includes at least one optionally substituted fused cyclic structure including at least two rings, the optionally substituted fused cyclic structure including a 5- to 7-membered aromatic first ring bonded to a phosphorus atom, the aromatic first ring being fused to a 4- to 8-membered heterocyclic second ring, the heterocyclic second ring including a heteroatom which is separated by two ring atoms along the shortest connecting path from the phosphorous atom that is bonded to the first aromatic ring.

Oligomerisation of ethylene to mixtures of 1-hexene and 1-octene

A process () for oligomerising a hydrocarbon to form at least one co-monomer product () includes feeding a hydrocarbon reactant and organic liquid diluent solvent () into an oligomerisation reactor (). The organic liquid diluent solvent has a normal boiling point below the normal boiling point of 1-hexene but above &#x2212;20&#xb0; C., or the organic diluent solvent is in the form of a solvent admixture with at least 70% by mass of the solvent admixture constituting organic diluent solvents having a normal boiling point below the normal boiling point of 1-hexene but above &#x2212;20&#xb0; C. The oligomerisation reactor () holds at least one co-monomer product formed in the oligomerisation reactor admixed with a catalyst system () introduced into the oligomerisation reactor (). The catalyst system () includes a catalyst dissolved in at least one catalyst solvent. At least a portion of the hydrocarbon reactant is oligomerised in the reactor () to form co-monomer product and polymeric by-product as part of a liquid product, which is withdrawn. When there is only one catalyst solvent and only one organic liquid diluent solvent, the catalyst solvent and the organic liquid diluent solvent are not the same solvent. When there is more than one catalyst solvent or more than one organic liquid diluent solvent, at least one of the catalyst solvents is not also used as organic liquid diluent solvent or at least one of the organic liquid diluent solvents is not also used at the catalyst solvent. The mass ratio of all organic liquid diluent solvent introduced into the oligomerisation reactor to all catalyst solvent introduced into the oligomerisation reactor over a selected time period is between 15:1 and 4500:1.

Process for oligomerising a hydrocarbon to form at least one co-monomer product

A process for the tetramerisation of ethylene under solution phase conditions is carried out in the presence of an activated catalyst at a temperature above 80&#xb0; C. and up to a temperature of about 115&#xb0; C. The activated catalyst is provided by combining a source of chromium, a diphosphine ligating compound and optionally a catalyst activator or combination of catalyst activators. The process forms at least 30% 1-octene and a polyethylene co-product that, together with any other reaction products, remains substantially dissolved in the liquid phase. The polyethylene co-product has a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of less than 200 000 g/mol, a number average molecular weight (Mn) of less than 3 000 g/mol, and a melt flow index of more than 20 g/10 minutes.

A process () to separate a multi-component hydrocarbon stream () comprising ethylene, at least one polymer and other components includes flashing the multi-component hydrocarbon stream in a first flash stage () from an elevated pressure of more than 30 bar(a) and an elevated temperature in the range of 150&#xb0; C. to 135&#xb0; C. to a flash pressure in the range of 10 bar(a) to 30 bar(a), producing a first ethylene-containing vapor overheads product () at a pressure in the range of 10 bar(a) to 30 bar(a) and a first flash stage bottoms product () which includes some ethylene, the at least one polymer and some of the other components. The flash pressure and the elevated temperature of the multi-component hydrocarbon stream () are selected such that the first flash stage bottoms product () has a concentration of the at least one polymer of less than 5% by mass to render the viscosity of the first flash stage bottoms product () at the temperature of the first flash stage bottoms product () in the first flash stage () at less than 1000 cP at a shear of 1 per second. At least a portion of the first flash stage bottoms product () is heated to a temperature in excess of 150&#xb0; C. to form a heated first flash stage bottoms product (). A recycle portion () of the heated first flash stage bottoms product () is combined with the multi-component hydrocarbon stream (), which is at a temperature less than 150&#xb0; C. before combination with the recycle portion (), thereby to heat the multi-component hydrocarbon stream () to the elevated temperature in the range of 150&#xb0; C. to 185&#xb0; C. At least a portion () of the first flash stage bottoms product and the first ethylene-containing vapor overheads product () are withdrawn from the first flash stage ().

Separation of components from a multi-component hydrocarbon stream

According to the present invention there is provided a process for producing an oligomeric product by the oligomerisation of at least one olefinic compound including: A) providing an activated oligomerisation catalyst comprising the combination of: i) a source of a transition metal; ii) a ligating compound of the formula (R)X(Y)X(R)iii) a metal containing activator; and (iv) at least one olefinic compound; B) diluting the activated oligomerisation catalyst of A with an introduced liquid medium; and C) contacting the at least one olefinic compound to be oligomerised with the diluted activated catalyst of B to produce an oligomeric product.

Oligomerisation of olefinic compounds in the presence of a diluted metal containing activator

This invention relates to a process for the oligomerization of at least one olefinic compound in the form of an olefin or a compound including art olefinic moiety by contacting the at least one olefinic compound with at least two different catalysis, namely a tetramerization catalyst and a further oligomerization catalyst. The tetramerization catalyst comprises a combination of a source of a transition metal and a ligating compound of the formula (R)X(Y)X(R). The invention also relates to an oligomerization catalyst comprising the combination of (i) source of transition metal for both a tetramerization catalyst and a trimerization catalyst; (ii) a ligating compound for a tetramerization catalyst: (iii) a different ligating compound for a trimerization catalyst: and (iv) optionally an activator.

Oligomerisation in the presence of both a tetramerisation catalyst and a further oligomerisation catalyst

This invention relates to a process for producing an oligomeric product by the oligomerization of at least one olefinic compound by contacting the at least one olefinic compound with an oligomerization catalyst in an aliphatic liquid medium at a reaction temperature of at least 50&#xb0; C. The catalyst comprises the combination of a source of a transition metal; and a ligating compound of the formula (R)X(Y) X(R).

Oligomerisation of olefinic compounds in an aliphatic medium

The invention describes a process for trimerisation olefins, which process includes the step of contacting an olefinic feedstream with a catalyst system which includes a transition metal compound and a heteroatomic ligand and wherein the trimer is an olefin and wherein the heteroatomic ligand is described by the following general formula (R)A-B-C(R).

Trimerisation of olefins

The invention describes a process for tetramerisation of olefins wherein the product stream of the process contains more than 30% of the tetramer olefin. The process includes the step of contacting an olefinic feedstream with a catalyst system containing a transition metal compound and a heteroatomic ligand.

Tetramerization of olefins

The invention provides a process for polymerising olefins to branched polyolefins in the presence of a polymerisation catalyst and a cocatalyst, wherein the cocatalyst produces 1-octene in a selectivity greater than 30%.

Tandem tetramerisation-polymerisation of olefins

This invention relates to a process for producing a polymeric product by the polymerisation of at least one olefinic compound in the form of an olefin or a compound including an olefinic moiety by contacting the at least one olefinic compound with a polymerisation catalyst. The catalyst comprises the combination of a source of a Group IV to VI transition metal; and a ligating compound of the formula(R)X(Y)X(R).The process is characterised therein that when Rand Rare independently a hydrocarbyl group or a heterohydrocarbyl group which contains at least one non-polar substituent, the olefinic compound is contacted with the polymerisation catalyst at a reaction temperature from and above 70&#xb0; C.; and where Rand Rare independently a hydrocarbyl group or a heterohydrocarbyl group which contains no substituent, the olefinic compound is contacted with the polymerisation catalyst at a reaction temperature from and above 90&#xb0; C.

Polymerisation of olefinic compounds

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Alberton, South Africa

Kevin Blann