Texaco Development Corporation

Lawrence E Tillotson

Kyle Lee Preston

Rei-Yu Judy Hwan

Methyl tertiary butyl ether is sequentially prepared from tertiary butyl alcohol and methanol by: passing tertiary butyl alcohol and methanol through a primary reaction zone to form a primary etherification reaction product comprising unreacted methanol, unreacted tertiary butyl alcohol, water, dimethyl ether, isobutylene and methyl tertiary butyl ether; separating the primary etherification reaction product into a methanol recycle fraction, a tertiary butyl alcohol recycle fraction, an isobutylene fraction and a methyl tertiary butyl ether product fraction; recycling the methanol recycle fraction and the tertiary butyl alcohol recycle fraction to the methyl tertiary butyl ether etherification reaction zone; passing at least a portion of said isobutylene fraction together with added methanol through a secondary reaction zone to form a secondary etherification reaction product comprising water, methanol, isobutylene, DME, methyl tertiary butyl ether and tertiary butyl alcohol; and recovering the methyl tertiary butyl ether from said secondary etherification reaction product.

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Port Neches, TX, United States of America

Lawrence E Tillotson