Bp Chemicals Limited

Other

University of California

Bp Corporation North America Inc.

Michael James Muskett

John Glenn Sunley

Sudip Mukhopadhyay

George A Huff

Bruce Leo Williams

Alexis T Bell

William H Gong

Sander Gaemers

Sean Anthony Hennigan

Mark Zerella

Richard Beavis

Larry W Kruse

Chuc Tu Nguyen

Stephen James Smith

Derrick John Watson

Larry Irvin Baker

Process for carbonylating an alcohol or reactive derivative thereof, by (a) feeding one or more feed streams to a reaction zone, at least one feed stream containing an alcohol or reactive derivative thereof, and at least one feed stream contains CO, (b) maintaining in the reaction zone a temperature and pressure sufficient to allow an exothermic carbonylation reaction to occur to produce a carboxylic acid or carboxylic acid anhydride, (c) removing one or more product streams containing carboxylic acid or carboxylic acid anhydride from the reaction zone, and (d) transferring heat contained in one or more product streams to a first heat-exchange stream. Heat is transferred from a second heat-exchange stream to a feed stream of step (a) before the feed stream is fed to the reaction zone, and the temperature of the second heat-exchange stream before heat transfer is lower than that of the one or more product streams.

Carbonylation process

A process is disclosed for the production of refinery transportation fuel or components for refinery blending of transportation fuels having a reduced amount of sulfur and/or nitrogen-containing impurities. The process involves contacting a hydrocarbon feedstock containing the above impurities with an immiscible phase containing hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid in an oxidation zone to selectively oxidize the impurities. After a gravity phase separation, the hydrocarbon phase containing any remaining oxidized impurities, is passed to an extraction zone wherein aqueous acetic acid is used to extract a portion of any remaining oxidized impurities. A hydrocarbon stream having reduced impurities can then be recovered. The acetic acid phase effluents from the oxidation and the extraction zones can then be passed to a common separation zone for recovery of the acetic acid and for optional recycle back to the oxidation and extraction zones.

Preparation of components for refinery blending of transportation fuels

A process for the production of acetic acid which comprises carbonylating methanol and/or a reactive derivative thereof in one or more reactors in a liquid reaction composition comprising iridium carbonylation catalyst, ruthenium promoter, methyl iodide co-catalyst, methyl acetate, acetic acid and water. The liquid reaction composition from the one or more reactors is passed to one or more flash separation stages to form (i) a vapor fraction comprising condensable components and a low pressure off-gas comprising carbon monoxide and (ii) a liquid fraction comprising iridium carbonylation catalyst, ruthenium promoter and acetic acid solvent. The condensable components are separated from the low pressure off-gas. The concentration of carbon monoxide in the low pressure off-gas is maintained according to the formula: Y&#x3e;mX+C wherein Y is the molar concentration of carbon monoxide in the low pressure off-gas, X is the concentration in ppm by weight of ruthenium in the liquid reaction composition, m is about 0.012 and C is about &#x2212;8.7.

Process for the production of acetic acid

Acetyl anhydrides such as acetyl sulfate are produced by a process for comprising contacting methane and carbon dioxide in an anhydrous environment in the presence of effective amounts of a transition metal catalyst and a reaction promoter, and an acid anhydride compound, and optionally an acid. The acetyl anhydride can be contacted with water to produce acetic acid or with an alcohol to produce a product comprising an acetate ester and that may also comprise acetic acid. Optionally, water in stoichiometric amounts or less, with respect to the acetic anhydride, may be fed to a continuous process of this type to produce some acetic acid in situ.

Process for production of acetyl anhydrides and optionally acetic acid from methane and carbon dioxide

In a process for the production of acetic acid by carbonylation of methanol and/or a reactive derivative in the presence of a Group VIII noble metal carbonylation catalyst, methyl iodide co-catalyst at a concentration of at least 2 wt %, optionally at least one promoter at least a finite concentration of water, methyl acetate at a concentration of at least 8% w/w and acetic acid product, the separability of an upper (aqueous) layer and a lower (organic) layer in the decanter of the light ends column is achieved by maintaining the concentration of acetic acid in the condensed overhead vapor fraction passed to the decanter at or below 8 wt %.

Carbonylation of methanol to acetic acid with carbon monoxide flow controls

In the process for the production of acetic acid by carbonylation of methanol and/or a reactive derivative thereof the water concentration in the liquid reaction composition is maintained at a steady-state concentration by at least one process step selected from the group consisting of (i) recovery and disposing of water from at least part of the overhead process stream from the light ends column and (ii) replacing at least a portion of the methanol feed with a component selected from the group consisting of methyl acetate, dimethyl ether, acetic anhydride and mixtures thereof. The recovered aqueous effluent from this and other processes may be purified of carboxylic acid by reactive distillation with at least one C.sub.1 to C.sub.3 alcohol.

Growing community of inventors

Humberside, United Kingdom

Michael James Muskett