Catalytic Distillation Technologies

Exxonmobil Chemical Patents Inc.

Catalytic Distillation Technologies and Exxonmobil Chemical Patents Inc.

Mitchell E Loescher

Lawrence A Smith, Jr

Christopher C Boyer

Abraham P Gelbein

John R Adams

Michael J Keenan

Gary G Podrebarac

Willibrord A Groten

Steven E Silverberg

Montri Vichailak

Purvis K Ho

Nishit Sahay

James C Vartuli

Jon E Stanat

Ramzi Yanni Saleh

Jean Willem Beeckman

Gary R Gildert

Amarjit S Bakshi

Mario J Maraschino

William M Cross

Jon E R Stanat

Martinus Johannes Almering

Robert C Lemon

Kerry L Rock

David G Woods

Paul William Allen

Jean W Beeckman

Turi Odegard

Jianhua Wang

Quoc T Phan

Paul W Allen

Ramzi Y Saleh

A process for the production of dimethyl ether from a methanol reactor effluent is disclosed. The process may include: contacting an aqueous extractant comprising water and an effluent from a methanol synthesis reactor comprising methanol and one or more of methane, water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and nitrogen. At least a portion of the methanol partitions into the aqueous extractant; recovering an extract fraction comprising the aqueous extractant and methanol. The extract fraction is fed to a catalytic distillation reactor system for concurrently: contacting the methanol with catalyst in a reaction zone thereby catalytically reacting at least a portion of the methanol to form dimethyl ether and water; and fractionating the resulting dimethyl ether and the water to recover a first overheads fraction comprising dimethyl ether and a first bottoms fraction comprising water.

Process for the production of dimethyl ether

A process for oligomerizing isoolefins, the process including: feeding an isoolefin to an oligomerization reaction zone; feeding an oxygen-containing reaction moderator to the oligomerization reaction zone; concurrently in the oligomerization reaction zone: contacting the isoolefin with an oligomerization catalyst to convert at least a portion of the isoolefin to oligomers comprising dimers and trimers of the isoolefin; reacting a portion of the moderator with a portion of at least one of the isoolefin and the oligomers to form an oxygenated oligomerization byproduct; recovering an effluent from the oligomerization reaction zone comprising the oligomers and the oxygenated oligomerization byproduct; fractionating at least a portion of the effluent to recover a fraction comprising the oxygenated oligomerization byproduct and the trimers and a fraction comprising the dimers.

Oligomerization process

A process for recovering benzene, the process including: feeding hydrogen and a hydrocarbon fraction comprising benzene, components lighter than benzene, components heavier than benzene, and diolefins to a catalytic distillation reactor system comprising at least one reaction zone comprising a hydrogenation catalyst; concurrently in the catalytic distillation reactor system: contacting the diolefins and hydrogen in the presence of the hydrogenation catalyst to selectively hydrogenate at least a portion of the diolefins; and fractionating the hydrocarbon fraction to form a fraction comprising benzene and other Chydrocarbons, and a heavies fraction comprising Chydrocarbons; recovering the heavies fraction from the first catalytic distillation reactor system as a bottoms fraction; and withdrawing the fraction comprising benzene and other Chydrocarbons from the catalytic distillation reactor system as a benzene concentrate fraction.

Use of catalytic distillation for benzene separation and purification

A process for the reduction of benzene in a gasoline stream, the process including: feeding a gasoline fraction including benzene and Chydrocarbons and at least one of an alcohol and an ether to a catalytic distillation column comprising at least one reaction zone containing an alkylation catalyst, wherein the at least one reaction zone is above a gasoline fraction feed location; concurrently in the catalytic distillation column: separating the Chydrocarbons from Chydrocarbons, wherein the Chydrocarbons and benzene distill upward into the at least one reaction zone; contacting benzene and the at least one of an alcohol and an ether in the at least one reaction zone in the presence of the alkylation catalyst to convert at least a portion of the benzene and alcohol/ether to an alkylate; recovering an overheads fraction including Chydrocarbons, any unreacted alcohol and ether, and water; and recovering a bottoms fraction including Chydrocarbons and the alkylate.

Process for benzene removal from gasoline

A process for oligomerization of isobutene, the process including: feeding a hydrocarbon stream comprising n-butane, 1-butene, 2-butene, isobutane, and isobutene to a catalytic distillation reactor system comprising a hydroisomerization catalyst; feeding hydrogen to the catalytic distillation reactor system; concurrently in the catalytic distillation reactor system: contacting the 1-butene with the hydrogen in the presence of the hydroisomerization catalyst to convert at least a portion of the 1-butene to 2-butene; separating the isobutane and the isobutene from the n-butane and the 2-butene; recovering the isobutane and the isobutene from the catalytic distillation reactor system as an overheads fraction; recovering the n-butane and the 2-butene from the catalytic distillation reactor system as a bottoms fraction; contacting the overheads fraction in an oligomerization reaction system with an oligomerization catalyst to convert a portion of the isobutene to oligomers.

A process for alkylation of propylene, the process including: contacting a stream comprising propylene and propane with sulfuric acid in a first reaction zone under conditions to form propylene sulfate esters; contacting the propylene sulfate esters with isoparaffin and sulfuric acid in an alkylation reaction zone under conditions to react the propylene sulfate esters and the isoparaffin to form a reactor effluent comprising an acid phase and a hydrocarbon phase comprising unreacted isoparaffin and alkylate product; separating the hydrocarbon phase from the sulfuric acid; separating the hydrocarbon phase to form a fraction comprising unreacted isoparaffin and a fraction comprising the alkylate product.

Process for the alkylation of isobutane with dilute propylene

A process for the conversion of tertiary butyl alcohol to ethyl tertiary butyl ether, including: dehydrating tertiary butyl alcohol to form a product stream comprising isobutylene and water; separating the product stream to form an isobutylene-rich fraction and a water-rich fraction; separating the water-rich fraction to recover a hydrocarbon fraction and a water fraction having less than 1 ppm hydrocarbon content; reacting isobutylene in the isobutylene-rich fraction with ethanol to form a reaction product comprising ethyl tertiary butyl ether; separating the reaction product to recover unreacted ethanol and an ethyl tertiary butyl ether stream; and recycling at least a portion of the unreacted ethanol to the reacting; wherein the ethyl tertiary butyl ether stream comprises at least 99 weight percent ethyl tertiary butyl ether.

Process for the conversion of tertiary butyl alcohol to ethyl tertiary butyl ether

A process for the oligomerization of propylene is disclosed wherein a tungstated zirconia catalyst prepared as a distillation structure is used in a reaction distillation zone under conditions of temperature and pressure to concurrently react the propylene to produce oligomers thereof and separate the oligomer products from unreacted propylene by fractional distillation in a distillation column reactor. Compared to the prior art tubular or plug flow reactors, lower temperatures and pressures are used to produce higher conversions and selectivities to preferred isomeric forms useful for preparing neo acids.

Propylene oligomerization process

A process for the oligomerization of propylene is disclosed wherein MCM-22 zeolite prepared as a distillation structure is used in a reaction distillation zone under conditions of temperature and pressure to concurrently react the propylene to produce oligomers thereof and separate the oligomer products from unreacted propylene by fractional distillation in a distillation column reactor. Compared to the prior art tubular or plug flow reactors, lower temperatures and pressures are used to produce higher conversions and selectivities to preferred isomeric forms.

A process for the production of tertiary ethers, including: feeding a hydrocarbon stream comprising isoolefins and propionitrile to a distillation column reactor system containing at least one etherification reaction zone; feeding a Cto Cmonoalcohol or mixture thereof to the distillation column reactor; concurrently in the distillation column reactor system: reacting a portion of the isoolefins with a portion of the alcohols to form a tertiary ether; and separating the tertiary ether from unreacted isoolefins; withdrawing the tertiary ether and propionitrile from the distillation column reactor system as a bottoms; withdrawing the unreacted isoolefins from the distillation column reactor system as an overheads; and operating the distillation column reactor system such that the etherification reaction zone is substantially free of propionitrile.

Method of producing tertiary amyl ethyl ether

Cumene and secondary butyl benzene are produced simultaneously in a distillation column reactor by feeding propylene, butylene and benzene to the reactor. Unreacted benzene is removed as overheads and cumene and secondary butyl benzene are removed as products. The catalysts used are acid cation exchange resins, zeolites, particularly beta zeolite.

Process for the co-production of cumene and secondary butyl benzene

A process for the alkylation of alkane with olefin or olefin precursor such as an oligomer of tertiary olefin comprising contacting a liquid system comprising acid catalyst, isoparaffin and olefin in concurrent downflow into contact in a reaction zone with a disperser mesh under conditions of temperature and pressure to react said isoparaffin and said olefin to produce an alkylate product is disclosed. Preferably, the liquid system is maintained at about its boiling point in the reaction zone. Unexpectedly, the olefin oligomers have been found to function as olefin precursors and not as olefins in the reaction. Thus, for example, a cold acid alkylation using an oligomer of isobutene (principally dimer and trimer) with isobutane produces isooctane with the isobutane reacting with the constituent isobutene units of the oligomers on a molar basis. The product isooctane is essentially the same as that produced in the conventional cold acid process.

Paraffin alkylation

Bubble columns fractionate with vapor-liquid mass transfer efficiencies approaching that of distillation towers when vapor velocities in excess of 50% of jet flood are used. If the vapor velocities are pushed above about 70% of jet flood then the distillation performance of a given column packing becomes similar for both liquid continuous operation (bubble column mode) and vapor continuous operation (ordinary distillation tower mode).

Liquid-continuous column distillation

A process for the production of gasoline stocks wherein lower molecular weight olefins are first oligomerized and the oligomers then hydrogenated. In the first instance the oligomerization is carried out in a single pass fixed bed boiling point reactor. The oligomers are then hydrogenated in a distillation column reactor.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Mitchell E Loescher