Stone & Webster, Inc.

Novomer, Inc.

Badger Licensing LLC

Waheed Mukaddam

Shyh-Yuan Henry Hwang

Dana E Johnson

Konstantin A Pokrovski

Sadesh H Sookraj

Maruti Bhandarkar

Chung-Ming Chi

Alexander Tseitlin

Richard F Guarino

Francis A Demers

Frank Demers

Maruti Vk Balur Bhandarkar

Provided herein are methods of producing acrylic acid from bPL. Such methods involve the use of a heterogeneous catalyst, such as a zeolite at vapor phase conditions. The method may use a fixed bed, moving bed or fluidized contacting zone as the reactor configurations.

Acrylic acid production process

Improved integrated processes for the production of alkyl aromatic compounds are disclosed wherein aromatic compounds which may be treated for removal of deleterious substances are reacted with olefin compounds, which may also be treated for contaminant removal, in the presence of acidic zeolite catalyst(s) to produce the desired alkyl aromatic compound(s). The aromatic and preferably also the olefin feeds are treated substantially to remove contaminants, particularly the nitrogen compounds contained therein, before they are brought together for reaction in the presence of the zeolite catalyst(s). In accordance with the present invention, it has been found that feed pretreatment for removal of nitrogen compounds significantly improves the run length and life of the acidic zeolite catalyst(s). The feed pretreatment of this invention may include the steps of distillation, extraction, and/or adsorption by solid adsorbent, which may be regenerated in accordance with further embodiments of this invention.

Production of alkyl aromatic compounds

Improved processes are provided for the production of alkyl aromatic compounds using zeolite catalyst(s) and for periodic reactivation in situ of zeolite catalyst(s) that have at least in part become deactivated. Processes according to this invention are typically carried out in a reaction section loaded with catalyst(s) wherein a desired alkyl aromatic compound is produced from feed aromatic and olefin compounds followed by a separation section in which the desired product is isolated and recovered. Alkylation, transalkylation, and/or isomerization reactions that occur in the reaction section are carried out in liquid phase or partial liquid phase over the said zeolite catalyst(s). At least a portion of the zeolite catalyst(s) employed in the reaction section is (are) reactivated in situ, periodically or when deemed necessary, by contacting the deactivated catalyst(s), at elevated temperature and in the substantial absence of olefin feedstock, with an aromatic stripping stream comprising the feed aromatic compound, the desired alkyl aromatic product, byproducts formed in the process, or mixtures thereof, to restore its (their) activity.

Production of alkyl aromatic compounds with catalyst reactivation

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Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Waheed Mukaddam