Dow Global Technolgoies LLC

Rohm and Haas Company

Zubin B Kuvadia

Christophe R Laroche

Kirk Walton Limbach

Paul Aaron Gillis

Harpreet Singh

Mark A Silvano

John R Dowdle

Dmitri A Kraptchetov

Ross E Dugas

Abu Mokhtarul Hassan

Naoko Akiya

Preshit Dandekar

Kirk W Limbach

Biplab Mukherjee

Wu Chen

Jorge H Pazmino

German A Oliveros Patino

Defne Kayrak Talay

Abu M Hassan

Gagan Srivastava

Simone T Lazar

The present invention provides strategies to integrate adsorption and liquefaction techniques to separate hydrocarbon feed mixtures into purified light and heavy components, respectively. Initially, the hydrocarbon stream is separated into a light and heavy stream. The light stream can be integrated into a natural gas product. The heavy stream is partially liquefied. A first gas liquid separation of the partially liquefied heavy stream at an elevated pressure separates the liquid heavy stream from a methane-containing gas. The rejected methane component, which generally will include some rejected C2 and C3+ material, can be recycled to be combined with the feed mixture for re-processing. A further aspect of the strategy is then to practice at least one additional gas-liquid separation of the separated liquid heavy stream at a lower pressure effective to help further resolve the liquid heavy stream from C2-containing gas. The rejected C2 component, which generally will include some rejected C1 and C3+ material, can then be recycled back into the feed mixture for reprocessing or used as all or a portion of a light hydrocarbon product.

Methods and systems to separate hydrocarbon mixtures such as natural gas into light and heavy components

The present invention integrates adsorption and liquefaction techniques to separate hydrocarbon feed mixtures into light and heavy components. A feed is partially liquefied in two or more stages. A first stage occurs at higher pressure. A second stage occurs at lower pressure. At each stage, gas and liquid components are separated. The separated heavy components resulting from liquefaction provide a purified natural gas liquid product. The separated gas components may be further processed and/or handled to provide purified natural gas. Heavy streams resulting from the further processing of the separated gas streams may be recycled and incorporated into the feed mixture. By using separate liquefaction stages at different pressures to favor C1 and then C2 separation from the heavy stream, a natural gas liquid product with high C3+ purity results.

A process for continuously removing water in situ from an oxidative esterification reaction is provided. The process includes (a) conducting a first oxidative esterification reaction in a first reactor or reaction zone, wherein the total number of reactors or reaction zones is n and n is at least 2; (b) removing a crude product stream from the first reactor or reaction zone; (c) introducing the crude product stream to a distillation column to generate a column overheads stream and a column bottoms stream; (d) passing a portion of the columns bottoms stream to the product recovery zone; and (e) passing a portion of the column overheads stream to a subsequent reactor or reaction zone. Steps (a)-(e) can be repeated.

Process for in situ water removal from an oxidative esterification reaction using a coupled reactor-distillation system

The present invention relates to an in situ staged steam extraction method for removing petroleum products from a heavy oil or bitumen reservoir from subterranean locations. Specifically, each injection stage comprises a different steam composition. A steam composition may consist essentially of steam or may comprise one or more enhanced oil recovery agent.

Staged steam extraction of in situ bitumen

A process for removing water from an oxidative esterification reactor includes (a) conducting an oxidative esterification reaction in a reactor; (b) removing a crude product stream from the reactor; (c) passing a first portion of the crude product stream directly to a product recovery zone; (d) introducing a second portion of the crude product stream to a distillation column to generate a column overheads stream and a column bottoms stream; (e) passing at least a portion of the columns bottoms stream to the product recovery zone; and (f) recycling a recycle stream comprising at least a portion of the overheads stream to the reactor; wherein the recycle stream contains less than 1 weight percent (wt %) water based on the total weight of the recycle stream, wherein the weight ratio of the first portion to the second portion is at least 1:10, and wherein the amount of the recycle stream recycled to the reactor is such that the reactor contains less than or equal to 2.5 wt % water, based on the weight of the reactor contents.

A process includes: (a) injecting a steam composition into a subterranean location containing bitumen, the steam composition containing an alkylene glycol ether and steam, wherein the alkylene glycol ether is other than a glycol ether amine; and (b) recovering bitumen from the subterranean location to above the ground.

Enhanced steam extraction of in situ bitumen

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Lake Jackson, TX, United States of America

Zubin B Kuvadia