Recycling process for adsorber regeneration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10137400-B2
Application number	US-201415517286-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 9, 2014
Priority date	Oct 9, 2014
Publication date	Nov 27, 2018
Grant date	Nov 27, 2018

Abstract

The invention relates to a process for the regeneration of an adsorber. For the regeneration a liquid stream (S 2 ) comprising at least one alkane is converted from liquid phase into gaseous phase. Then the adsorber is regenerated and heated by contact with gaseous stream (S 2 ) up to 230 to 270° C. Subsequently, the adsorber is cooled first by contact with gaseous stream (S 2 ) to a temperature of 90 to 150° C. followed by cooling with liquid stream (S 2 ) to a temperature below 80° C. The outflow of the adsorber (S 2 *) during the cooling with gaseous stream (S 2 ) and optionally the outflow of the adsorber (S 2 *) during cooling with liquid stream (S 2 ) is recycled in at least one of these steps.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for regenerating an adsorber, the process comprising:
a) converting a liquid stream (S 2 l ) comprising at least one alkane from liquid phase into gaseous phase, to obtain a gaseous stream (S 2 g );
b) regenerating an adsorber by contacting the adsorber with the gaseous stream (S 2 g ) in a range of 230 to 270° C.;
c) cooling the adsorber by contacting the adsorber with a portion of the gaseous stream (S 2 g ) obtained in a) to a temperature in a range of 90 to 15° C.;
d) optionally cooling the adsorber to a temperature below 80° C. by contacting the adsorber with the liquid stream (S 2 l ) without prior conversion into gaseous phase; and
e) recycling an outflow (S 2 *) of the adsorber as obtained in c) or optionally in d), wherein the outflow (S 2 *) is at least partially recycled to at least one of a) to d).

2. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising, prior to a):
f) hydrogenating a stream (S 1 ) comprising at least one alkane and at least one olefin, to obtain the liquid stream (S 2 l ) comprising at least one alkane and a reduced amount of at least one olefin compared to an amount of olefin in the stream (S 1 ).

3. The process according to claim 2 , wherein:
i) in f), the stream (S 1 ) comprises butane and butene;
ii) the liquid stream (S 2 l ) comprises not more than 1000 wt-ppm olefin;
iii) the liquid stream (S 2 l ) comprises at least 99 wt-% of at least one alkane;
iv) in e), the outflow (S 2 *) comprises >99.5 wt-% of the stream (S 2 ); or
v) at least 10% of the outflow (S 2 *) is recycled to at least one of a) to d).

4. The process according to claim 3 , wherein:
i) in f), the stream (S 1 ) comprises at least 96 wt-% butane and not more than 4 wt-% butene; or
ii) the liquid stream (S 2 l ) comprises at least 99 wt-% of butane.

5. The process according to claim 2 , further comprising:
purifying an organic composition with the adsorber or by a similar further adsorber during an operation mode of the adsorber or the similar further adsorber.

6. The process according to claim 5 , further comprising, after purifying the organic composition and prior to f):
oligomerizing olefins; or
distilling butane from butene.

7. The process according to claim 6 , wherein the oligomerizing is carried out and is a dimerization of butene to octene.

8. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising
g) prior to b), at least partially removing an organic composition which was passed through the adsorber during its operation mode, by draining the organic composition, and optionally collecting the drained organic composition in a device, in order to pass the collected condensate through an adsorber during its operation mode; and
optionally collecting a condensate obtained in b) and comprising the at least one alkane and a residue of the organic composition which was not removed from the adsorber when carrying out g), in a device, in order to pass the collected condensate through an adsorber during its operation mode.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the outflow (S 2 *) obtained from the adsorber in e) is:
i) condensed by at least one condenser or cooler, to obtain a liquid outflow (S 2 l *) and at least partially recycled for reuse as liquid stream (S 2 l ) in at least one of a) or d); or
ii) compressed, when still in gaseous phase, by at least one compressor to obtain a gaseous outflow (S 2 g *) and at least partially recycled for reuse as gaseous stream (S 2 g ) in at least one of b) or c).

10. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the outflow (S 2 *) obtained from the adsorber in e) is compressed, when still in gaseous phase, by at least one compressor to obtain a gaseous outflow (S 2 g *) and at least partially recycled for reuse as gaseous stream (S 2 g ) in at least one of b) or c) without prior evaporation in an evaporator or routing through at least one flash vessel.

11. The process according to claim 9 , wherein the outflow (S 2 *) obtained from the adsorber is compressed to obtain the gaseous outflow (S 2 g *) and the at least one compressor is a jet compressor, and wherein:
i) the outflow (S 2 *) fed into the jet compressor has a pressure of 10 to 40 bar;
ii) a pressure of the outflow (S 2 *) fed into the jet compressor is 5 to 30 bar higher, than a pressure of an outflow of the jet compressor; or
iii) a pressure of the outflow (S 2 ′) fed upstream into a flash vessel and a pressure of an outflow of the flash vessel comprising the outflow (S 2 *) is 10 to 40 bar.

12. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the regenerating b) comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of b1), b2), and b3):
b1) heating the adsorber by contacting the adsorber with the gaseous stream (S 2 g ), wherein the gaseous stream (S 2 g ) is condensed within the adsorber;
b2) heating the adsorber by contacting the adsorber with the gaseous stream (S 2 g ) up to a temperature in the range of 230 to 270° C. without any condensation of the gaseous stream (S 2 g ) within the adsorber;
b3) regenerating the adsorber at a temperature in the range of 230 to 270° C. by contacting the adsorber with the gaseous stream (S 2 g ), or
wherein the cooling in d) is carried out and lowers the temperature of the adsorber to 40 to 60° C.

13. The process according to claim 12 , further comprising:
g) at least partially removing an organic composition which was passed through the adsorber during its operation mode, by draining the organic composition,
wherein g) is carried out prior to b),
wherein e) is carried out at the same time as c) and optionally d),
wherein b) comprises b1), followed by b2), followed by b3),
wherein b) is followed by c), and
wherein c) is followed by d).

14. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the adsorber comprises an adsorbent based on aluminium oxide or the adsorber is configured to adsorb compounds comprising oxygen or sulphur out of organic compositions.

15. The process according to claim 14 , wherein the adsorber is configured to adsorb ethers, alcohols, thiols, thioethers, sulfoxides, ketones, aldehydes, or mixtures thereof.

16. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the converting in a) is carried out by heating the liquid stream (S 2 l ).

17. The process according to claim 16 , wherein the heating is carried out by employing at least one evaporator, at least one super-heater, or at least one flash vessel.

18. The process according to claim 1 , wherein:
i) a heating rate of the adsorber does not exceed 60° C./h;
ii) a temperature of the gaseous stream (S 2 g ) is not more than 100° C. higher than a temperature of the adsorber; or
iii) a temperature of the gaseous stream (S 2 g ) in the cooling c) or the liquid stream (S 2 l ) in the cooling d) is not more than 100° C. lower than a temperature of the adsorber.

19. The process according to claim 1 , wherein
i) subsequent to b), the outflow (S*) obtained from the adsorber comprises the gaseous stream (S 2 g ) and impurities removed from the adsorber, and the outflow (S*) is at least partially condensed; or
ii) performing the cooling d) and after regenerating the adsorber with d), the adsorber is switched into its operation mode by feeding the adsorber with an organic composition to be purified.

20. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the adsorber to be regenerated in b) and to be cooled in c) or d) is part of an assembly that comprises at least one further adsorber.

Assignees

• Basf Se

Inventors

• Wagner Hans-Guenter
• Bayer Christoph
• Karrer Lothar
• Ruetter Heinz
• Pietz Patrik
• Crone Sven
• Eggersmann Markus
• Wong Kam Wing

Classifications

• C10G69/126

  polymerisation, e.g. oligomerisation · CPC title

• C10G67/06

  including a sorption process as the refining step in the absence of hydrogen · CPC title

• C10G57/02

  with polymerisation · CPC title

• C10G25/12 Primary

  Recovery of used adsorbent · CPC title

• C10G25/05

  Removal of non-hydrocarbon compounds, e.g. sulfur compounds · CPC title