Process for producing diisopropyl ether from high purity propylene

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10377688-B2
Application number	US-201715824965-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 28, 2017
Priority date	Dec 27, 2016
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

A process for the production of diisopropyl ether from high purity propylene without the need of a propane-propylene fractionation column has been developed. The process involves (1) reacting a high purity propylene feedstock and water to produce isopropyl alcohol in a reactor and reacting the isopropyl alcohol with propylene to produce diisopropyl ether in the presence of an acidic ion exchange resin catalyst and a C 4 diluent to generate a reactor effluent stream containing at least water, isopropyl alcohol, diisopropyl ether, propylene, and acid, (2) passing the reactor effluent to an acid removal zone to produce an acid-depleted stream, (3) dividing the acid-depleted stream into two portions, (4) recycling a portion to the reactor (5) purging a portion to prevent propane build-up and (6) recovering product diisopropyl alcohol.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for producing diisopropyl ether comprising:
(a) reacting water and the propylene of a feedstock containing at least 99.9 mass % propylene to produce isopropyl alcohol and reacting the isopropyl alcohol with propylene to produce diisopropyl ether in a single reactor and in the presence of an acidic ion exchange resin catalyst and a C4 diluent at a temperature of from about 105° C. to about 133° C. to generate a reactor effluent comprising water, isopropyl alcohol, diisopropyl ether, propylene, C4 and acid;
(b) treating the mixture in an acid removal zone to generate an acid-depleted mixture;
(c) recycling a portion of the acid-depleted mixture to the reactor, and passing a second portion of the acid-depleted mixture to a light ends fractionation column wherein the light ends fractionation column is a dividing wall column;
(d) separating, in the light ends fractionation column, a side cut stream comprising C4, and a bottoms stream comprising water, isopropyl alcohol, and diisopropyl ether;
(e) separating in the light ends fractionation column, a first propane and propylene portion in a first zone and a second propane and propylene portion in a second zone;
(f) contacting the first propane and propylene portion in the first zone with water and a catalyst to generate isopropyl alcohol with unreacted propane removed in a propane overhead stream;
(g) recycling the second propane and propylene portion from the second zone to the reactor;
(h) passing the sidecut stream comprising C 4 to the reactor; and
(i) passing the bottoms stream to a recovery zone to separate and collect the diisopropylether.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein the C4 diluent is nC4.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein the reactor comprises at least two beds with interstage cooling.

4. The process of claim 3 wherein a portion of the acid-depleted mixture is recycled to the reactor at a location between beds to provide the interstage cooling.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein the first zone contains catalyst.

6. The process of claim 1 further comprising in the recovery zone:
(j) passing at least a portion of the bottoms stream from the light ends fraction zone to a water-IPA-DIPE-splitter column to afford a water enriched mixture, an isopropyl alcohol-water azeotrope mixture, and a diisopropyl ether-isopropyl alcohol-water azeotrope mixture;
(k) passing the isopropyl alcohol-water azeotrope mixture to the reactor;
(l) passing the water mixture and the diisopropyl ether-isopropyl alcohol-water azeotrope mixture to the water wash zone to afford a diisopropyl ether enriched mixture, and a water and isopropyl alcohol enriched mixture;
(m) recycling the water and isopropyl alcohol enriched mixture to the water-IPA-DIPE-splitter column; and
(n) passing the diisopropyl ether enriched mixture to a drying column to generate product diisopropyl ether containing at least 96 mass-% diisopropyl ether.

Assignees

• Uop Llc

Inventors

• Krupa Steven L

Classifications

• C07C41/05

  by addition of compounds to unsaturated compounds · CPC title

• C07C29/04

  by hydration of carbon-to-carbon double bonds · CPC title

• C07C41/06 Primary

  by addition of organic compounds only · CPC title

• B01D3/141

  where at least one distillation column contains at least one dividing wall · CPC title

• C07C41/36

  by solid-liquid treatment; by chemisorption · CPC title