Process and system for producing ethylene and at least one of butanol and an alkyl tert-butyl ether

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12037313-B2
Application number	US-201917292261-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2019
Priority date	Nov 20, 2018
Publication date	Jul 16, 2024
Grant date	Jul 16, 2024

Abstract

A process for producing ethylene and at least one of butanol and an alkyl tert-butyl ether from field butane includes separating the field butane into an n-butane stream and an isobutane stream; cracking the n-butane stream to obtain a cracked product stream comprising n-butane, 1-butene, 2-butene, butadienes, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing; and at least one of the following: (1) separating the cracked product stream to obtain a butane stream and a butene stream, and reacting the butene stream with water to obtain a fuel additive comprising butanol, and (2) dehydrogenating the isobutane stream in a dehydrogenation unit to form an isobutene stream and reacting the isobutene stream with an aliphatic alcohol to produce an alkyl tert-butyl ether.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process for producing ethylene, a fuel additive, and, optionally, an alkyl tert-butyl ether from field butane, comprising:
separating the field butane into an n-butane stream and an isobutane stream;
cracking the n-butane stream to obtain a first cracked stream comprising ethylene and a cracked product stream comprising n-butane, 1-butene, 2-butene, butadienes, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing;
separating the cracked product stream to obtain a butane stream and a butene stream comprising 1-butene and 2-butene, and reacting the butene stream with water to obtain a fuel additive comprising at least 50 weight percent 2-butanol, up to 30 weight percent tert-butanol, up to 15 weight percent C 8 -hydrocarbons, provided the fuel additive comprises up to 5 weight percent di-sec-butyl ether, no greater that 0.5 weight percent C 4 -hydrocarbons, and no greater than 500 ppm water, and, optionally, dehydrogenating the isobutane stream in a dehydrogenation unit to form an isobutene stream and reacting the isobutene stream with an aliphatic alcohol to produce an alkyl tert-butyl ether.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the step of separating the field butane comprises distilling the field butane.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the field butane comprises n-butane in an amount of 50 mole % to 80 mole %, based on the total moles of the field butane, and isobutane in an amount of 10 mole % to 50 mole %, based on the total moles of the field butane.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the field butane comprises n-butane in an amount of 60 mole % to 75 mole % based on the total moles of the field butane, and isobutane in an amount of 20 mole % to 40 mole %, based on the total moles of the field butane.

5. The process of claim 3 , wherein the field butane further comprises greater than 0 mole % to 5 mole % propane, based on the total moles of the field butane.

6. The process of claim 3 , wherein the field butane further comprises 2 mole % to 3 mole % propane, based on the total moles of the field butane.

7. The process of claim 3 , wherein the field butane further comprises greater than 0 mole % to 2.5 mole % isopentane, based on the total moles of the field butane.

8. The process of claim 3 , wherein the field butane further comprises greater than 0 mole % to 1.5 mole % n-pentane, based on the total moles of the field butane.

9. The process of claim 3 , wherein the field butane further comprises 0.5 mole % to 1.0 mole % n-pentane, based on the total moles of the field butane.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein the n-butane stream comprises n-butane in an amount equal to or greater than 85 mole %, based on the total moles of the n-butane stream.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein the n-butane stream comprises n-butane in an amount equal to or greater than 95 mole %, based on the total moles of the n-butane stream.

12. The process of claim 1 , wherein the n-butane stream comprises n-butane in an amount of 100 mole %, based on the total moles of the n-butane stream.

13. The process of claim 1 , wherein the isobutane stream comprises isobutane in an amount equal to or greater than 85 mole %, based on the total moles of the isobutane stream.

14. The process of claim 1 , wherein the isobutane stream comprises isobutane in an amount equal to or greater than 93 mole %, based on the total moles of the isobutane stream.

15. The process of claim 1 , further comprising hydrogenating the cracked product stream with hydrogen in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst before the step of separating the cracked product stream.

16. The process of claim 1 , further comprising recycling the butane stream to the step of separating the field butane.

17. The process of claim 1 , wherein the alkyl tert-butyl ether comprises methyl tert-butyl ether, ethyl tert-butyl ether, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing.

18. The method of claim 1 comprising dehydrogenating the isobutane stream in a dehydrogenation unit to form an isobutene stream and reacting the isobutene stream with an aliphatic alcohol to produce an alkyl tert-butyl ether.

Assignees

• Sabic Global Technologies Bv

Inventors

• Bodas Vijay Dinkar
• Leal Guillermo
• Ansari Mohammed Bismillah

Classifications

• C07C4/02

  by cracking a single hydrocarbon or a mixture of individually defined hydrocarbons or a normally gaseous hydrocarbon fraction · CPC title

• C07C5/42

  by dehydrogenation with a hydrogen acceptor · CPC title

• C07C7/04

  by distillation · CPC title

• C07C5/32

  by dehydrogenation with formation of free hydrogen · CPC title

• C07C5/05

  Partial hydrogenation · CPC title