Processes for producing poly alpha olefins and apparatuses therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12091380-B2
Application number	US-202017633918-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 3, 2020
Priority date	Aug 9, 2019
Publication date	Sep 17, 2024
Grant date	Sep 17, 2024

Abstract

The present disclosure provides processes and apparatus for producing poly alpha olefins. In at least one embodiment, a process to produce a poly alpha olefin includes introducing a first olefin monomer to a first catalyst and an activator in a first reactor to form a first reactor effluent comprising olefin dimers and olefin timers. The process includes heating the first reactor effluent to form an isomerized product and introducing the isomerized product to a filtration unit to form a filtration effluent. The process may include introducing the filtration effluent to a first distillation unit to form a first distillation effluent. The process may include introducing the first distillation effluent to a second distillation unit to form a second distillation effluent. The process includes introducing the first distillation effluent and/or the second distillation effluent to a second catalyst in a second reactor to form a second reactor effluent comprising the olefin timers.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process to produce a poly alpha olefin, the process comprising:
introducing a first olefin monomer to a first catalyst, wherein the first catalyst is a metallocene catalyst, and an activator in a first reactor to form effluent comprising a vinylidene dimer;
heating the effluent to isomerize the vinylidene dimers to form tri-substituted olefin dimers to form an isomerized product;
introducing the isomerized product and a second olefin monomer to a second catalyst, wherein the second catalyst comprises a metal halide or metalloid halide, in a second reactor to form a second reactor effluent comprising olefin trimer formed by an oligomerization of the tri-substituted olefin dimers and the second olefin monomer.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein heating the effluent to isomerize the vinylidene dimers is performed without added isomerization catalysts.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the second olefin monomer is the same as the first olefin monomer.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the second olefin monomer is different from the first olefin monomer.

5. The process of claim 1 , further comprising introducing the effluent to a distillation unit to form a distillation effluent; and wherein heating the effluent to isomerize the vinylidene dimers comprises heating one or more of a line connecting the first reactor and the distillation unit and a line connecting the distillation unit and the second reactor.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the Lewis acid metal halide or metalloid halide is BF 3 .

7. The process of claim 5 , wherein the effluent is heated a temperature of about 200° C. or greater through the use of one or more heat exchangers.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the isomerized product comprises greater than 85 wt % of tri-substituted vinylene dimer.

9. The process of claim 1 , further comprising introducing the isomerized product to filtration unit having an average pore size of from about 5 to about 20 microns.

10. The process of claim 8 , wherein the isomerized product comprises greater than 95 wt % of tri-substituted vinylene dimer.

11. The process of claim 5 , wherein the line connecting the first reactor and the distillation unit is coupled to a heat exchanger.

12. The process of claim 5 , wherein the line connecting the distillation unit and the second reactor is coupled to a heat exchanger.

13. The process of claim 1 , wherein heating the effluent comprises heating the effluent along a line fluidly coupling the first reactor to a distillation unit upstream of the second reactor.

14. The process of claim 1 , further comprising introducing the isomerized product and the second olefin monomer to the second catalyst and at least first and second co-activators.

15. The process of claim 14 , wherein the first co-activator comprises an alcohol and the second co-activator comprises an alkyl acetate.

16. The process of claim 14 , wherein the first co-activator comprises n-butanol and the second co-activator comprises n-butyl acetate.

17. The process of claim 1 , wherein heating the effluent to isomerize the vinylidene dimers consists of heating only the effluent.

Assignees

• Exxonmobil Chemical Patents Inc

Inventors

• Lotz Monica D
• Rapp Jennifer L
• Chen Patrick C
• Islam Md Safatul

Classifications

• C10M2205/0285

  used as base material · CPC title

• C10M177/00

  Special methods of preparation of lubricating compositions; Chemical modification by after-treatment of components or of the whole of a lubricating composition, not covered by other classes · CPC title

• C07C2531/22

  Organic complexes · CPC title

• C07C2531/14

  of aluminium or boron · CPC title

• C07C2/34 Primary

  Metal-hydrocarbon complexes · CPC title