Method of incorporating alcohol into fuels having a high aromatic compound content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9309474-B2
Application number	US-66666808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2008
Priority date	Jun 27, 2007
Publication date	Apr 12, 2016
Grant date	Apr 12, 2016

Abstract

The method allows to incorporate an alcohol or a mixture of alcohols into fuels by minimizing the energy expenditure linked with the prior production of the alcohol or of the mixture of alcohols. One or more bases of the fuel, to which an oxygen-containing compound or a mixture of oxygen-containing compounds have possibly been added, are used to extract the alcohol or the alcohol mixture contained in aqueous solutions produced by biomass fermentation processes. After adjusting the temperature of the aqueous solution stream and of the stream containing one or more bases of the fuel through exchangers, these streams are fed into an extractor. The extract leaving the extractor is then dried and/or an oxygen-containing compound or a mixture of oxygen-containing compounds is added thereto. The raffinate leaving the extractor is sent to a water treating plant or recycled. The stream of dried fuel to which an oxygen-containing compound or a mixture of oxygen-containing compounds has possibly been added is sent to be stored. The water leaving the drying stage is sent to a water treating plant or recycled.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of incorporating alcohol or mixtures of alcohols into a fuel having an aromatic compound content of at least 70 wt. % that is a reformate gasoline cut, a pyrolysis gasoline cut or an LCO type diesel fuel, said method comprising:
liquid-liquid extraction of the alcohol or the alcohol mixture by at least one or more fuels, by directly contacting an aqueous phase containing the alcohol or the alcohol mixture and a hydrocarbon phase comprising said fuel, and
drying the fuel enriched in alcohol or alcohol mixture.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the alcohol or the alcohol mixture is selected from among ethanol, butanol or an acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) mixture.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the fuel has an aromatic compound content of at least 80 wt. %.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the hydrocarbon phase comprises an oxygen-containing compound or a mixture of oxygen-containing compounds: ETBE (ethyltertiobutylether), MTBE (methyltertiobutylether), TAEE (tertioamyl-ethylether), TAME (tertioamylmethylether), DIPE (diisopropylether), C7 ethers including MEPEME (2-methyl-2-methoxypentane) or DIMEBU (2,3-dimethyl-2-methoxybutane), PTBE (n-propyl tertiobutylether), IPTBE (isopropyltertiobutylether), DPE (dipropylether), or the following alcohols: butanol, TBA (terbutylic alcohol), IPA (isopropylic alcohol), isobutylic alcohol and/or methanol.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said aqueous phase containing the alcohol or the alcohol mixture is introduced into a vertical extraction column at the top and said hydrocarbon phase containing the fuel is introduced at the bottom of the extraction column.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 , comprising conducting the liquid-extraction circulating the aqueous phase and the hydrocarbon phase countercurrent by promoting dispersion, contacting and mass transfer.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the extraction is carried out at a temperature ranging between the ambient temperature and 320° C., and 200° C., and at a pressure ranging between the atmospheric pressure and 10 MPa.

8. A method as claimed in claim 4 , conducted in a vertical column having a bottom and a top and wherein the oxygen-containing compound added to the hydrocarbon phase is introduced at the column bottom into a line delivering the hydrocarbon phase.

9. A method as claimed in claim 4 , conducted in a vertical column having a bottom and a top and wherein the oxygen-containing compound added to the hydrocarbon phase is introduced into the extraction column at an intermediate height and is counter-extracted between the aqueous phase and the hydrocarbon phase.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising passing raffinate obtained at the end of the extraction to a water treatment plant and/or recycled, and an alcohol-enriched hydrocarbon phase containing an extract is dried.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein drying the alcohol-enriched hydrocarbon phase is carried out by adsorption on a molecular sieve.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein drying is carried out by adsorption by circulating an alcohol-free dry fuel directly coming from its manufacturing process in an adsorbent-filled column.

13. A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the stage of drying the alcohol-enriched fuel is carried out by pervaporation through membranes.

14. A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein during drying the extract is subjected to cooling to separate an alcohol-containing aqueous phase and said aqueous phase is recycled to the extraction column.

15. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein drying is complemented addition of an oxygen-containing compound or of a mixture of oxygen-containing compounds, prior to storage, said oxygen-containing compound being ETBE (ethyltertiobutylether), MTBE (methyltertiobutylether), TAEE (tertioamylethylether), TAME (tertioamylmethylether), DIPE (diisopropylether), C7 ethers, butanol, TBA (terbutylic alcohol), IPA (isopropylic alcohol), isobutylic alcohol and/or methanol.

16. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein an extract is obtained that comprises the hydrocarbon phase enriched in anhydrous alcohol or an alcohol mixture is directly incorporated into a gasoline pool.

17. A method according to claim 4 , wherein the hydrocarbon phase comprises at least one of the following: ETBE (ethyltertiobutylether), MTBE (methyltertiobutylether), TAEE (tertioamyl-ethylether), TAME (tertioamylmethylether), DIPE (diisopropylether), C7 ethers butanol, TBA (terbutylic alcohol), IPA (isopropylic alcohol), isobutylic alcohol and/or methanol.

18. A method according to claim 7 , conducted at a temperature of between 50° C. and 250° C.

19. A method according to claim 7 , conducted at a temperature of between 70° C. and 200° C.

20. A method as claimed in claim 15 wherein the C7 ethers are MEPEME (2-methyl-2-methoxypentane) or DIMEBU (2,3-dimethyl-2-methoxybutane), PTBE (n-propyl tertiobutylether), IPTBE (isopropyltertiobutylether), DPE (dipropylether).

21. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein the C7 ethers are MEPEME (2-methyl-2-methoxypentane) or DIMEBU (2,3-dimethyl-2-methoxybutane), PTBE (n-propyl tertiobutylether), IPTBE (isopropyltertiobutylether), DPE (dipropylether).

Assignees

• Augier Frederic
• Barrere-Tricca Cecile
• Baudot Arnaud
• Boucot Pierre
• IFP Energies Nouvelles

Inventors

• Augier Frederic
• Barrere-Tricca Cecile
• Baudot Arnaud
• Boucot Pierre

Classifications

• C10L1/026

  for compression ignition · CPC title

• C10L1/1824

  mono-hydroxy · CPC title

• C10L1/06

  for spark ignition · CPC title

• C10L1/04

  essentially based on blends of hydrocarbons · CPC title

• C10L1/08

  for compression ignition · CPC title