Production of aromatics from a methane conversion process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9327265-B2
Application number	US-201313915113-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 11, 2013
Priority date	Aug 21, 2012
Publication date	May 3, 2016
Grant date	May 3, 2016

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for converting methane in a feed stream to acetylene. The hydrocarbon stream is introduced into a supersonic reactor and pyrolyzed to convert at least a portion of the methane to acetylene. The reactor effluent stream may be treated to convert acetylene to a process stream having aromatic compounds. The acetylene stream can be reacted to generate larger hydrocarbon compounds, which are passed to a cyclization and aromatization reactor to generate aromatics. The method according to certain aspects includes controlling the level of carbon oxides in the hydrocarbon stream.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for producing aromatics comprising:
introducing a feed stream comprising methane into a supersonic reactor;
pyrolyzing the methane in the supersonic shock wave reactor to form a reactor effluent stream comprising acetylene and methane acting as a diluent to the reactor effluent stream;
treating the reactor effluent stream by removing carbon dioxide to a level below about 1000 wt.-ppm of the hydrocarbon stream to form a treated reactor effluent stream comprising acetylene and methane;
splitting the treated reactor effluent stream comprising acetylene and methane into a first portion and a second portion;
passing the first portion of the treated effluent stream comprising acetylene and methane to a butadiene reaction unit to convert acetylene to an effluent stream comprising butadiene; and
passing the butadiene effluent stream and a second portion of the treated effluent stream comprising acetylene and methane to a cyclization and aromatization reactor including a group VIII metal on a support to react the butadiene and acetylene to form aromatic compounds including benzene, toluene, and a C8+aromatics.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein pyrolyzing the methane includes accelerating the hydrocarbon stream to a velocity of between about mach 1.0 and about mach 4.0 and slowing down the hydrocarbon stream to increase the temperature of the hydrocarbon process stream.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein pyrolyzing the methane includes heating the methane to a temperature of between about 1200° C. and about 3500° C. for a residence time of between about 0.5 ms and about 100 ms.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrocarbon stream includes a methane feed stream portion upstream of the supersonic reactor comprising natural gas.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising passing the methane feed to a methane enrichment zone positioned upstream of the supersonic reactor to remove at least some of the non-methane compounds from the feed stream prior to introducing the feed stream into the supersonic reactor.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
passing the reactor effluent stream comprising acetylene and methane to an acetylene purification unit to generate an enriched acetylene stream and a residual stream comprising CO and H 2 ; and
passing the enriched acetylene stream to the splitting step.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising passing the aromatic effluent stream to an aromatics product recovery unit to generate a benzene stream, a toluene stream, and a C8+aromatics stream.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the catalyst comprises a Group VIII metal on an acid support, wherein the support is selected from alumina, silica alumina, zeolitic materials, and mixtures thereof.

Assignees

• Uop Llc

Inventors

• Bricker Jeffery C
• Chen John Q
• Coughlin Peter K

Classifications

• B01J19/26 Primary

  Nozzle-type reactors, i.e. the distribution of the initial reactants within the reactor is effected by their introduction or injection through nozzles · CPC title

• C07C2/82

  oxidative coupling · CPC title

• B01J2219/00159

  controlling multiple zones along the direction of flow, e.g. pre-heating and after-cooling · CPC title

• C07C15/00

  Cyclic hydrocarbons containing only six-membered aromatic rings as cyclic parts · CPC title

• B01J2219/00123

  adding a temperature modifying medium to the reactants · CPC title