Methods of refining natural oil feedstocks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9732282-B2
Application number	US-201615269736-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2016
Priority date	Oct 12, 2009
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

Methods are provided for refining natural oil feedstocks. The methods comprise reacting the feedstock in the presence of a metathesis catalyst under conditions sufficient to form a metathesized product comprising olefins and esters. In certain embodiments, the methods further comprise separating the olefins from the esters in the metathesized product. In certain embodiments, the methods further comprise hydrogenating the olefins under conditions sufficient to form a fuel composition. In certain embodiments, the methods further comprise transesterifying the esters in the presence of an alcohol to form a transesterified product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing a fuel composition comprising:
providing (a) a feedstock comprising natural oil glycerides, and (b) low-molecular-weight olefins;
reacting the natural oil glycerides with the low-molecular-weight olefins in the presence of a metathesis catalyst to form a metathesized product comprising metathesized olefins and metathesized esters;
hydrogenating the metathesized product to form a hydrogenated composition comprising hydrogenated metathesized olefins and hydrogenated metathesized esters; and
separating at least a portion of the hydrogenated metathesized olefins from hydrogenated composition to form a fuel composition.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising isomerizing the fuel composition, which comprises normal-paraffin compounds, wherein a fraction of normal-paraffin compounds in the fuel composition are isomerized into iso-paraffin compounds.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fuel comprises C 18+ heavy compounds, and further comprising separating the C 18+ heavy compounds from the fuel composition to form a separated stream comprising C 18+ heavy compounds, the separated stream having a majority of hydrocarbons with carbon numbers of at least 18.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the low-molecular-weight olefins comprise olefins selected from the group consisting of ethylene, propylene, 1-butene, 2-butene, and combinations thereof.

Assignees

• Elevance Renewable Sciences

Inventors

• Cohen Steven A
• Luetkens Jr Melvin L
• Balakrishnan Chander
• Snyder Robert

Classifications

• C07C2531/24

  Phosphines · CPC title

• C10G2300/301

  Boiling range · CPC title

• C10G2300/1014

  of vegetal origin · CPC title

• C10G2400/20

  C2-C4 olefins · CPC title

• C10G45/58

  to change the structural skeleton of some of the hydrocarbon content without cracking the other hydrocarbons present, e.g. lowering pour point; Selective hydrocracking of normal paraffins (C10G32/00 takes precedence; improving or increasing the octane number or aromatic content of naphtha C10G35/00) · CPC title