Method and apparatus for converting hydrocarbons into olefins

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9809508-B2
Application number	US-201113994220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2011
Priority date	Jan 19, 2011
Publication date	Nov 7, 2017
Grant date	Nov 7, 2017

Abstract

An apparatus and method are provided for processing hydrocarbon feeds. The method may pass a pyrolysis feed to a thermal pyrolysis reactor and expose at least a portion of the pyrolysis feed to high-severity operating conditions in a thermal pyrolysis reactor, wherein the thermal pyrolysis reactor is operated at operating conditions that include pressure ≧36 psig and provide a reactor product that has a C 3+ to C 2 unsaturate weight ratio ≦0.5.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A hydrocarbon conversion method comprising: exposing a pyrolysis feed comprising hydrocarbons and an added diluent in a regenerative reverse-flow thermal pyrolysis reactor to thermal pyrolysis conditions at a peak pyrolysis gas temperature ≧1200.0° C., for a residence time in the range of 4 milliseconds to 50 milliseconds, and at a pressure ≧44 psig to produce a reactor product comprising C 2 unsaturates and having a C 3+ to C 2 unsaturates weight ratio ≦0.5, wherein (i) the added diluent is added in an amount of more than zero but up to 10 wt % based on the combined weight of the hydrocarbons and the added diluent and (ii) the added diluent is one or more of H 2 O, CO 2 , and H 2 S.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reactor product has a C 3+ to C2 to acetylene weight ratio ≦0.45.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reactor product has an ethylene to acetylene weight ratio ≧0.5, and the peak pyrolysis gas temperature is in a range of from 1540.0° C. to 2200.0° C.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pyrolysis feed has a molar ratio of hydrogen gas to carbon atoms in the hydrocarbons in the pyrolysis feed in the range of 0.1 to 5.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising converting at least a portion of the reactor product into ethylene.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising polymerizing at least a portion of the ethylene.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising compressing at least a portion of the reactor product, the compressing being conducted upstream of the converting.

8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising separating hydrogen from at least a portion of the reactor product, the separating being conducted upstream of the converting.

9. The method of claim 5 , further comprising separating hydrogen downstream of the converting.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising adding to a combustion feed at least a portion of the separated hydrogen and reacting the combustion feed along with the at least a portion of the separated hydrogen during reverse flow in the regenerative reverse-flow thermal pyrolysis reactor to provide heat for the thermal pyrolysis.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising deriving the pyrolysis feed from at least a portion of the separated hydrogen.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising adding to a combustion feed a first portion of the separated hydrogen to form a mixture and reacting the mixture during reverse flow in the regenerative reverse-flow thermal pyrolysis reactor to provide heat for the thermal pyrolysis, wherein the pyrolysis feed is derived from a second portion of the separated hydrogen.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the peak pyrolysis gas temperature is in the range of 1600.0° C. to 1800.0° C.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reactor product comprises ethylene and acetylene, the method further comprising determining the thermal pyrolysis conditions for the thermal pyrolysis to maximize the reactor product's E/A weight ratio.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pressure is in the range of 44 psig to 300 psig.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pressure is in the range of from 103 psig to 300 psig.

Assignees

• Keusenkothen Paul F
• Hershkowitz Frank
• Exxonmobil Chemical Patents Inc

Inventors

• Keusenkothen Paul F
• Hershkowitz Frank

Classifications

• C10G9/20

  Tube furnaces · CPC title

• C10G2400/20

  C2-C4 olefins · CPC title

• C07C11/24

  Acetylene (production of acetylene gas by wet methods C10H) · CPC title

• C07C5/09 Primary

  to carbon-to-carbon double bonds · CPC title

• C10G9/26

  with discontinuously preheated non-moving solid material, e.g. blast and run · CPC title