Plant and method for producing ethylene

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9957205-B2
Application number	US-201314427456-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2013
Priority date	Sep 20, 2012
Publication date	May 1, 2018
Grant date	May 1, 2018

Abstract

A plant for producing ethylene having a reactor to effect oxidative coupling of methane, a work-up unit connected to the reactor to separate a first material stream produced by the reactor into a C 1− material stream and an ethylene product stream and a separation unit connected to the work-up unit to separate the C 1− material stream into a hydrogen-rich product stream and a hydrogen-lean residual gas stream. The plant also includes a steam cracker to produce ( 5 ) for producing an olefin-containing and hydrogen-containing crude gas stream. The steam cracker is connected to the work-up unit that separates the crude gas stream along with the first material stream into the C 1− material stream and the ethylene product stream. A portion of the residual gas stream is recycled to the reactor. A process for producing ethylene using the plant is also described.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of producing ethylene comprising:
introducing oxygen and methane into a reactor;
effecting oxidative coupling of the methane in the reactor to form a first material stream;
introducing a hydrocarbon-containing input to a steam cracker;
steam cracking the hydrocarbon-containing input in the steam cracker to produce an olefin-containing and hydrogen-containing crude gas stream;
introducing the first material stream and the olefin-containing and hydrogen-containing crude gas stream into a work-up unit;
separating the first material stream and the olefin-containing and hydrogen-containing crude gas stream using the work-up unit into an ethylene product stream and a C 1− material stream;
introducing the C 1− material stream into a separation unit;
separating the C 1− material stream using the separation unit into a hydrogen-rich product stream and a hydrogen-lean residual gas stream;
recycling at least a substream of the hydrogen-lean residual gas stream into the reactor;
recycling at least a substream of the hydrogen-rich product stream into the work-up unit;
removing an ethane-rich and propane-rich material stream from said first material stream and the olefin-containing and hydrogen-containing crude gas stream in the work-up unit; and
recycling the ethane-rich and propane-rich material stream to the steam cracker.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
recycling at least a substream of the hydrogen-lean residual gas stream to the steam cracker; and
firing the recycled hydrogen-lean residual gas stream in the steam cracker to produce heat for steam cracking.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the separating the C 1− material stream into the hydrogen-rich product stream and the hydrogen-lean residual gas stream comprises separation by pressure swing adsorption in the separation unit.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the hydrocarbon-containing input for the steam cracking is ethane, propane, natural gas condensates or naphtha.

Assignees

• Linde Ag

Inventors

• Schmigalle Holger
• Göke Volker
• Thaller Christian

Classifications

• C01B3/382

  Processes with two or more reaction steps, of which at least one is catalytic, e.g. steam reforming and partial oxidation · CPC title

• B01J19/2445

  placed in parallel · CPC title

• C01B2203/146

  At least two purification steps in series · CPC title

• C01B2203/043

  Regenerative adsorption process in two or more beds, one for adsorption, the other for regeneration · CPC title

• Y02P30/40

  Ethylene production · CPC title