Ethylene oligomerization process

An ethylene oligomerization system for creating 1-butene from ethylene in the presence of an ethylene oligomerization catalyst, the ethylene oligomerization system comprising:

• an internal baffle single pass reactor, a separation system, and an external motion driver,
• where,
• the internal baffle single pass reactor has an interior wall, an operable length, a proximal end, a distal end, an interior fluid conduit, a set of internal baffles, a process fluid flow pathway, an oligomerization reaction zone that is operable to support an ethylene oligomerization reaction in a process fluid, and a catalyst deactivation zone that is operable to support an oligomerization catalyst deactivation reaction in a process fluid and to terminate all oligomerization and side-reactions to ensure a desired level of ethylene conversion and selection, where the catalyst deactivation zone is positioned downstream of the oligomerization reaction zone within the internal baffle single pass reactor, where the interior fluid conduit contains the process fluid and the set of internal baffles, and where the interior wall and the set of internal baffles define the process fluid flow pathway;
• the separation system fluidly couples to the distal end of the internal baffle single pass reactor and is operable to selectively separate separately deactivated oligomerization catalyst, ethylene and 1-butene from a crude product and produce a refined 1-butene product;
• and
• the external motion driver couples to the internal baffle single pass reactor and is operable to induce unsteadiness in flow of the process fluid contained in the internal baffle single pass reactor by transferring motion into the process fluid.