Conversion of olefinic naphthas by hydration to produce middle distillate fuel blending components
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorsOmer Refa Koseoglu, Ali Sawan
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Abstract
A process for the production of middle distillates by the catalytically promoted hydration of olefinic compounds having a carbon number ranging from 7 to 14 to convert the olefins to the corresponding mixed alcohols having a higher boiling point that is in the diesel range, the process being conducted in a continuous stirred tank reactor, e.g., an ebullated-bed reactor, utilizing catalysts that include soluble homogeneous acidic compounds and solid heterogeneous compounds such as resins, and amorphous or structured metal oxides containing elements selected from IUPAC Groups 4-10, 13 and 14, and having Lewis or Bronsted acid sites.
Claims25
A process for converting olefins boiling in the gasoline range to their corresponding alcohols boiling in the middle distillate range comprising:
- a. introducing water and an olefinic feedstock having carbon numbers ranging from 7 to 14 that is derived from a unit operation selected from the group of unit operations consisting of an FCC unit, one or more thermal cracking units, and their combination, into a recycle conduit to form a combined olefin and water stream;
- b. passing the combined olefin and water stream through an ebullated bed recycle pump to pressurize the combined stream;
- b. introducing the pressurized combined stream into an olefin hydration zone that comprises at least one ebullated bed reactor that contains at least one hydration catalyst;
- c. reacting the olefins with the water in the pressurized combined stream in the presence of the at least one hydration catalyst in the olefin hydration zone to produce reaction products comprising alcohols, dimers of olefins, and oligomers of olefins;
- d. passing a reaction product stream from the olefin hydration zone to a separation zone to separate any unreacted materials from the reaction product stream;
- e. recycling the unreacted materials to the olefin hydration zone via the recycle conduit for combination with the water and the olefinic feedstock of step (a);
- f. recovering the separated hydration reaction product stream as a middle distillate blending product;
- and
- g. transferring the middle distillate blending product to a diesel fuel blending pool and/or an aviation fuel blending pool.
An integrated refinery system for the production of alcohols boiling in the middle distillate range comprising:
- a. at least one ebullated bed reactor comprising a feed inlet, an effluent product outlet, a fresh catalyst inlet, a catalyst withdrawal outlet, and a hydration zone containing at least one hydration catalyst,
- the feed inlet of each ebullated bed reactor being in fluid communication with at least one refinery unit operation that is a source of an olefinic naphtha feedstock having carbon numbers in the range of from 7 to 14,
- the fresh catalyst inlet being located proximate the top of the ebullated bed reactor and in communication with a catalyst regeneration zone,
- the effluent product outlet of each ebullated bed reactor being in fluid communication with a separator for separating an alcohol-containing product stream, and
- the catalyst withdrawal outlet being located proximate the bottom of each ebullated bed reactor and in communication with an inlet of the catalyst regeneration zone;
- b. an ebullated bed recycle pump in fluid communication with a recycle conduit and the feed inlet of the reactor;
- c. the separator comprising
- a separator inlet for receiving effluent product stream from each ebullated bed,
- a separator product outlet for discharging an alcohol product stream, and
- a separator recycle outlet in fluid communication with the recycle conduit;
- d. the recycle conduit being in fluid communication with the separator recycle outlet and the ebullated bed recycle pump, the conduit receiving and combining effluent from the separator recycle outlet, fresh olefinic naphtha and water for introduction to the ebullated bed recycle pump.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.