Process for dehydrating methanol to dimethyl ether product
AssigneesBp P.L.C., BP (China) Holdings Limited
InventorsBenjamin James Dennis-Smither, Neil Sainty, John Glenn Sunley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process the dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether in the presence of a solid Brønsted acid catalyst selected from aluminosilicate zeolites which have a maximum free sphere diameter of greater than 3.67 Angstroms and heteropolyacids and a promoter selected from methyl formate, dimethyl oxalate and dimethyl malonate and the molar ratio of promoter to methanol is maintained at less than 1.
Claims20
A process comprising dehydrating methanol to dimethyl ether product in the presence of a catalyst and a promoter, wherein the catalyst is at least one solid Brønsted acid catalyst selected from aluminosilicate zeolites that have a maximum free sphere diameter of greater than 3.67 Angstroms and heteropolyacids, and the promoter is selected from methyl formate, dimethyl oxalate and dimethyl malonate, wherein the molar ratio of promoter to methanol is maintained in the range 0.005:1 to 0.5:1, and wherein the total amount of promoter relative to methanol is maintained in an amount of at least 2 mol %.
A method of improving the productivity to dimethyl ether product, comprising dehydrating methanol in the presence of a catalyst and a promoter, wherein the catalyst is at least one solid Brønsted acid catalyst selected from aluminosilicate zeolites which have a maximum free sphere diameter of greater than 3.67 Angstroms and heteropolyacids and the promoter is selected from methyl formate, dimethyl oxalate, and dimethyl malonate, wherein the molar ratio of promoter to methanol is maintained in the range 0.005:1 to 0.5:1, and wherein the total amount of promoter relative to methanol is maintained in an amount of at least 2 mol %.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.