Process and apparatus for the production of diesel fuels by oligomerisation of olefinic feed streams
AssigneeSasol Technology (Pty) Ltd
InventorFrancois Benjamin Du Toit
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This invention provides a process for the production of diesel boiling range hydrocarbons, the process including at least the steps of obtaining an olefinic feed stream from one or more hydrocarbon producing processes wherein the olefinic feed stream contains branched short chain olefins having a chain length of from three to eight carbon atoms, and contacting the feed stream with a shape selective medium pore acid zeolite catalyst in a pressurised reactor at elevated temperature so as to convert said short chain olefins to higher hydrocarbons. The invention also provides an apparatus for carrying out the process and recovering the catalyst for reuse.
Claims35
A process for the production of diesel boiling range hydrocarbons, the process comprising the steps of:
- a) obtaining an olefinic feed stream from one or more hydrocarbon producing processes wherein the olefinic feed stream comprises branched short chain olefins having a chain length of from three to eight carbon atoms;
- and
- b) contacting the feed stream with a shape selective medium pore acid zeolite catalyst in a pressurised reactor at an elevated temperature so as to convert said short chain olefins to higher hydrocarbons.
A process as claimed in claim 4, wherein the olefinic stream derived from the FT process comprises mainly linear and branched olefins generally having a chain length of from three to eight carbon atoms.
A process for the production of diesel and kerosene boiling range hydrocarbons, the process comprising the steps of:
- a) obtaining a predominantly linear olefinic feed stream from one or more hydrocarbon producing processes selected from the group consisting of:
- a Low Temperature Fischer-Tropsch (LTFT) process;
- a High Temperature Fischer-Tropsch (HTFT) process;
- a Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) process;
- an Ethylene Cracking process;
- a Carbonisation process;
- a tar sands olefin recovery process;
- and
- a shale oil olefins recovery process;
- wherein said olefinic feed stream comprises short chain olefins having a chain length of from three to eight carbon atoms;
- b) contacting the feed stream with a shape selective medium pore acid zeolite catalyst in a pressurised reactor at elevated temperature so as to convert said short chain olefins to higher hydrocarbons;
- and
- c) provided that, where the linear olefinic feedstream comprises olefins produced by the LTFT process, said olefinic feedstream comprises olefins produced by at least one other hydrocarbon producing process.
An apparatus for carrying out a continuous oligomerization process for the production of diesel and kerosene boiling range hydrocarbons as described above, the apparatus comprising:
- a) a reactor for contacting an olefinic feed stream which comprises short chain olefins having a chain length of from 2 to 8 carbon atoms with a shape selective zeolite catalyst under elevated temperature and pressure so as to convert the short chain olefins to higher hydrocarbons in the diesel boiling range;
- and
- b) a catalyst regenerator comprising:
- means for removing deactivated or spent catalyst from the reactor while it is in operation;
- and
- means for reintroducing regenerated catalyst into the reactor while it is in operation and the oligomerization reaction is proceeding.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.