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US 2024/0190791 A1Published application
Separation of hydrogen, methane, ethane, and propane in naphtha to ethane and propane fractionation section based on a dividing wall fractionation column integration
AssigneeUop LLC
InventorsSudipta K. Ghosh, Xin X. Zhu, Kyle Cuellar
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Abstract
In a process of producing ethylene and propylene from naphtha the process a feed stream comprising hydrogen, methane, ethane, and propane and residual C4+ from a naphtha-to-ethane-and-propane reactor is fed to a dividing wall fractionation column.
Claims20
A process of producing ethylene and propylene from naphtha, the process comprising:
- passing a feed stream comprising hydrogen, methane, ethane, and propane and residual C4+ from a naphtha-to-ethane-and-propane reactor to a dividing wall fractionation column.
An apparatus for producing ethylene and propylene from naphtha comprising:
- an effluent from a naphtha-to-ethane-and-propane processing unit which separates an ethane rich stream and a propane rich stream from a stream comprising ethane, propane, hydrogen, methane, and residual C4+ heavy hydrocarbons, the naphtha-to-ethane-and-propane processing unit comprising:
- a dividing wall fractionation column which receives the effluent stream from an naphtha-to-ethane-and-propane reactor and outputs a top product stream comprising hydrogen and methane, the ethane rich stream as a side product, and the propane rich stream comprising residual C4+ hydrocarbons as a bottom product.
A process of producing ethylene and propylene from naphtha, the process comprising:
- passing a feed stream comprising hydrogen, methane, ethane, and propane and residual C4+ from a naphtha-to-ethane-and-propane reactor through a coldbox;
- passing the feed stream from the coldbox to a dividing wall fractionation column passing a top product stream from the dividing wall fractionation column, the top product stream comprising hydrogen, methane, and some slipped ethane (residual);
- passing the top product stream to a cracked gas compressor system of an ethane steam cracker and bypassing a cracking heater section of the ethane steam cracker;
- passing a side product comprising an ethane rich stream from dividing wall fractionation column;
- passing the ethane rich stream from the dividing wall fractionation column to a cracking heater section of the ethane steam cracker;
- passing an ethylene stream from the ethane steam cracker;
- passing a bottom product stream comprising propane and other heavy products from the dividing wall fractionation column;
- passing the propane rich stream from the dividing wall fractionation column to a propane dehydrogenation unit after further fractionation in a depropanizer column;
- and
- passing a propylene stream is from the propane dehydrogenation unit,
- wherein the ethane rich stream is a vapor side product of the dividing wall fractionation column,
- wherein withdrawing the ethane rich stream as a vapor side product from the dividing wall fractionation column lowers a refrigeration requirement for the dividing wall fractionation column and reduces an energy for vaporization in the ethane steam cracker, and
- wherein the energy for vaporization in the ethane rich steam cracker is eliminated by the vapor side product and wherein a further energy reduction takes place by utilizing the ethane rich stream and the top product stream to cool fluids passing through the coldbox.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.