Heavy aromatic conversion for increased btx production
AssigneeUop LLC
InventorsKristen E. Allaire, Stanley J. Frey, David S. Lafyatis, Brett King
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Abstract
The processes upgrade a low value heavy aromatics stream into a high value BTX precursor stream. It treats the naphthalenic molecules in the heavy aromatics stream comprising C9 to C12 aromatics prior to reaching the transalkylation reactor. The naphthalenic molecules are converted into BTX precursors by partially hydrogenating one of the aromatic rings and subsequently ring opening the saturated ring to form a monoaromatic prior to the transalkylation reactor. With naphthalene no longer present, the remaining C11 monoaromatics may be processed in the aromatics complex for an overall increased BTX production.
Claims20
A heavy aromatics conversion process located in an aromatics complex for converting bicyclic aromatic compounds comprising:
- providing a heavy aromatics stream having 95% or more aromatic content and comprising C9 to C11 aromatics comprising naphthalene and alkyl naphthalene;
- and
- hydrogenating the naphthalene and the alkyl naphthalene in the presence of a catalyst with a hydrogenation function under hydrogenation conditions to form a partially hydrogenated reaction mixture comprising tetralin and alkyl tetralin.
A heavy aromatics conversion process located in an aromatics complex for converting bicyclic aromatic compounds comprising:
- providing a heavy aromatics stream having 95% or more aromatic content and comprising C9 to C11 aromatics comprising naphthalene and alkyl naphthalene;
- and
- hydrogenating the naphthalene and the alkyl naphthalene in the presence of a catalyst with a hydrogenation function under hydrogenation conditions to form a partially hydrogenated reaction mixture comprising tetralin and alkyl tetralin;
- processing the partially hydrogenated reaction mixture in the presence of a catalyst with ring opening and dealkylation functions under ring opening and dealkylation reaction conditions thereby ring opening the tetralin and alkyl tetralin forming alkyl monoaromatics, and dealkylating the alkyl monoaromatics to form dealkylated monoaromatics;
- and
- transalkylating the dealkylated monoaromatics in the presence of an aromatic transalkylation catalyst under aromatic transalkylation reactions conditions to form a transalkylated product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.