Dehydrogenation Process
OwnerVladimir Fridman, Sunil Panditrao +1inventors
InventorsVladimir Fridman, Sunil Panditrao, Prashant Sankarankandath
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates generally to processes and systems for dehydrogenating alkanes. The present disclosure relates specifically to processes and systems for dehydrogenating alkanes that include purging the one or more catalyst beds by flowing therethrough a first purge gas stream having no more than 5 vol % O2 and in a first pressure reduction reducing the pressure in the dehydrogenation reactor to no more than 0.5 bar.
Claims18
A process for the dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons, the process comprising:
- providing a dehydrogenation reactor comprising one or more catalyst beds, each of the one or more catalyst beds comprising a dehydrogenation catalyst, and, optionally, a granular inert material;
- and
- performing the following cycle of steps a plurality of times:
- regenerating the one or more catalyst beds by contacting the one or more catalyst beds with an oxygen-containing stream;
- then
- purging the one or more catalyst beds by flowing therethrough a first purge gas stream having no more than 5 vol % O2 and in a first pressure reduction reducing the pressure in the dehydrogenation reactor to no more than 0.5 bar;
- then
- reducing the one or more catalyst beds by flowing therethrough a reducing stream comprising hydrogen, at least part of the reduction being conducted at at least 0.9 bar of hydrogen partial pressure;
- then
- contacting the one or more catalyst beds with an alkane stream by flowing from an upstream direction to a downstream direction, to dehydrogenate the alkane stream to provide an alkene stream, the dehydrogenation being endothermic;
- then
- purging the one or more catalyst beds with a second purge gas stream to substantially remove hydrocarbon therefrom.
A system for the dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons, the system comprising:
- a dehydrogenation reactor comprising one or more catalyst beds, each of the one or more catalyst beds comprising a dehydrogenation catalyst, and optionally a granular inert material and/or a heat-generating material, the heat-generating material being configured to generate heat in response to at least one of a reducing of the catalyst bed in which it is disposed and regeneration of the catalyst bed in which it is disposed;
- a source of a reducing gas stream comprising hydrogen, operatively coupled to the one or more catalyst beds;
- and
- a source of an alkane stream, operatively coupled to the at least one catalyst bed and configured to flow from an upstream direction to a downstream direction of the dehydrogenation reactor;
- and
- a source of an oxygen-containing stream operatively coupled to the one or more catalyst beds, through an operative coupling to the dehydrogenation reactor;
- a heater (e.g., an organic burning heater) capable of emitting a first purge gas (e.g., a flue gas), operatively coupled to the one or more catalyst beds, through an operative coupling to the dehydrogenation reactor;
- a vacuum pump, operatively coupled to the one or more catalyst beds, through an operative coupling to the dehydrogenation reactor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.