Methyl-tertiary ether production

An integrated process for producing tertiary alkyl ether compounds which joins isoolefin production and ether production by reacting a produced isoolefin with a primary alcohol under etherification conditions, said integrated process comprising the steps of:

• (a) passing a structurally mixed hydrocarbon feed stream containing an isoparaffin having four or five carbon atoms per molecule and an n-olefin, having a number of carbon atoms per molecule equal to said isoparaffin, to a combination hydrogenation/dehydrogenation unit reaction zone;
• (b) contacting said mixed hydrocarbon feed stream with a supported Group VIII nobel metal catalyst in said combination unit reaction zone under conditions sufficient for simultaneous conversion of a portion of said isoparaffin to an isoolefin and a portion of said n-olefin to an n-paraffin;
• (c) withdrawing a reaction product stream from said combination unit reaction zone and passing at least a portion of said reaction product stream comprising at least a portion of said isoolefin to an ether forming unit reaction zone;
• (d) providing a primary alcohol containing one or two carbon atoms per molecule to said ether forming unit reaction zone via an alcohol feed stream;
• and
• (e) reacting said isoolefin and said primary alcohol in said ether forming unit reaction zone under conditions sufficient to form tertiary alkyl ether and unreacted constituents and withdrawing said tertiary alkyl ether from said ether forming unit reaction zone in an ether product stream;
• wherein said isoparaffin is isobutane and said n-olefin is n-butene and said ether unit reaction zone is a methyl tertiary-butyl ether unit reaction zone and said tertiary alkyl ether is methyl tertiary-butyl ether;
• wherein said structurally mixed feed stream to said combination unit reaction zone, containing isobutene, said isobutane, and butene-b 1, is formed by separating and withdrawing a bottom stream containing n-butane and butene-2 from a source stream in a distillation tower and withdrawing said structurally mixed feed stream containing said isobutene, said isobutane and said butene-1 in an overhead stream from said distillation tower, said process additionally comprising:
• contacting said bottom stream containing n-butane and butene-2 from said distillation tower with an acid catalyst under alkylation conditions in an alkylation unit reaction zone to produce reaction constituents comprising alkylate produce and n-butane;
• separating said withdrawing an alkylate product stream and an n-butane stream from said alkylation unit reaction zone;
• recovering said alkylate product stream;
• passing said n-butane stream to an isomerization unit reaction zone wherein n-butane is isomerized to isobutane;
• and
• withdrawing a recycle stream comprising said isobutane from said isomerization unit and passing said recycle stream to said combination unit reaction zone.