Hydrotreating olefin stream with complete destruction of oxygenates

Abstract

Disclosed is a process for completely destroying oxygenates in a feed stream. The feed stream of oxygenates typically includes olefins and it is reacted with hydrogen over a catalyst comprising a top row of Group VIII metal and a Group VI-B metal. Olefins are essentially completely saturated and any sulfur compounds present in the feed are completely converted to hydrogen sulfide. A preferred catalyst includes 2 to 5 wt-% nickel, 5 to 15 wt-% molybdenum, at least 5.5 wt-% sulfur, less than 0.05 wt-% phosphorus and no more than 0.3 wt-% silicon. The catalyst has low acidity and therefore does not promote the cracking of desired oligomeric products. The deoxygenation process is preferably a saturation process that follows an oligomerization process in which light olefins are oligomerized to heavy olefins. The saturation catalyst preferably has lower acidity which causes minimal cracking of desired oligomeric products. However, by optimally raising the temperature of the outlet of the saturation reaction zone, excessively heavy oligomers can be cracked down to desirable heavy oligomers.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.