Back to results
US 6,632,971 B2Granted
Process for converting natural gas to higher value products using a methanol refinery remote from the natural gas source
AssigneeExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc.
InventorsStephen H. Brown, William A. Weber, Reuel Shinnar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process for treating methane-containing natural gas is provided which comprises: i) converting methane to methanol at or near a site of natural gas production; ii) transporting the methanol to a refinery remote from said site of production, said refinery producing ethylene and propylene and comprising an alkylation unit which can utilize a propylene feed; and iii) converting said methanol to gasoline boiling range fuel product and petrochemicals, including ethylene, propylene, butenes and xylenes.
Claims11
A process for treating methane-containing natural gas which comprises:
- i) converting said methane-containing natural gas to methanol within 100 mile of a site of natural gas production;
- ii) transporting said methanol to a refinery comprising a FCC unit and an alkylation unit at least 100 miles from said site of natural gas production;
- iii) producing ethylene, propylene and butene in the FCC unit;
- iv) isolating ethylene and propylene produced in the FCC unit;
- v) converting said methanol to olefins comprising ethylene, propylene and butenes;
- vi) isolating ethylene and propylene produced in step V from butenes produced in step v;
- and vii) supplying butene produced in step v and butene produced in the FCC unit to the alkylation unit to produce gasoline boiling range fuel product.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.