Production of high purity cumene from non-extracted feed and hydrocarbon composition useful therein
AssigneeExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc.
InventorStephen Harold Brown
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for producing an cumene product having a purity of at least 99.50 percent based on the weight of cumene present in the product by the propylation of the benzene present in non-extracted hydrocarbon composition feed, e.g., non-extracted reformate. The non-extracted hydrocarbon composition feed is substantially free of both C4− hydrocarbons and the C7+ aromatic hydrocarbons and contains benzene and benzene coboilers. The process is carried out in the liquid phase, in the presence of an acid-active catalyst containing MCM-22 family molecular sieve, and under specified conditions.
Claims23
A process for producing an cumene product having a purity of at least 99.50 percent based on the weight of cumene present in the product—using a hydrocarbon composition feed that has not undergone extraction, is substantially free of C4− hydrocarbons and C7+ aromatic hydrocarbons, and contains benzene and from about 1 to about 75 percent by weight of at least one C6+ non-aromatic hydrocarbon having a boiling point within 10° C. at a pressure of about 101.3 kPa-a of the boiling point of benzene, said process comprising:
- (a) providing said hydrocarbon feed having impurities selected from the group consisting of olefins, dienes, sulfur-containing compounds, nitrogen-containing compounds, and mixtures thereof;
- (b) removing at least a portion of said impurities from said hydrocarbon feed to produce an alkylation feed having less than 5 wppm of sulfur, less than 1 wppm of nitrogen, and less than 2500 wppm of olefins and dienes;
- (c) alkylating the benzene in said alkylation feed with propylene in an alkylation reaction zone which comprises an acid-active catalyst, to produce an effluent which comprises cumene and a reduced amount of cumene coboilers as compared to an effluent produced from said hydrocarbon composition feed which has said impurities, said reaction zone is maintained under at least partial liquid phase conditions, that include a temperature in the range of from about 110° C. to about 170° C., a pressure sufficient to maintain the benzene in the liquid phase, a mole ratio of propylene to benzene in the range of from about 0.01:1 to about 0.75:1, and a feed weight hourly space velocity in the range of from about 0.1 to about 10 hr1;
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- (d) distilling said effluent of step (c) to produce a cumene product having a purity of at least 99.50 percent based on the weight of cumene present in said cumene product.
A process for producing an cumene product having a purity of at least 99.50 percent based on the weight of cumene present in the product using a hydrocarbon composition produced from a reformate, said hydrocarbon composition has not undergone extraction, said process comprising:
- (a) providing a reformate that comprises:
- (i) C5− hydrocarbons;
- (ii) benzene;
- (iii) C7+ aromatic hydrocarbons;
- and (iv) from about 1 to about 75 percent by weight based on the weight of the reformate of at least one C6+ non-aromatic hydrocarbon having a boiling point within 10° C. at a pressure of about 101.3 kPa-a of the boiling point of benzene;
- (b) removing C4− hydrocarbons and the C7+ aromatic hydrocarbons from the reformate by distillation to from said hydrocarbon composition which comprises said benzene and benzene coboilers;
- (c) alkylating the benzene present in the hydrocarbon composition of step (b) with propylene in the presence of a catalyst comprising at least one of a crystalline MCM-22 family material and a zeolite beta molecular sieve to produce an effluent which comprises cumene and unreacted benzene coboilers, said conditions include a temperature in the range of from about 110° C. to about 170° C., a pressure sufficient to maintain the benzene and the propylene mixture in at least partial liquid phase, a mole ratio of propylene to benzene in the range of from about 0.001:1 to about 0.75:1, and a feed weight hourly space velocity in the range of from about 0.1 to about 10 hr1;
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- (d) distilling said effluent of step (c) to produce a cumene product having a purity of at least 99.50 percent based on the weight of cumene present in the product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.