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U.S. Department of Energy
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Direct conversion of Light Hydrocarbons to Olefins (Final report)

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1869574· OSTI ID:1869574
 [1]
  1. Reaction35 LLC, Santa Barbara, CA (United States); Reaction35 LLC; Reaction35 LLC; Reaction35 LLC

Reaction35 is developing a new industrial process that is substantially different from the traditional standalone dehydrogenation process practiced in industry such as Oleflex® and Catofin®. Those processes have substantial energy consumption and loss of feed constraints. The Reaction35 process is based on using molecular bromine to activate the alkane (e.g., nbutane) by forming highly reactive butyl bromides. The butyl bromides are easily converted to nbutylenes (final product) and hydrogen bromide. The hydrogen bromide generated in bromination and dehydrobromination is oxidized with air, recovering the molecular bromine which is reused. The overall result is a process with a favorably low energy consumption and less than 1 % overall loss of feed compared to more than 5 % for the direct dehydrogenation processes. During the grant period, several important aspects of the technology have been developed further. The major effort was the hydrogenation catalyst step development. The hydrogenation catalyst is used for recovery of the polybromobutanes to the bromobutanes intermediates. The scientific field regarding dibromo- and polybromoalkanes has not been extensively studied, which necessitated that Reaction35 performs a full study of a number of catalysts and the various experimental conditions that influence the hydrogenation reaction. Currently, Reaction35 has completed its catalyst selection and preliminary experimental parameters optimization. This will allow for the construction of an engineering model for a pilot unit testing.

Research Organization:
Reaction35 LLC, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
DOE Contract Number:
SC0015174
OSTI ID:
1869574
Report Number(s):
DOE-Reaction35-SC0015174
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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