Advanced RWD[trademark] technology for ethers provides gasoline flexibility

Conference · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:7271261

Becker, R A; DeGarmo, J L ^[1]; Davis, S P; Frey, S J ^[2]

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1. Koch Engineering Co., Inc., Wichita, KS (United States)
2. UOP, Des Plaines, IL (United States)

The Ethermax process can be used to produce MTBE, TAME, ETBE, and tertiary amyl ethyl ether (TAEE). This process combined the UOP-Huels fixed-bed etherification process with advanced RWD reaction with distillation technology from Koch Engineering Company, Inc. The combined technology overcomes reaction equilibrium limitations inherent in a conventional fixed-bed etherification process. The typical Ethermax design has one lead reactor followed by an RWD column using KataMax packing from Koch. KataMax packing represents a unique and proprietary approach to exposing a solid catalyst to a liquid stream inside a distillation column. The reactive distillation zone of the RWD column uses KataMax packing to overcome reaction equilibrium constraints by continuously fractionating the ether product from unreacted feed components. As the ether product is distilled away, the reacting mixture is no longer at equilibrium. This fractionation promotes additional conversion of the reactants. Overall, isobutylene conversions of 98 to 99% and reactive isoamylene conversions of 91 to 98% can be achieved with this process. These design specifications are typical for gasoline blending; however, practically any olefin conversion is achievable by designing a unit to accommodate individual refinery needs. The flexibility of the Ethermax process provides refiners with many routes to increase oxygenate levels in their gasoline pool. Existing MTBE units can be converted to TAME, ETBE, or TAEE production. Increases in throughput and olefin conversion are possible in an existing ether unit by revamping it to the Ethermax process. The revamp increases the oxygenate level of the gasoline pool, and the resulting octane improvement allows a refiner the flexibility to optimize gasoline production from other refinery processes. This paper discusses the operation of and applications for the Ethermax process using KataMax packing.

• OSTI ID: 7271261
• Report Number(s): CONF-9403125--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020500* -- Petroleum-- Products & By-Products
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
100200 -- Synthetic Fuels-- Production-- (1990-)
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400201 -- Chemical & Physicochemical Properties
ADDITIVES
ALCOHOLS
ALKENES
DATA
DIAGRAMS
EFFICIENCY
ETHANOL
ETHERS
EXTRACTION APPARATUSES
EXTRACTION COLUMNS
FLOWSHEETS
FUEL ADDITIVES
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
METHANOL
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PACKINGS
PRODUCTION
SEPARATION EQUIPMENT