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Patent Watch--November 2, 2009

The following record is from the CAplus^SM database

CAPLUS COPYRIGHT 2009 ACS

PATENT NUMBER:	EP 2108637
TITLE:	Process to make olefins from ethanol
INVENTOR(S):	Minoux, Delphine; Nesterenko, Nikolai; Vermeiren, Walter; Van Donk, Sander; Grasso, Giacomo
PATENT ASSIGNEE(S):	Total Petrochemicals Research Feluy, Belg.
SOURCE:	PC T Int. Appl., 33pp. CODEN: PIXXD2
LANGUAGE:	English

ABSTRACT: The present invention relates to a process for the conversion of ethanol to make essentially ethylene and propylene, comprises: (a) introducing in a reactor (A) (also called the first low temp. reaction zone) a stream comprising ethanol, optionally water, optionally an inert component, (b) contacting said stream with a catalyst (A1) in said reactor (A) at conditions effective to dehydrate at least a portion of the ethanol to essentially ethylene. It also involves recovering from said reactor an effluent comprising essentially ethylene, minor amts. of various hydrocarbons, water, optionally unconverted ethanol and the optional inert component of step (a), (d) fractionating said effluent of step (c) to remove water, unconverted ethanol, optionally the inert component, and optionally the whole or a part of the various hydrocarbons to get a stream (D) comprising essentially ethylene and optionally the inert component, (e) introducing at least a part of said stream (D) mixed with a stream (D1 ) comprising olefins having 4 carbon atoms or more (C4+ olefins) in a OCP reactor (also called the second high temp. reaction zone) under the condition that the mixt. (D)+(D1) comprises at least 10% of C4+ olefins. Contacting said stream comprises at least a part of (D) and the optional (D1) in said OCP reactor with a catalyst which is selective towards light olefins in the effluent, to produce an effluent with an olefin content of lower mol. wt. than that of the feedstock; fractionating said effluent of step (1) to produce at least an ethylene stream, a propylene stream and a fraction consisting essentially of hydrocarbons having 4 carbon atoms or more, optionally recycling ethylene in whole or in part at the inlet of the OCP reactor of above step, or at the inlet of the reactor (A) or in part at the inlet of the OCP reactor of above step and in part at the inlet of the reactor (A), optionally recycling the fraction consisting essentially of hydrocarbons having 4 carbon atoms or more at the inlet of the OCP reactor.