Debutanizer Side Stripper Oligomerate Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current catalysts for oligomerizing light olefins struggle to produce high-quality gasoline and diesel efficiently, as they often result in undesirable products due to branching and boiling point issues, and oligomerization of butenes typically limits yield and quality, especially when trying to produce diesel.
Innovation Solution
A process and apparatus using a debutanizer with a side stripper to recover light, intermediate, and liquid streams, allowing for recycling of these streams to enhance oligomerization and fluid catalytic cracking, thereby optimizing the production of gasoline, diesel, and propylene by controlling the phase and composition of the olefin streams.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If catalysts are used to oligomerize light olefins to make high octane gasoline, then gasoline quality is improved, but the product becomes highly branched and unsuitable for diesel
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the product stream into different boiling point ranges (gasoline and diesel fractions) and uses separate catalyst beds with different selectivities to optimize each fraction independently, allowing high octane gasoline production while maintaining diesel suitability through fractional separation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the oligomerization process by adjusting temperature, pressure, and catalyst composition to control the degree of branching and product distribution, enabling production of both high octane gasoline and diesel-quality products from the same feedstock
2Manufacturing precision
If catalysts are used to oligomerize light olefins to make high cetane diesel, then diesel quality is improved, but the product becomes more linear and reduces gasoline yield and quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the product stream into gasoline and diesel fractions with different boiling point ranges and uses catalysts with different selectivities in separate beds, allowing optimization of diesel quality while preserving gasoline yield through fractional separation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adjusts process parameters including temperature, pressure, and catalyst composition to control the balance between linear and branched product formation, enabling high cetane diesel production while maintaining gasoline quality and yield
3Productivity
If oligomerization of butenes is performed to produce diesel, then diesel production is achieved, but yield is limited and requires multiple passes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple oligomerization reactions in a single pass by using a multi-bed catalyst system that simultaneously performs dimerization, trimerization, and higher oligomerization reactions, achieving high diesel yield in one passage without requiring multiple sequential passes
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes process parameters such as temperature, pressure, and catalyst composition to enhance reaction efficiency and selectivity, enabling high diesel yield in a single pass while reducing the need for complex multi-pass processing
4Reliability
If a liquid phase is maintained in the reactor by hydrogenating heavy olefinic product, then catalyst stability is improved, but the process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the heavy olefinic product itself as a solvent to wash the catalyst and maintain liquid phase conditions, eliminating the need for separate hydrogenation and recycling steps while preserving catalyst stability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the solvent function from the hydrogenation process and assigns it directly to the heavy olefinic product, simplifying the process by removing the need for additional hydrogenation equipment and recycling systems
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables flexible production of gasoline, diesel, and propylene by effectively recycling streams to maintain a liquid phase, improve catalyst stability, and increase the yield of high-quality products by managing the branching and boiling point characteristics of the olefin streams.
Implementation Method 1
a debutanizer with a side stripper to recover a light stream, an intermediate stream and a liquid stream
Implementation Method 2
A liquid phase helps with catalyst stability by acting as a solvent to wash the catalyst of heavier species produced
Implementation Method 3
Typically, this liquid phase in the reactor is maintained by hydrogenating some of the heavy olefinic product and recycling this paraffinic product to the reactor inlet
Implementation Method 4
When oligomerizing light olefins within a refinery... catalysts that make high octane gasoline... catalysts that make high cetane diesel
Data Source
AI summary
A process and apparatus that uses a debutanizer with a side stripper can recover a light stream, an intermediate stream and a liquid stream. One of the intermediate stream and the liquid stream can be recycled to oligomerization or to fluid catalytic cracking.