Project Details
Abstract
High purity isobutene has high economic value added. Traditionally, it is difficult to separate the
isobutene and n-butene in the C4 streams from refinery fluid catalytic cracking units. It is reported methyl
tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) production can separate the isobutene from the linear butenes due to its higher
reactivity to methanol over acid resin catalysts. The optimal conditions of four different configurations for
production of MTBE first considered by Kim and Douglas (2002) have been explored in depth in our
previous study. Two feeds include pure methanol feed and C4 feed containing 35.6 mol% isobutene and
64.4 mol% inert n-butene are considered. Under the specifications set as 98 mol% MTBE purity and 197
mol/s MTBE production rate, economic analysis shows the reactive distillation (RD) processes are better
than the conventional reaction/separation processes. Moreover, the process with single RD column has the
least total annual cost (TAC). Thus, the stream of bottom products of this single RD process is then fed to
the MTBE decomposition section for recovering isobutylene and methanol.
It is known the process of MTBE decomposition would possess higher conversion in gas-phase reaction.
Therefore, the optimal conditions of three different configurations for gas-phase MTBE decomposition, an
isothermal reactor with a separator, single RD column, and a pre-reactor with a RD column, are then
investigated by comparing the total annual cost in this work. Finally, under the specifications set as 98
mol% isobutene purity and 94 mol% methanol purity, economic analysis demonstrates that the conventional
reaction/separation process for gas-phase MTBE decomposition are better than the reactive distillation
processes due to its lower energy consumption.
Project IDs
Project ID:PB10507-2516
External Project ID:MOST105-2221-E182-075
External Project ID:MOST105-2221-E182-075
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 01/08/16 → 31/07/17 |
Keywords
- High purity isobutene
- Synthesis and decomposition of MTBE
- Reactive distillation
- Total annual
Fingerprint
Explore the research topics touched on by this project. These labels are generated based on the underlying awards/grants. Together they form a unique fingerprint.