Waste products from the butane-butylene fraction as raw material for the production of methyl-tert-butyl ether

Abstract

The gradual decrease in the production of leaded gasolines requires the use of highoctane components of catalytic cracking, reforming, and isomerization, of gaseous hydrocarbons from the alkylation of C3-C 4 olefins with isobutane as well as the synthesis of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) from ethanol and isobutylene. The world isomerization of MTBE with an octane number of about 120 (by the RM) exceeds 30 million tons/year and continues growing [I]. In the USSR significant resources of isobutylene are used in the synthetic rubber industry. The production of butylene feedstock can be increased by creating new capacities for pyrolysis, dehydrogenation, or catalytic cracking. This deepening of petroleum processing is closely related to the development of catalytic cracking. A promising G-43-I07 unit with a capacity of 2 million tons/year with respect to the feedstock can produce an average of 220,000 tons/year of the butane-butylene fraction as a side product [2]. Different variants of the processing procedure are possible in order to increase the production of high-octane components for automobile gasolines. The first stage of all variants is the synthesis of MTBE on the basis of isobutylene, the content of which in the butylene fraction reaches 12%. The hydrocarbon composition of the spent butane-butylene fraction (BBF) after separation of isobutylene is as follows (mass %): propylene 1.4; propane i.i; n-butylenes 48; isobutane 38.4; n-butane 9.3; pentanes 1.8.