Peter R. Pujado

Recent advances in processes and catalysts for the production of acetic acid

Novel acetic acid processes and catalysts have been introduced, commercialized, and improved continuously since the 1950s. The objective of the development of new acetic acid processes has been to reduce raw material consumption, energy requirements, and investment costs. At present, industrial processes for the production of acetic acid are dominated by methanol carbonylation and the oxidation of hydrocarbons such as acetaldehyde, ethylene, n-butane, and naphtha. This paper discusses advances in acetic acid processes and catalysts according to the following routes: (1) methanol carbonylation; (2) methyl formate isomerization; (3) synthesis gas to acetic acid; (4) vapor phase oxidation of ethylene, and (5) other novel technologies.

Handbook of Petroleum Processing

From the contents:Part I. An Introduction to Crude Oil and its Processing. Petroleum Products. The Refining Processes. The Support Services Common to Most Refineries. The Refinery Environmental Issues. Handling Hazardous Materials and Safety. Quality Control of Refinery Products. Refinery Planning, Economics, and Handling New Projects. Process Equipment in Petroleum Refining.- Part II. Dictionary of terms and expressions.

Most recent developments in ethylene and propylene production from natural gas using the UOP/Hydro MTO process

Abstract The UOP/Hydro MTO Process utilizes a SAPO-34-containing catalyst that provides up to 80% yield of ethylene and propylene at near-complete methanol conversion. The process has great flexibility to produce a product with a range of ethylene/propylene ratios, depending on the operating conditions used. This paper will discuss recent improvements related to the technology which have increased the carbon selectivity from methanol to ethylene-plus-propylene to about 85–90%.

16 Converting natural gas to ethylene and propylene using the UOP/HYDRO MTO process

Abstract The development of new ways to convert natural gas, especially methane, to higher valued products is one of the keys to increasing the utilization of this abundant natural resource. The combination of methanol production using state-of-the-art mega methanol technology with the new methanol-to-olefins (MTO) process developed by UOP and Norsk Hydro provides an economically attractive route from natural gas to ethylene and propylene. These light olefins are feedstocks for a wide variety of high-value petrochemicals and polymers. The UOP/HYDRO MTO process utilizes a SAPO-34-containing catalyst, which provides up to 80% yield of ethylene and propylene at near-complete methanol conversion. The process has great flexibility to produce a product with a range of ethylene/propylene ratios, depending on the operating conditions used. A major end use for both ethylene and propylene is the production of polyolefins. Since polymerization catalysts are very sensitive to a wide variety of poisons, trace by-products in the MTO light oflefin effluent have been identified. Conventional treating methods have been shown to be effective for removing these by-products to the specification levels required for olefin polymerization processes. This work has shown that the ethylene and propylene produced by the MTO process is a suitable feedstock for olefin polymerization.