Patent ID: 9732018
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: C07C,C10G,C10L,Y02P

Claim:
1. A process for simultaneously hydrating and oligomerizing a hydrocarbon feed comprising mixed olefins, the process comprising the steps of: introducing the hydrocarbon feed in the presence of water into a fixed bed reactor under reaction conditions that are operable to hydrate the mixed olefins and oligomerize at least a portion of the mixed olefins; contacting the hydrocarbon feed with a catalyst within the fixed bed reactor, wherein the catalyst is of the type that hydrates the mixed olefins to form mixed alcohols and oligomerizes at least a portion of the mixed olefins into oligomers to produce a first product stream that includes an organic phase and an aqueous phase; introducing the first product stream into a first separator which separates the organic phase from the aqueous phase; introducing the separated organic phase into a second separator which separates unreacted olefins from mixed alcohols and one or more oligomers which comprise a final product stream; and introducing the separated aqueous phase into a third separator which separates an alcohol-water azeotrope component from waters; wherein the mixed olefins comprise mixed butenes including 1-butene, 2-trans-butene, 2-cis-butene, and isobutene and the mixed alcohols comprise mixed butanols; wherein the second separator comprises a debutenizer which removes unreacted butenes and the final product stream comprises mixed butanols and DIB.