Patent ID: 7161051
Filing Date: 2007-01-09
Classification: C01B,C07C,C10G,Y02P

Abstract:
1. A process for producing light olefins, the process comprising the steps of: (a) providing a syngas stream comprising syngas, wherein the syngas comprises hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide; (b) converting at least a portion of the syngas in the syngas stream to methanol and water in a methanol-containing stream; (c) removing water from at least a portion of the methanol-containing stream in an integrated methanol/water separation unit to form a dry methanol stream containing methanol; (d) directing at least a portion of the dry methanol stream to an MTO reactor; (e) contacting at least a portion of the methanol in the at least a portion of the dry methanol stream with a molecular sieve catalyst in the MTO reactor under conditions effective to convert the at least a portion of the methanol to the light olefins and water in an effluent stream; (f) directing at least a portion of the effluent stream to the integrated methanol/water separation unit; and (g) removing water from the at least a portion of the effluent stream in the integrated methanol/water separation unit and recovering an oxygenate stream that contains at least 80 weight percent methanol from the integrated methanol/water separation unit, wherein the process further including steps (h) providing an initial natural gas stream containing natural gas and one or more compounds containing sulfur; (i) removing at least a portion of the one or more compounds containing sulfur from the initial natural gas stream in a desulfurization unit, thereby forming a processed natural gas stream; and (j) forming the syngas in the syngas stream provided in step (a) from at least a portion of the natural gas in the processed natural gas stream.