Patent ID: 7803978

Claim:
A process for oligomerizing light olefins to produce heavy olefins comprising: feeding a first reactant stream of light olefins and from about 1 to about 4 weight percent oxygenate modifier to a first reactor containing a solid oligomerization catalyst; catalytically oligomerizing said light olefins to product oligomers in said first reactor; passing a first product stream from said first reactor to a flash vessel to roughly separate a vapor phase from a liquid phase; passing said liquid phase of said first product stream to a fractionation column to separate light olefins from product oligomers; collecting an overhead stream of alkanes and light olefins from said fractionation column; passing a second reactant stream of light olefins and oxygenate modifier taken as a sidecut from said fractionation column to a second reactor containing a solid oligomerization catalyst; catalytically oligomerizing said light olefins to product oligomers in said second reactor; and passing at least a portion of a second product stream from said second reactor to said fractionation column to separate light olefins from said product oligomers.