Patent ID: 8084659

Claim:
A process for upgrading a mixed hexene stream, the process comprising: feeding an alcohol and a mixed hydrocarbon stream comprising isohexene, 2-hexene, and 3-hexene to an etherification reaction zone containing an etherification catalyst; contacting the isohexene and the alcohol in the presence of the etherification catalyst at reaction conditions of temperature and pressure to convert at least a portion of the isohexene and the alcohol to an ether; recovering an effluent from the etherification reactor comprising ether, 2-hexene, 3-hexene, and unreacted alcohol and isohexene; separating the etherification reactor effluent in a first distillation system to recover a bottoms fraction comprising the ether and an overheads fraction comprising the 2-hexene, 3-hexene, and the unreacted alcohol and isohexene; feeding at least a portion of the overheads fraction to an isomerization reaction zone containing an isomerization catalyst; contacting the 2-hexene and 3-hexene with the isomerization catalyst at conditions of temperature and pressure to convert at least a portion of the 2-hexene and the 3-hexene to 1-hexene; recovering an effluent from the isomerization reaction zone comprising 2-hexene, 3-hexene, isohexene, and 1-hexene; separating the isomerization effluent in a second distillation system to recover a bottoms fraction comprising 2-hexene and 3-hexene and an overheads fraction comprising 1-hexene.