Patent ID: 7462752

Claim:
A process for the conversion of alkanes to alpha olefins which comprises: a) halogenating linear alkanes, branched alkanes, or a mixture of linear and branched alkanes to produce a mixture of primary mono-haloalkanes, internal mono-haloalkanes, unreacted alkanes, hydrogen halide, and possibly multi-haloalkanes wherein the halogenation is carried out thermally and/or catalytically; b) separating the hydrogen halide produced in step a) from the other components of the mixture from step a) and optionally neutralizing it with a metal oxide or mixture of metal oxides to produce a partially halogenated metal oxide and/or metal halide or mixture of partially halogenated metal oxides and/or metal halides; c) separating the primary mono-haloalkanes from the mixture of step b); d) reacting the separated primary mono-haloalkanes with a metal oxide or combination of metal oxides to convert the primary mono-haloalkanes to a mixture of products that contains alpha olefins, unconverted primary mono-haloalkanes, and possibly other reaction products; and also contains a partially halogenated metal oxide and/or metal halide or a mixture of partially halogenated metal oxides and/or metal halides; e) regenerating the partially halogenated metal oxide and/or metal halide or a mixture of partially halogenated metal oxides and/or metal halides to halogen and/or acid and a metal oxide or mixture of metal oxides; and f) removing the unreacted primary mono-haloalkanes from the alpha olefins and then purifying the alpha olefins; wherein the internal mono-haloalkanes are recycled and reacted in a separate isomerization reactor to convert some of the internal mono-haloalkanes to primary mono-haloalkanes which are then recycled to step (d).