Patent ID: 8293960

Claim:
A process for the production of butadiene comprising the steps of: (a) feeding a first feed stream comprising a mixture of C 4 olefins to a combination butenes isomerization reaction and distillation tower to produce an overhead stream comprising isobutene and a bottoms stream comprising 2-butene; (b) feeding at least a portion of the bottoms stream to an oxydehydrogenation unit to convert the 2-butenes to butadiene; (c) separating the butadiene in the oxydehydrogenation unit effluent from unreacted compounds and by-products; (d) feeding at least a portion of the overhead stream to a reverse isomerization unit to convert isobutene to n-butene; and (e) feeding at least a portion of the effluent from the reverse isomerization unit to the combination butenes isomerization reaction and distillation tower.