Typical compositions of C4 streams from FCC

Prom a research point of view, MTBE synthesis via reactive distillation still represents a major development in the field and an open door to novel and innovative processes. 

MTBE is produced from methanol (MeOH) and isobutene ( 4) in an equilibrium-limited liquid-phase reaction (Jimenez et al., 2001) catalyzed heterogeneously by bentonites, zeolites or strong acidic macroporous ion-exchange resins (e.g. Amberlyst 15), or homogeneously by sulfuric acid according to the following stoichiometry, 

The iGi stream can be originated from several sources (Peters et al., 2000) ( ) as coproduct of butadiene production from steam cracker C4 fractions, ( ) as product of selective hydrogenation of butadiene in mixed C4 fractions from steam crackers Hi) as iC4 in the C4 fraction of FCC units (iv) as coproduct of the dehydrogenation of isobutane, and (v) as coproduct of dehydration of t-butanol. 

In this research, the FCC source has been considered as feedstock for the MTBE production. This stream, which represents 29% of the MTBE production worldwide, contains a complete range of butanes and butenes, as can be seen in table B.l. For the sake of simplifying the study and provided that the reaction is highly selective for all the organic components in the iC stream are lumped together as inert nC4 (Giittinger, 1998). 

Conventional process. The conventional route in the synthesis of MTBE is described in detail in Kirk-Othmer (1994) and Peters et al. (2000). For instance, the Hiils-MTBE process (figure B.l) operates with a given molar excess of methanol on 

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Table B.l. Typical compositions of C4 streams from FCC (Peters et al., 2000)...

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