Process for the utilization of refinery C4 streams

摘要

A process is disclosed for preparing a C4 stream for feeding to an alkylation process which reacts isobutane with butene to produce isooctane. The C4 stream is treated in a first distillation column reactor to remove dienes and mercaptans and separate out any C5's which might be present. The treated C4's are then fed to a second distillation column reactor that concurrently isomerizes 1-butene to 2-butene and splits the normal C4's from the iso C4'S. The iso C4's are then fed to a third distillation column reactorwhere a portion of the isobutene is saturated to isobutane. The C4's from the isomerization/splitter are combined with the C4's from the hydrogenation unit and fed to a cold acid alkylation unit. The third distillation column may also oligomerize a portion of the isobutene to diisobutene in the upper end which is saturated in the bottom of the column to isooctane.