MANUFACTURE OF SECONDARY-BUTYL ALCOHOL AND SECONDARY-BUTYL-TERTIARY-BUTYL ETHER

摘要

A process for producing sec-butanol and sec-butyl tert-butyl ether from butane comprises: (a) partially isomerizing n-butane to produce a mixture of n-butane and isobutane; (b) catalytically dehydrogenating said butanes to produce a mixture containing at least butene-1, isobutene and butadiene; (c) selectively hydrogenating butadiene and converting butene-1 to butene-2; (d) etherifying isobutene contained in the dehydrogenation reaction mixture with sec-butanol to form a mixture of sec-butyl tert-butyl ether and unreacted hydrocarbons; (e) converting butene-2 from the unreacted hydrocarbon mixture by hydration to produce sec-butanol; (f) recycling said sec-butanol to the etherification step; recovering said sec-butyl tert-butyl ether.