A process is provided for converting mevalonic acid into various useful products and derivatives. More particularly, the process comprises reacting mevalonic acid, or a solution comprising mevalonic acid, in the presence of a solid catalyst at an elevated temperature and pressure to thereby form various biobased products. The process may also comprise: (a) providing a microbial organism that expresses a biosynthetic mevalonic acid pathway; (b) growing the microbial organism in fermentation medium comprising suitable carbon substrates, whereby biobased mevalonic acid is produced; and (c) reacting the biobased mevalonic acid in the presence of a solid catalyst at an elevated temperature and pressure to yield various biobased products.

Methods of simultaneously converting butanes and methanol to olefins over Ti-containing zeolite catalysts are described. The exothermicity of the alcohols to olefins reaction is matched by endothermicity of dehydrogenation reaction of butane(s) to light olefins resulting in a thermo-neutral process. The Ti-containing zeolites provide excellent selectivity to light olefins as well as exceptionally high hydrothermal stability. The coupled reaction may advantageously be conducted in a staged reactor with methanol/DME conversion zones alternating with zones for butane(s) dehydrogenation. The resulting light olefins can then be reacted with iso-butane to produce high-octane alkylate. The net result is a highly efficient and low cost method for converting methanol and butanes to alkylate.

Provided is a technology for efficiently manufacturing 1,3-butadiene from 1,4-butanediol or 3-buten-1-ol in a reaction condition with a high conversion rate. A catalyst for manufacturing 1,3-butadiene, contains: ytterbium oxide as an active component for generating 1,3-butadiene from 1,4-butanediol or 3-buten-1-ol. In addition, a manufacturing method of 1,3-butadiene, includes: a step of obtaining a fluid containing 1,3-butadiene by bringing at least one of 1,4-butanediol and 3-buten-1-ol into contact with the catalyst for manufacturing 1,3-butadiene.

Steam cracking of ethane, a non-catalytic thermochemical process, remains the dominant means of ethylene production. The severe reaction conditions and energy expenditure involved in this process incentivize the search for alternative reaction pathways and reactor designs which maximize ethylene yield while minimizing cost and energy input. According to the present invention, ethylene yields as high as 68% were obtained with a quartz open tube reactor without the use of a catalyst or a cofed stream of oxidizing agents. The open tube reactor design promotes simplicity, low cost, and negligible coke formation. Reactor designs can be optimized to improve the conversion of ethane to ethylene via non-oxidative dehydrogenation, an approach which shows promise for decentralized production of ethylene from natural gas deposits.

The invention relates to a process, unit and reaction system of low-carbon alkane dehydrogenation, which comprises the following steps: C3-C5 low-carbon alkane feed gas, together with CO and/or CO.sub.2 process gas, get into reactor after being preheated to 200-500° C., contact with a Cr—Ce—Cl/Al.sub.2O.sub.3 dehydrogenation catalyst, a Cu—Ce—Ca—Cl/Al.sub.2O.sub.3 thermal generating agent and thermal storage/support inert alumina balls, and convert to dehydrogenation products for 5-30 minutes under the conditions: temperature, 500-700° C., pressure, 10-100 kPa and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV), 0.1-5 hours.sup.−1. The products formed enter the downstream separation unit for separating out the low-carbon alkenes. The periodic regeneration process of the catalyst bed includes steam purging, hot air regenerating, bed heating, evacuating and reducing at 560 to 730° C. and 0.01 to 1 MPa. Each cycle needs about 10-70 minutes. With such dehydrogenation process, the reaction heat balance is moderated, and temperature gradient and reaction severity in the catalyst bed are reduced. As a consequence, the catalytic conversion, product selectivity, operation cycle and service life are improved. The system energy consumption is reduced.

The invention relates to a composition containing a catalyst having high catalytic stability for conducting oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) at high carbon efficiency, while improving both methane and oxygen conversion. Particularly, the inventive catalyst is a metal oxide supported catalyst, which contains an alkali metal promoter and a mixed metal oxide component having at least one alkali earth metal and at least one rare earth metal. The metal oxide support is selected in a manner, such that at least a portion of the metal oxide support is capable of reacting with at least a part or whole of the alkali metal promoter under conditions of calcination during catalyst preparation. The invention further provides a method for preparing such a metal oxide supported catalyst composition, using a calcination process. Additionally, the invention further describes a process for producing C.sub.2+ hydrocarbons, using such a catalyst composition.

The present invention provides a process of catalytic depolymerization of polystyrene involving a spherical catalyst, an apparatus for carrying out the depolymerization, recovering the aromatic rich liquid product and recycling the catalyst without any decrease in the catalytic performance. Further, the present invention provides that the aromatic rich liquid product includes styrene, xylene, benzene, ethyl benzene, with styrene content greater than 65%. Additionally, the catalyst involved in the depolymerization process is a spherical catalyst that is easily recovered from coke/char formed during the process and is recycled and reused without any decrease in the catalytic performance.

Processes for producing olefins include passing a hydrocarbon feed to a hydrocarbon cracking unit that cracks the hydrocarbon feed to produce a cracker effluent, passing the cracker effluent to a cracker effluent separation system that separates the cracker effluent to produce at least a cracking C4 effluent including 1-butene, 1,3-butadiene, and isobutene, passing the cracking C4 effluent to an SHIU that contacts the cracking C4 effluent with hydrogen in the presence of a selective hydrogenation catalyst to produce a hydrogenation effluent having a 2-butenes concentration greater than or equal to the sum of the concentrations of 1-butene and isobutene. The processes include passing the hydrogenation effluent to a metathesis unit that contacts the hydrogenation effluent with a metathesis catalyst and a cracking catalyst downstream of the metathesis catalyst to produce a metathesis reaction effluent comprising at least propene.

A process for producing a diene, preferably a conjugated diene, more preferably 1,3-butadiene, includes the steps of dehydrating at least one alkenol in the presence of at least one catalytic material having at least one acid catalyst based on silica (SiO.sub.2) and alumina (Al.sub.2O.sub.3), preferably a silica-alumina (SiO.sub.2—Al.sub.2O.sub.3), the catalyst having an alumina content (Al.sub.2O.sub.3) lower than or equal to 12% by weight, preferably between 0.1% by weight and 10% by weight, with respect to the catalyst total weight. The alumina content is referred to the catalyst total weight without binder, and a pore modal diameter between 9 nm and 170 nm, preferably between 10 nm and 150 nm, still more preferably between 12 nm and 120 nm. Preferably, the alkenol is obtainable directly from biosynthetic processes, or catalytic dehydration processes of at least one diol, preferably a butanediol, more preferably 1,3-butanediol, still more preferably bio-1,3-butanediol, deriving from biosynthetic processes.

According to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, chemical streams may be processed by a method which may comprise operating a first chemical process, stopping the first chemical process and removing the first catalyst from the reactor, and operating a second chemical process. The reaction of the first chemical process may be a dehydrogenation reaction, a cracking reaction, a dehydration reaction, or a methanol-to-olefin reaction. The reaction of the second chemical process may be a dehydrogenation reaction, a cracking reaction, a dehydration reaction, or a methanol-to-olefin reaction. The first reaction and the second reaction may be different types of reactions.