METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A CHEMICAL COMPOUND AND THE PRODUCED CHEMICAL COMPOUND

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for producing a chemical compound from biomass based raw material. The bio-mass based raw material is gasified in a gasification device for forming a gasification gas, the gasification gas is treated in the reactor which includes at least one catalyst layer including Fe-based catalyst for forming a hydrocarbon composition, at least one hydrocarbon fraction including olefins is recovered from the hydrocarbon composition, and a chemical compound is formed from the hydrocarbon fraction. Further, the invention relates to the produced chemical compound.

Claims

1. A method for producing a chemical compound from biomass based raw material, characterized in that the biomass based raw material is gasified in a gasification device for forming a gasification gas, the gasification gas is treated in the reactor which comprises at least one catalyst layer including Fe-based catalyst for forming a hydrocarbon composition, at least one hydrocarbon fraction comprising olefins is recovered from the hydrocarbon composition so that the hydrocarbon fraction comprising C3 and C4+ olefins and paraffines, the hydrocarbon fraction comprising C4 olefins and paraffines and/or the hydrocarbon fraction comprising C6-C18 -olefins are separated from the hydrocarbon composition, and the separated hydrocarbon fraction is treated for forming a chemical compound.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that reaction pressure is between 1-10 bar.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that temperature of the catalyst layer is between 200-350 C. in the reactor.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the hydrocarbon composition is condensated by water.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the hydrocarbon composition is fractionated for recovering at least one hydrocarbon fraction comprising olefins.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that the fractionating of the hydrocarbon composition is performed by using distillation.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the hydrocarbon composition or the hydrocarbon fraction comprising C3 and C4+ olefins and paraffines is treated by an aromatization which is performed at normal pressure and in the presence of a zeolite catalyst for forming aromatics.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that at least benzene fraction is separated from the aromatics, and the benzene fraction is partially oxidized for forming maleic anhydride.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the hydrocarbon fraction, consisting of C4 olefins and paraffines, is partially oxidized for forming maleic anhydride.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the hydrocarbon fraction comprising C6-C18 -olefins is treated by a reaction with maleic anhydride so that olefins react with maleic anhydride for forming alkenyl succinic anhydride.

11. An apparatus for producing a chemical compound from biomass based raw material, characterized in that the apparatus comprises a gasification device (2) in which the biomass based raw material (1) is gasified to form a gasification gas (3), a feeding device for feeding the biomass based raw material (1) to a gasification device (2), a reactor (4) comprising at least one catalyst layer in which the gasification gas (3) is treated by means of Fe-based catalyst for forming a hydrocarbon composition (5), a recovery device (6) for recovering at least one hydrocarbon fraction (7,7a,7b,7c) comprising olefins so that the hydrocarbon fraction comprising C3 and C4+ olefins and paraffines, the hydrocarbon fraction comprising C4 olefins and paraffines and/or the hydrocarbon fraction comprising C6-C18 -olefins are separated from the hydrocarbon composition, and at least one treatment device (8,10,12,16,18) for forming a chemical compound (9,11,17,19) from the separated hydrocarbon fraction.

12. A chemical compound obtainable by the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

13. The chemical compound according to claim 12, characterized in that the chemical compound is maleic anhydride, alkenyl succinic anhydride or their combination.

14. A use of the chemical compound according to any one of claims to claims 12 to 13, characterized in that the chemical compound is used as a final product or as a component in the final product or as an energy component.

Description

LIST OF FIGURES

[0048] In the following section, the invention will be described with the aid of detailed exemplary embodiments, referring to the accompanying figure wherein

[0049] FIG. 1 presents one embodiment according to the invention,

[0050] FIG. 2 presents another embodiment according to the invention,

[0051] FIG. 3 presents another embodiment according to the invention, and

[0052] FIG. 4 presents test results.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Example 1

[0053] FIG. 1 presents the method according to the invention for producing a chemical compound.

[0054] The chemical compound (9) is formed from biomass based raw material (1). The biomass based raw material (1) is gasified in a gasification device (2) in order to form a gasification gas (3). Preferably, the gasification gas is cleaned.

[0055] The gasification gas (3) is fed into a reactor (4) which comprises the catalyst layer containing Fe-based catalyst, and the gasification gas is treated in the reactor, under pressure between 1-10 bar, in order to form a hydrocarbon composition (5). From the reactor (4) the hydrocarbon composition (5) is fed into a fractionating device (6), such as a distillation device, in which the hydrocarbon composition (5) is fractionated and at least one hydrocarbon fraction (7) is recovered from the hydrocarbon composition. The hydrocarbon composition may be condensated by water before the fractionating. The hydrocarbon fraction (7) is treated in the treatment step (8), and the chemical compound is formed.

[0056] The reactor (4) comprises a temperature controlling device and a pressure controlling device which are arranged to control the temperature and pressure in the catalyst layer of the reactor. Preferably, sulphur is mainly removed from the gasification gas in the reactor (4) in which the catalyst layer acts as a sulphur removing layer.

Example 2

[0057] FIG. 2 presents the method according to the invention for producing a maleic anhydride.

[0058] The maleic anhydride (11,17) is formed from biomass based raw material (1). The biomass based raw material (1) is gasified in a gasification device (2) in order to form a gasification gas (3). Preferably, the gasification gas is cleaned.

[0059] The gasification gas (3) is fed into a modified Fischer-Tropsch reactor (4) which comprises the catalyst layer containing Fe-based catalyst, and the gasification gas is treated in the reactor, under pressure between 1-10 bar, in order to form a hydrocarbon composition (5). The hydrocarbon composition (5) comprises olefins and also paraffines. From the reactor (4) the hydrocarbon composition (5) is fed into a fractionating device (6), such as a distillation device, in which the hydrocarbon composition (5) is fractionated and at least two hydrocarbon fractions (7a and 7b) are recovered from the hydrocarbon composition. The first hydrocarbon fraction (7a) contains butenes and butanes. The second hydrocarbon fraction (7b) contains C3 and C4+ hydrocarbons, such as C3 and C4+ olefins and paraffines.

[0060] The first hydrocarbon fraction (7a) is partially oxidized (10) to the maleic anhydride (11).

[0061] The second hydrocarbon fraction (7b) is converted to aromatic hydrocarbons (13) in an aromatization reactor (12) under normal pressure and in the presence of a zeolite catalyst. The aromatic hydrocarbons (13) are fractionated (14), e.g. by distillation or crystallisation, and a benzene fraction (15) comprising benzene and o-xylene is separated from the aromatic hydrocarbons. The benzene fraction (15) is partially oxidized (16) for forming the maleic anhydride (17).

[0062] The modified Fischer-Tropsch reactor (4) comprises a temperature controlling device and a pressure controlling device which are arranged to control the temperature and pressure in the catalyst layer of the reactor. Preferably, sulphur is mainly removed from the gasification gas in the reactor (4) in which the catalyst layer acts as a sulphur removing layer.

Example 3

[0063] FIG. 3 presents the method according to the invention for producing an alkenyl succinic anhydride (ASA).

[0064] The alkenyl succinic anhydride (19) is formed from biomass based raw material (1). The biomass based raw material (1) is gasified in a fluid bed gasifier (2) in order to form a gasification gas (3). Preferably, the gasification gas is cleaned.

[0065] The gasification gas (3) is fed into a modified Fischer-Tropsch reactor (4) which comprises the catalyst layer containing Fe-based catalyst, and the gasification gas is treated in the reactor, under pressure between 1-10 bar, in order to form a hydrocarbon composition (5). From the reactor (4) the hydrocarbon composition (5) is fed into a fractionating device (6), such as a distillation device, in which the hydrocarbon composition (5) is fractionated and at least one hydrocarbon fraction (7c) is recovered from the hydrocarbon composition. The hydrocarbon fraction (7c) contains C8-C16 -olefins. The hydrocarbon fraction (7c) is treated by a reaction with maleic anhydride in a treatment device (18) so that olefins react with maleic anhydride for forming alkenyl succinic anhydride (19). The maleic anhydride may be biobased maleic anhydride, e.g. from a process according to example 2, or other maleic anhydride.

[0066] The reactor (4) comprises a temperature controlling device and a pressure controlling device which are arranged to control the temperature and pressure in the catalyst layer of the reactor. Preferably, sulphur is mainly removed from the gasification gas in the reactor (4) in which the catalyst layer acts as a sulphur removing layer.

Example 4

[0067] Forest residue wood chips were gasified in a circulating fluid bed gasifier equipped with a ceramic filter and a catalytic reformer. A slip stream of the gas was dried and purified using an adsorption bed. The purified gas was treated in a tubular reactor (stainless steel, inner diameter 12 mm) over a precipitated iron catalyst promoted by potassium. The reaction conditions were: GHSV 2000 h.sup.1, H.sub.2/CO-ratio 1.4 (mol/mol), temperature 240 C. and pressure 5 bar. Under these conditions CO conversion was about 65% after 50 hours on stream. Water was separated from the reaction product and the hydrocarbon composition was analysed by gas chromatography. The composition and the share of olefins are shown in table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Hydrocarbon share of product mass-% olefins/mass-% C1 12.9 C2 14.3 48.2 C3 15.2 76.5 C4 11.3 87.2 C5 9.0 86.9 C6 8.9 73.6 C7 7.3 76.1 C8 4.8 82.0 C9 3.6 80.8 C10 3.1 81.7 C11 2.5 83.4 C12 1.8 80.4 C13 1.6 74.3 C14 1.0 72.1 heavier than 2.7 71.1 C14 hydrocarbons

Example 5

[0068] A highly olefinic hydrocarbon fraction was recovered from the product of Example 4 using distillation. The composition of the obtained fraction is shown in table 2. In addition to olefins the fraction contains also paraffines.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Hydrocarbon mass-% C9 0.2 C10 5.0 C11 18.4 C12 23.9 C13 20.1 C14 13.6 C15 8.3 C16 5.8 C17 2.9 C18 1.7 heavier 0.2 than C18

[0069] A 300 ml laboratory autoclave was charged with a portion of the recovered fraction and maleic anhydride in a molar ratio of about 1.2:1. The autoclave was closed, filled with nitrogen and heated to 220 C. The reactor was kept at this temperature for 5 h. The reactor was mixed with a turbine mixer at 600 rpm. The obtained product contained ASA in a yield of 48%.

Example 6

[0070] Fischer-Tropsch type reaction (FT-reaction) was carried out using the same setup and reaction conditions as in example 4. The outlet of the back pressure valve controlling the reaction pressure of the FT-reaction was connected directly to an aromatization reactor which was a tubular reactor, made of stainless steel, with an inner diameter 40 mm. The aromatization reaction was carried out in the presence of a ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst promoted with Zn and La. The catalyst mass was selected to give a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 0.4 or 1.1 g/(g.sub.cat h). The reactor was heated with a furnace to temperatures of 350-400 and the reaction was carried out at atmospheric pressure. Water was separated from the product and the product was analysed using gas chromatography after the aromatization. The composition of the product is given in FIG. 4.

[0071] The parts and devices used in this invention are known per se in the art, and therefore they are not described in any more detail in this context.

[0072] The method and apparatus according to the invention is suitable in different embodiments for forming different kinds of chemical compounds.

[0073] The invention is not limited merely to the examples referred to above; instead many variations are possible within the scope of the inventive idea defined by the claims.