MTBE production change to ETBE 1

[Gyugyi]

As I have already found that some of you have experiance on MTBE production change to ETBE I would like to ask you to tell me what kind of operational and/or other problems you faced with after the unit startup. As my company is in the planning phase I would like to know which areas are the most critical that we could focus on.

 

[phex]

we have so far revamped 3 mtbe plants and have hab no problems at all. you will have to reduce the ethanol-c4 ratio in comparison to the old methanol-c4 ratio, and you should take a deep look into your alcohol-recovery column. there,you change from an easy to separate system (methanol-water) to an azeotropic system (ethanol-water) which will result in higher column flowrates. also, if you intend to recycle the alcohol, check water contents! with one column you will not be able to reduce it beyond the azeotropic point (you will probably not even reach the azeotropewith the old colum).

good luck!
chris

 

[jsummerfield]

Some MTBE processes such as CD-Tech were designed to be very similar for ETBE and TAME.

John