To produce maleic anhydride from n-butane using a fluidbed reactor system and an organic solvent for continuous anhydrous product recovery.
N-butane and air are fed to a fluid-bed catalytic reactor (1) to produce maleic anhydride. The fluid-bed reactor eliminates hot spots and permits operation at close to the stoichiometric reaction mixture. This results in a greatly reduced air rate relative to fixed-bed processes and translates into savings in investment and compressor power, and
large increases in steam generation. The fluid-bed system permits online catalyst addition/removal to adjust catalyst activity and reduces downtime for catalyst change out.
The recovery area uses a patented organic solvent to remove the maleic anhydride from the reactor effluent gas. A conventional absorption (2) / stripping (3) scheme operates on a continuous basis. Crude maleic anhydride is distilled to separate light (4) and heavy (5) impurities. A slipstream of recycle solvent is treated to eliminate any heavy byproducts that may be formed. The continuous nonaqueous product recovery system results in superior product quality and large savings in steam consumption. It also reduces investment, product degradation loss (and byproduct formation) and wastewater.
Economics: The ALMA process produces high-quality product with attractive economics. The fluid-bed process is especially suited for large single-train plants.
Licensor: Lummus Technology/Polynt
