Energy Efficient Refinery Process Developed with U.S. D.O.E. Support

Abstract

The United States Department of Energy historically has encouraged private efforts to develop energy saving technologies. EG&G Idaho, Inc., as the prime operating contractor at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, assists the DOE in managing federally funded industrial energy conservation projects. This paper describes a government funded project which the author monitored for the DOE.

Two Houston companies, with DOE financial support, have developed an energy saving catalytic distillation process. This process uses a patented catalyst support system to save energy by performing a catalytic reaction and a primary fractionation of reaction components simultaneously in one vessel. This process is used by a Houston refiner to produce MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether), an octane booster formed by combining methanol with isobutylene. The production unit has operated for over a year producing about 1400 BPD of MTBE with a net process energy savings of about 25% over a conventional production method. The DOE plans continued support of these inventors as they search for new applications with potential for extensive industrial energy savings.