Methanol and tert-butanol have appeared at the top of the isobutylene light-end removal tower in our plant’s MTBE cracking unit
Thread Content
Dear seniors: There is a process-related issue. In the isobutylene stripping column of our plant’s MTBE cracking unit, the purpose of the column top is to remove light components such as dimethyl ether. Currently, the composition at the column top is as follows: 70% isobutylene, 28.5% dimethyl ether, 0.5% methanol, 0.5% diisobutylene and higher boiling point compounds, with the remaining 0.5% consisting of tert-butanol and MTBE. The question is: why are there still heavy components with boiling points much higher than that of isobutylene, such as methanol, diisobutylene, and MTBE, in the upper part of the stripping column? The heavy components at the bottom of the tower are much less than those at the top, with most being at the PPM level.
Possible reasons include: 1. An tower collision or flooding accident has occurred； 2. The sampling or analysis was incorrect.
Could it be that the sample was taken incorrectly? Or is there a problem with the sampling container?
There is a high possibility of tower flooding or being submerged