Quality control during the commissioning of MTBE plants
Thread Content
During the initial operation adjustments of an MTBE plant, how should the alcohol-to-olefin ratio be controlled?
The original poster doesn’t know what stage you mean by the early stage of operation. At the beginning of operation, since there is a large amount of methanol in the catalyst due to its immersion in methanol, the alcohol-to-olefin ratio can be slightly lower; it’s necessary to consider the alcohol-to-olefin ratio at the reactor outlet, and it’s fine to have a slightly higher amount of methanol. If operation has begun, the import rate can be kept between 1.2 and 1.4; a higher alcohol-to-olefin ratio helps to control the reactor temperature and prevent overheating caused by the auto-polymerization of isobutylene.