Issue 16/2015 - Ionic liquid "greening" isooctane production

The Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently released news that the new technology of ionic liquid synergistic catalytic production of isooctane green alkylation developed in cooperation with Shengyuan Energy Company has recently passed the appraisal
of scientific and technological achievements organized by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation.
The appraisal committee believes that this new technology is the first at home and abroad, and the key technical indicators have reached the international leading level
.
At present, the 200,000-ton industrial plant using this technology has been in operation for nearly half a year, the acid consumption of the device has been reduced by about 50%, the energy consumption has been reduced by about 10%, and the isooctane yield and performance indicators are better than the existing technology
.

According to the researchers of the institute, the current industrial production of isooctane mainly uses concentrated sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid two technologies
.
The production of 1 ton of isooctane using hydrofluoric acid technology only requires 0.
4~0.
6 kg
of hydrofluoric acid.
However, hydrofluoric acid is highly toxic, easy to form aerogel, once leaked will cause great harm to human health and ecological environment, many countries have banned the construction of new hydrofluoric acid devices
.
Concentrated sulfuric acid technology has the advantages of low cost and high technology maturity, in recent years, new isooctane plants at home and abroad mostly use concentrated sulfuric acid technology, 84% of China's new plants use this technology
.
However, concentrated sulfuric acid technology has high acid consumption, and the production of 1 ton of isooctane requires 80~100 kg of concentrated sulfuric acid, which has large waste residue emissions and high
energy consumption.
Reducing concentrated sulfuric acid consumption is a realistic choice
for upgrading industrial isooctane production technology.

Based on the long-term research accumulation in the basic and application of ionic liquids, the ionic liquids team of the Institute of Process designed and synthesized a new multifunctional ionic liquid with promoting hydrogen transfer and stabilizing acid strength, developed a highly active ionic liquid co-catalytic system, improved the surface interface performance, and inhibited the formation
of acid-soluble oil.
On this basis, the team developed a complete set of green alkylation technology for the co-catalytic production of isooctane by ionic liquids with independent intellectual property rights, and established a 100-ton industrial sideline device
.
Through the long-term operation of the sideline device, the researchers completed the optimization and integration of the whole system, and finally achieved the stable operation
of the 200,000-ton industrial plant.

Industrial isooctane has the advantages of high octane number, low sulfur, no aromatics, etc.
, is an environmentally friendly high-octane gasoline additive component, and is also a widely used solvent
in coatings, paints, pesticides, etc.
In developed countries in Europe and the United States, the proportion of isooctane added to gasoline is 5%~10%, while in China it is only 0.
2%~0.
6%.

After the implementation of the national V standard in 2018, the proportion of isooctane added in China will rise to 6%, and the demand for isooctane will also increase significantly, which is expected to reach more than
7.
5 million tons per year.
(Su)