FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a process for reducing the amount of carbon disulphide (CS ₂ ) in a hydrocarbon feed.

DEFINITION As used in the present disclosure, the following term is generally intended to have the meaning as set forth below, except to the extent that the context in which it is used indicates otherwise.

Amine functionalized anion exchange resin refers to amine functionalized polymer that are capable of exchanging particular ions (amines) within the polymer with ions in a solution that is passed through them.

BACKGROUND

There is a huge demand for high quality hydrocarbon feed, typically Cs-Cs fractions, as it serves as a source of useful hydrocarbons. However, hydrocarbon feed also contains other impurities, such as, sulphur compounds and the like. Out of the different sulphur compounds, carbon disulphide (CS ₂ ) is an impurity of a particular concern for petrochemical manufacturers. High concentration of CS ₂ affects many downstream refinery processes, such as cracking of naphtha, hydrogenation processes, and the like. Higher content of CS ₂ in the hydrocarbon feed is responsible for permanent poisoning of catalysts used in different hydrotreating processes. Thus, removal of CS ₂ from Cs-Cs fractions is necessary to meet the stringent specifications of CS ₂ concentration in the hydrocarbon feed.

Different methods are known for removing CS ₂ from the hydrocarbon feed, such as adsorption treatment, hydrodesulphurization, treatment of the hydrocarbon feed with an amine solution. However, the low yields of the desirable product, low efficiency of the process, and the removal of byproducts have been the major concerns associated with these methods. There is, therefore, felt a need to develop a simple process for reducing the amount of CS2 in the hydrocarbon feed.

OBJECTS

Some of the objects of the present disclosure, which at least one embodiment herein satisfies, are as follows:

It is an object of the present disclosure to ameliorate one or more problems of the prior art or to at least provide a useful alternative.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a process for reducing the amount of carbon disulphide (CS ₂ ) in a hydrocarbon feed. Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a process for selectively reducing the amount of CS2 from a hydrocarbon feed in the presence of other sulphur compounds.

Other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description, which is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

SUMMARY The present disclosure relates to a process for reducing the amount of carbon disulphide (CS ₂ ) in a hydrocarbon feed. The process comprising treating the hydrocarbon feed with an amine functionalized anion exchange resin at a temperature in the range of 20 °C to 40 °C, at a pressure in the range of 1 bar to 5 bar, for a time period in the range of 1 hour to 10 hours to obtain a mixture comprising a liquid fraction and a solid mass; wherein the liquid fraction comprises a treated hydrocarbon having reduced CS2; and the solid mass comprises an adduct of CS2 and the amine functionalized anion exchange resin. The solid mass is then separated from the liquid fraction to obtain the treated hydrocarbon having CS2 content less than CS2 content present in the hydrocarbon feed (before treatment). The amine functionalized anion exchange resin can be regenerated from the solid mass. The hydrocarbon feed can be petrochemical naphtha, comprising Cs-Cs fractions, wherein the hydrocarbon feed comprises more than 6 ppm of CS2 before treatment and the treated hydrocarbon comprises CS2 content less than 2 ppm after treatment in accordance with the process of the present disclosure. The amine in the amine functionalized anion exchange resin can be at least one selected from primary amine and secondary amine, preferably secondary amine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The C5-C ₈ fractions of a hydrocarbon feed are a source of useful hydrocarbons. However, the hydrocarbon feed contains a large amount of impurities, such as, sulphur compounds and the like. Carbon disulphide (CS ₂ ), as a sulphur impurity is of particular concern for petrochemical manufacturers, as it affects many downstream refinery processes. The Cs-Cs fractions of the hydrocarbon feed generally contain CS2 content in the range of 6 ppm to 300 ppm; however the accepted level of CS2 in the hydrocarbon feed is 2 ppm or less. Therefore, there is a need to provide a process for reducing the amount of CS2 in the hydrocarbon feed.

The present disclosure envisages a simple process for reducing the amount of CS2 in the hydrocarbon feed. The process comprises the following steps: Initially, the hydrocarbon feed is treated with an amine functionalized anion exchange resin at a pre-determined temperature and at a pre-determined pressure for a pre-determined time period to obtain a mixture comprising a liquid fraction and a solid mass. The liquid fraction comprises a treated hydrocarbon and the solid mass comprises an adduct of CS2, and the amine functionalized anion exchange resin. The hydrocarbon feed of the present disclosure can be petrochemical naphtha containing C5- C ₈ fractions obtained from crude oil. The petrochemical naphtha containing Cs-Cs fractions is a source of useful hydrocarbons.

In one embodiment the hydrocarbon feed comprises more than 6 ppm of CS2 before treatment and the treated hydrocarbon comprises CS2 content less than 2 ppm after treatment in accordance with the process of the present disclosure.

The amine group present in the amine functionalized anion exchange resin can be a primary amine or a secondary amine, preferably a secondary amine. The capacity of the secondary amine to react with CS2 is more as compared to the primary amine, which results in substantial removal of CS2 from the hydrocarbon feed. The amine of the amine functionalized anion exchange resin of the present disclosure can be at least one selected from the group consisting of dimethyl amine, diethyl amine, di-isopropyl amine, di-n-propyl amine, dibutyl amine, dibenzyl amine, ethyl amine, and propyl amine, typically diethyl amine.

Typically, the anion exchange resin is a macro-porous anion exchange polymer, selected from the group consisting of styrene divinylbenzene co-polymer, polyethylene amine, and poly aery lamide.

In accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, the pre-determined temperature can be in the range of 20 °C to 40 °C. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the pre-determined temperature is 25 °C. The pre-determined pressure can be in the range of 1 bar to 5 bar. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure the pre-determined pressure is 1 bar.

The pre-determined time period can be in the range of 1 hour to 10 hours, typically 2 hours to 3 hours.

Further, the solid mass comprising an adduct of CS2 and the amine functionalized anion exchange resin, is separated from the liquid fraction to obtain the hydrocarbon feed having CS2 content less than 2 ppm.

The amine functionalized anion exchange resin can be regenerated from the solid mass by an acid-base treatment.

The reduction of CS2 is facilitated by the reaction of CS2 with the amine present in the amine functionalized anion exchange resin. CS2 present in the hydrocarbon feed reacts with the amine molecule of the amine functionalized anion exchange resin to form dithiocarbamate/ alkyl dithiocarbamate. The formation of dithiocarbamate is an exothermic reaction, and therefore can be carried out at lower temperature. The general reaction can be shown as follows: P

f

An adduct of CS, and primary amine functionaiized on the resin

Secon

on the

amine furactionalzed on the resin

Dithiocarbamate has a strong binding capacity, and therefore binds strongly with the ion exchange resin to form a solid mass. The solid mass so formed, can be easily separated by known methods such as filtration, decantation, centrifugation, and the like. The amine functionaiized anion exchange resin used for removal of CS2 content in the process of the present disclosure can be regenerated from the solid mass by acid-base treatment, and can be further used for reducing the amount of CS2 from the hydrocarbon feed. In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a process for the regeneration of the amine functionaiized anion exchange resin from the solid mass. The process comprises the following steps:

The solid mass is washed with at least one first fluid medium to obtain a first biphasic mixture comprising an organic layer and the solid mass. The organic layer comprising the first fluid medium is separated from the first biphasic mixture to obtain a first residue. The first residue is further treated with at least one second fluid medium to obtain a second biphasic mixture comprising an organic layer and the solid mass. The organic layer comprising the second fluid medium is separated from the second biphasic mixture to obtain a second residue. The so obtained second residue is then treated with a pre-determined amount of an aqueous acid to obtain a first resultant mixture. The so obtained first resultant mixture is then separated, followed by washing it with water to obtain a third residue and a first effluent. The washing of the first resultant mixture with water is carried out till the effluent is nearly neutral. The acid washing is needed to decompose the adduct (dithiocarbamate) present on the amine functionalized anion exchange resin.

Further, the third residue is treated with a pre-determined amount of an aqueous base to obtain a second resultant mixture. The so obtained second resultant mixture is then separated, followed by washing it with water to obtain a fourth residue and a second effluent. The washing of the second resultant mixture with water is carried out till the effluent is nearly neutral. The washing with a base, is needed to activate the amine functionalized anion exchange resin.

Furthermore, the fourth residue is washed with at least one third fluid medium to remove water and to obtain the regenerated amine functionalized anion exchange resin. The so obtained amine functionalized anion exchange resin can be used again for reducing the amount of CS2 in the hydrocarbon feed.

In accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, the first fluid medium can be at least one selected from the group consisting of toluene, hexane, benzene, ethylbenzene, and cyclohexane; and the second fluid medium, and the third fluid medium can be at least one independently selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol, isopropanol, and butanol.

In accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, the acid can be at least one selected from the group consisting of H2SO4 and HC1. The concentration of the acid can be in the range of 1% to 5% in aqueous medium. In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, the base can be at least one selected from the group consisting of NaOH, KOH, and Ca (OH) 2. The concentration of the base can be in the range of 1% to 5% in aqueous medium.

The process of the present disclosure, is capable of producing petrochemical naphtha with CS2 content <2 ppm even when the regenerated amine functionalized anion exchange resin is used. The process described in present disclosure has many advantages over conventional methods such as comparatively high yield, mild operating conditions, easy to control conditions, environment friendly, and the like.

The present disclosure is further described in light of the following experiments which are set forth for illustration purpose only and not to be construed for limiting the scope of the disclosure. The following experiments can be scaled up to industrial/commercial scale and the results obtained can be extrapolated to industrial scale.

Experimental details:

Example 1:

In a 200 ml glass column/ reactor, 75 ml of secondary (Diethyl amine) amine functionalized anion exchange resin bed was prepared. The details of the properties of the functionalized anion exchange resin are summarized in Table 1.

20.7 Lit of synthetic naphtha feed was introduced in the column/reactor at ambient temperature (25-30 °C) and at 1 atm, wherein the flow rate of the feed was maintained at 150 ml/hr and the LHSV was maintained at around 2 Hrs ^"1 . The concentration of the CS2 in the feed was varied from 20 ppm to 200 ppm. Samples were drawn at different interval of time and were analyzed for CS2 on SCD based 2D GC. The results are summarized in Table 2.

Table 1: Physical Properties of Weak Base resin (secondary amine) Adsorbent

Uniformity co-efficient 1.7, maximum

Effective size 0.40 to 0.50 mm

Operating pH range 0 to 7

Table 2: CS ₂ analysis for secondary amine resin with naphtha feed.

* For the initial hours, the column can be run with low concentration of CS2 i-e. 20 ppm.

** and *** the CS2 in the product is more than 2 ppm because the resin bed gets saturated after 130 hours It is observed from the above table that, the amine functionalized anion exchange resin successfully reduces the amount of CS2 in the hydrocarbon feed. The initial amount of CS2 present in the hydrocarbon feed was 200 ppm, which is not the acceptable level of CS2 in downstream refinery processes. On contacting the hydrocarbon stream with the amine functionalized anion exchange resin, the amount of CS2 is reduced to less than 2 ppm.

As evident from table 1, the amine functionalized anion exchange resin was found to work efficiently, without deteriorating its activity, for 12 cycles up to 130 hours by maintaining the 200 ppm of CS2 in the feed and maintaining flow rate 150 ml/hrs. However, after 12 cycles and after 135 hours the activity of the amine functionalized anion exchange resin decreased significantly, as the amount of CS2 in the treated hydrocarbon feed increased to 4 ppm and 13 ppm (after 135 hours) at 135 hours and 138 hours, respectively.

It is observed that the on-stream hours for deteriorating the activity of the amine functionalized anion exchange resin depends on the flow rate, LHSV and the content of CS2 in the feed. Example 2:

Once the resin bed outlet showed CS2 level of >5 ppm, the deteriorated amine functionalized anion exchange resin of Example 1 was taken for regeneration. The 75 ml of saturated resin was treated with 75 ml of toluene to obtain a first biphasic mixture comprising toluene and the resin as a solid mass. Toluene was separated from the first biphasic mixture by decantation to obtain a first residue. The first residue was treated with 75 ml of methanol to obtain a second biphasic mixture comprising methanol and the resin as a solid mass. Methanol was separated from the second biphasic mixture by decantation to obtain a second residue.

The second residue was treated with 300 ml of 3% H ₂ S0 ₄ solution with LHSV of 1 hr ¹ at 45 °C to obtain a first resultant mixture, which was washed with 1000 ml of DM water at

45°C till the effluent had a pH of 7, to obtain a third residue and acidic effluent.

The third residue was treated with 300 ml of 3% NaOH solution with LHSV of 1 hr at 25

°C, followed by washing with 1000 ml of DM water to get effluent having pH of 7 to obtain fourth residue and basic effluent.

The fourth residue was treated with 75 ml of methanol to remove left over water, to obtain the regenerated amine functionalized anion exchange resin. The regenerated resin was used for further experiments. Similarly the regenerated resin was further regenerated 5 times and was used for reducing the amount of CS ₂ in the hydrocarbon feed. The so results obtained are summarized in the Table 3.

Table 3: Adsorption of CS ₂ per 100 g of secondary amine resin at 5 regeneration cycle

It is seen from Table-3 that the efficiency of CS ₂ adsorption by the regenerated resin decreases after each regeneration step. Therefore, the resin can be regenerated 5 times for efficient reduction of CS ₂ from the hydrocarbon feed.

The examples provided in the draft are for laboratory scale experiments. There will not be any change in the operating parameters for large scale and commercial scale while for equipments (reactor) material of construction might change. TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENTS

The present disclosure described herein above has several technical advantages including, but not limited to, the realization of a process for reducing the amount of CS ₂ in the hydrocarbon feed,

- that is eco-friendly; - that selectively reduces the amount of CS ₂ in the hydrocarbon feed comprising other sulphur compounds; and

- regenerates the amine functionalized anion exchange resin, which can be further use multiple times for reducing the amounts of CS ₂ in the hydrocarbon feed. Throughout this specification the word "comprise", or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.

The use of the expression "at least" or "at least one" suggests the use of one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as the use may be in the embodiment of the invention to achieve one or more of the desired objects or results. While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Variations or modifications to the formulation of this invention, within the scope of the invention, may occur to those skilled in the art upon reviewing the disclosure herein. Such variations or modifications are well within the spirit of this invention.

The numerical values given for various physical parameters, dimensions, and quantities are only approximate values and it is envisaged that the values higher than the numerical value assigned to the physical parameters, dimensions and quantities fall within the scope of the invention unless there is a statement in the specification to the contrary.

While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the specific features of the preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated that many additional features can be added and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiment without departing from the principles of the disclosure. These and other changes in the preferred embodiment of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the disclosure and not as a limitation.