ON ADDITIVITY OF THE YIELDS OF ETHYLENE FORMED FROM METHANE AND NAPHTHA BY AN INTEGRATED PROCESS

A heat-effective 'integrated' process carried out in one reactor, comp osed of exothermic oxidative coupling of CH4 over the catalyst fixed b ed and endothermic pyrolysis of naphtha injected from the outside to t he stream of gaseous coupling products in the hot oxygen-free postcata lytic zone, has been studied. An additivity of the yields of ethylene formed in both component processes was examined under varied operating conditions (type of naphtha fraction, flow rate of reagents and tempe rature of pyrolysis). A very high degree of additivity of the yields o f ethylene and its main coproducts was observed, independently of the relative contribution of the component processes to the integrated pro cess and of applied variations in the process conditions. Evidently, t he mutual interactions between the component processes and products we re negligible under experimental conditions. (C) 1998 Society of Chemi cal Industry.