Adsorbent regeneration in integrated etherification process

Claim 1

A process for the production of an ether which comprises the steps of: (a) passing a first process stream comprising an isoparaffin through a catalytic dehydrogenation reaction zone and thereby producing a reaction zone effluent stream comprising the isoparaffin and a corresponding isoolefin; (b) passing the reaction zone effluent stream and a hereinafter characterized second process stream into a stripping column and producing a stripping column bottoms stream comprising the isoparaffin, oxygen-containing hydrocarbonaceous compounds and the corresponding isoolefin; (c) passing the stripping column bottoms stream and a feed stream comprising an alcohol into an etherification zone maintained at etherification conditions, and withdrawing from the etherification zone a product stream comprising the ether and a hydrocarbon recycle stream comprising the isoparaffin and oxygen-containing hydrocarbonaceous compounds; (d) removing oxygen-containing hydrocarbonaceous compounds from the hydrocarbon recycle stream by contacting the hydrocarbon recycle stream with a selective sorbent at sorption-promoting conditions in a sorption zone to produce an isoparaffin-rich recycle stream; (e) processing a first portion of said isoparaffin-rich recycle stream to produce additional amounts of the isoolefin; (f) heating a second portion of said isoparaffin-rich recycle stream to a temperature of above 250° F.; and (g) regenerating sorbent in the sorption zone by a regeneration procedure which comprises contacting sorbent present in the sorption zone with a regeneration stream comprising said heated isoparaffin-rich recycle stream of step (f) at regeneration-promoting conditions to produce said previously referred to second process stream, which comprises the isoparaffin and oxygen-containing hydrocarbonaceous compounds.