Adsorbent regeneration in etherification processes

Claim 1

A process for the production of an ether which comprises the steps of: (a) passing a first process stream comprising a feed 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, oxygencontaining 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 an ether and a hydrocarbonaceous third process stream comprising the isoparaffin and oxygen-containing hydrocarbonaceous compounds; (d) removing oxygen-containing hydrocarbonaceous compounds from the third process stream by contacting the third process stream with a selective sorbent at sorption-promoting conditions in a sorption zone and thereby producing a treated process stream which comprises the isoparaffin and is substantially free of oxygen-containing hydrocarbonaceous compounds; (e) removing at least a first portion of the treated process stream from the process; and, (f) regenerating sorbent in the sorption zone by a regeneration procedure which comprises contacting sorbent present in the sorption zone with a regeneration stream comprising a regenerent hydrocarbon having the same number of carbon atoms per molecule as the feed isoparaffin at regeneration-promoting conditions including a temperature above 250° F. to produce the previously referred to second process stream, which comprises the regenerent hydrocarbon and oxygen-containing hydrocarbonaceous compounds.