摘要
美國頁岩氣/天然氣生產近年來成長快速。因供給多於國內需求，導致開始出口天然氣及烴類氣體液體。此液體成分中乙烷、丙烷已被開發其用途。乙烷經輕油裂解可生產乙烯，丙烷經觸媒脫氫可生產丙烯，皆為重要石化烯烴原料。丁烷成份含正丁烷及異丁烷，各有其用途。異丁烷脫氫為異丁烯可生產甲基第三丁基醚、第三丁醇、甲基丙烯酸甲酯及丁基橡膠等煉油及石化產品，具發展潛能。如何利用丁烷值得國內煉油及石化業者注意。本文介紹丁烷之來源及用途，正/異丁烷規格與價格，正丁烷異構化觸媒發展，正丁烷異構化製程發展。正丁烷異構化技術雖然經過幾個階段之發展，但仍有許多值得改善之處，如需控制原料水含量、製程添加氯化物且會釋放HCl具設備腐蝕性等。目前化工業追求綠色環保製程。汽油烷化製程之觸媒大部分仍使用氫氟酸及硫酸，正丁烷異構化大部分使用添加氯化物產生觸媒酸基，這些皆是值得煉油及化工界改善之處。汽油烷化製程已有固態酸觸媒之AlkyClean製程商業化，正丁烷異構化雖有固態酸觸媒研發進展，希望能儘速見其商業化。
並列摘要
Recently US shale gas / natural gas production has grown rapidly. Due to supply exceeds domestic demand, US begins to export natural gas and hydrocarbon gas liquid (HGL). The liquid components, ethane and propane, have been developed for other applications. Ethane can be converted to ethylene by steam cracking. Propane can be dehydrogenated to propylene by catalytic dehydrogenation. They are important petrochemical olefinic raw materials. Butane contains n-butane and i-butane. Dehydrogenation of isobutane to isobutene can be used as the raw material to produce methyl t-butyl ether, butanol, methyl methacrylate, butyl rubber and other petrochemical products. How to use butane deserves the attention of the Taiwan domestic oil refining and petrochemical industry. This paper describes the sources and applications of butane, specifications and prices of n- /i-butane, the catalyst and process development for n-butane isomerization. Although butane isomerization technology has several stages of development, but there are still many areas worthy of improvement, such as the need to control the water content of feedstock, the release of hydrogen chloride corrosive component in the process. Chemical industry is pursuing green chemical process. Most of the gasoline alkylation process is still using environmental unfriendly hydrofluoric acid and sulfuric acid. Most of the n-butane isomerization processes use chloride to produce catalytic acid site. These processes need refining and chemical industry to improve. Solid acid catalyst ＂AlkyClean process＂ has been commercialized as gasoline alkylation process. N-butane isomerization without chloride solid acid catalyst has been in development. We hope to see its commercialization as soon as possible.