Exxonmobil Chemical Patents Inc.

Badger Licensing LLC

Stone & Webster, Inc.

Technip Process Technology, Inc.

Washington Group International, Inc.

Stone & Weber, Inc.

Brian Maerz

Michael C Clark

Vijay Nanda

Maruti Bhandarkar

Matthew J Vincent

Chung-Ming Chi

Carlos N Lopez

Terry Eugene Helton

Charles Morris Smith

Joseph C Peters

Ronald Joseph Cimini

Douglas Hubbell

Raghavender Bhoomi

Maruti Bhandakar

A process for producing ethylbenzene is described in which benzene and ethylene are supplied to an alkylation reaction zone. Also added to the alkylation reaction zone is a Colefin in an amount of at least 200 ppm by weight of the ethylene supplied to the alkylation reaction zone. The benzene, ethylene and Colefin are contacted with an alkylation catalyst in the alkylation reaction zone to alkylate at least part of the benzene and produce an alkylation effluent comprising ethylbenzene, polyethylated benzene and at least one mono-Calkyl benzene. The alkylation effluent is separated into a first product fraction comprising ethylbenzene and a second fraction comprising polyethylated benzene and the at least one mono-Calkyl benzene. The second fraction is then contacted with benzene in the presence of a transalkylation catalyst to convert at least part of the polyethylated benzene to ethylbenzene and produce a transalkylation effluent.

Process for producing ethylbenzene

In a process for alkylating an aromatic hydrocarbon feedstock with an olefin feedstock, at least one of the aromatic hydrocarbon and olefin feedstocks is passed through a pretreatment unit containing an adsorbent such that the adsorbent removes impurities contained by the feedstock. Passage of the at least one feedstock through the pretreatment unit is then terminated and a heated inert gas is passed through the pretreatment unit such that the inert gas desorbs impurities from the adsorbent to produce an inert gas effluent stream containing the desorbed impurities. A condensable fluid is added to at least part of the inert gas effluent stream such that at least a portion of the impurities contained therein condense with said fluid to leave a purified inert gas stream, which is recycled to the pretreatment unit.

Aromatics alkylation process

In a process for producing styrene, benzene is alkylated with ethylene to produce ethylbenzene and at least some of the ethylbenzene is dehydrogenated to produce styrene, together with benzene and toluene as by-products. At least part of the benzene by-product is passed through a bed of an adsorbent comprising at least one of an acidic clay, alumina, an acidic ion exchange resin and an acidic molecular sieve to remove basic nitrogenous impurities therefrom and produce a purified benzene by-product, which is then recycled to the alkylation step.

Production of styrene

A process for producing an alkylated aromatic product in a reactor by reacting an alkylatable aromatic compound feedstock with another feedstock comprising alkene component and alkane component in a reaction zone containing an alkylation catalyst. The reaction zone is operated in predominantly liquid phase without inter-zone alkane removal. The polyalkylated aromatic compounds can be separated as feed stream for transalkylation reaction in a transalkylation reaction zone.

Alkylaromatics production using dilute alkene

The present invention provides an improved process for the catalytic conversion of a feedstock comprising an alkylatable aromatic compound and an alkylating agent to form a conversion product comprising the desired alkylaromatic compound by contacting said feedstock in at least partial liquid phase under catalytic conversion conditions with a catalyst composition comprising a porous crystalline material having a structure type of FAU, BEA* or MWW, or a mixture thereof, wherein the porous crystalline material has a Relative Activity measured at 220&#xb0; C. as an RAof at least 7.5 or measured at 180&#xb0; C. as RAof at least 2.5, allowing operation at lower reaction pressures, e.g., a reaction pressure of about 450 psig (3102 kPa) or less, and lower alkylating agent feed supply pressure of 450 psig (3102 kPa) or less.

Alkylation process

Disclosed is a process for the production of alkylated aromatics by contacting a feed stream comprising an alkylatable aromatic, an alkylating agent and trace amounts of water and impurities in the presence of a first catalyst and an alkylation catalyst wherein such water and impurities are removed in order to improve the cycle length of such alkylation catalysts. Water and at least a portion of impurities are removed in a dehydration zone. A reaction zone having a first catalyst which, in some embodiments is a large pore molecular sieve, acts to remove another portion of impurities, such as nitrogenous and other species. An alkylation zone having an alkylation catalyst which, in some embodiments is a medium pore molecular sieve or a MCM-22 family material, acts to remove additional impurities, and to alkylate the alkylatable aromatic compound.

Alkylated aromatics production

Disclosed is a process for the production of alkylated aromatics by contacting a feed stream comprising an alkylatable aromatic, an alkylating agent and trace amounts of water and impurities in the presence of first and second alkylation catalysts wherein the water and impurities are removed in order to improve the cycle length of such alkylation catalysts. Water and a portion of impurities are removed in a dehydration zone. A first alkylation zone having a first alkylation catalyst which, in some embodiments is a large pore molecular sieve, acts to remove a larger portion of impurities, such as nitrogenous and other species, and to alkylate a smaller portion of the alkylatable aromatic compound. A second alkylation zone, which in some embodiments is a medium pore molecular sieve, acts to remove a smaller portion of impurities, and to alkylate a larger portion of the alkylatable aromatic compound.

A process for producing a monoalkylated aromatic product in a reactor by reacting a mixed phase mixture of an alkylatable aromatic compound feedstock with another feedstock comprising alkene component in a reaction zone containing an alkylation catalyst. An effluent comprising the monoalkylated aromatic product and polyalkylated aromatic compounds exits from the reaction zone in liquid phase. The polyalkylated aromatic compounds can be separated as feed stream for transalkylation reaction in a transalkylation reaction zone.

Multiphase alkylaromatics production

Disclosed are ethylbenzene processes in which a series-arranged or combined vapor phase alkylation/transalkylation reaction zone is retrofitted to have a vapor phase alkylation reactor and a liquid phase transalkylation reactor, and in which a parallel-arranged vapor phase alkylation reactor and vapor phase transalkylation reactor is retrofitted to have a vapor phase alkylation reactor and liquid phase transalkylation reactor, wherein the xylenes content of the ethylbenzene product is less than 700 wppm.

Process for preparing ethylbenzene using vapor phase alkylation and liquid phase transalkylation

A process is described for producing an alkylaromatic compound in a multistage reaction system comprising at least first and second series-connected alkylation reaction zones each containing an alkylation catalyst. A first feed comprising an alkylatable aromatic compound and a second feed comprising an alkene and one or more alkanes are introduced into said first alkylation reaction zone, having operating conditions, e.g., temperature and pressure, which are controlled effective to cause the alkylatable aromatic compound to be partly in the vapor phase and partly in the liquid phase with the ratio of liquid volume to vapor volume of the feed in each zone to be from about 0.5 to about 10. The aromatic compound and the alkene are reacted in the presence of the alkylation catalyst to form an effluent comprising the alkylaromatic compound, unreacted alkylatable aromatic compound, any unreacted alkene and the alkane, which is withdrawn and then supplied to the second alkylation reaction zone without removal of the alkane.

Alkylaromatics production

A process for producing an alkylated aromatic compound from polyalkylated aromatic compound(s) having bi-alkylated aromatic compound(s) and tri-alkylated aromatic compound(s), comprising the step of contacting alkylatable aromatic compound(s) with the polyalkylated aromatic compound(s) at a transalkylation condition in the presence of a transalkylation catalyst. The transalkylation catalyst has high activity sufficient to achieve a ratio of bi-alkylated aromatic compound(s) conversion over tri-alkylated aromatic compound(s) conversion in a range of from about 0.5 to about 2.5.

Process of using a high activity catalyst for the transalkylation of aromatics

A process is disclosed for producing an alkylaromatic compound in a multistage reaction system comprising at least first and second series-connected alkylation reaction zones, each containing an alkylation catalyst. A first feed comprising an alkylatable aromatic compound and a second feed comprising an alkene are introduced into the first alkylation reaction zone. The first and second alkylation reaction zones are operated under conditions of temperature and pressure effective to cause alkylation of the aromatic compound with the alkene in the presence of the alkylation catalyst, the temperature and pressure being such that the aromatic compound is at least partly in the liquid phase. The alkylation catalyst in the first alkylation reaction zone, which may be a reactor guard bed, has more acid sites per unit volume of catalyst than the alkylation catalyst in the second reaction zone.

Liquid phase alkylation with multiple catalysts

A process is described for producing an alkylaromatic compound in a multistage reaction system comprising at least first and second series-connected alkylation reaction zones each containing an alkylation catalyst. A first feed comprising an alkylatable aromatic compound and a second feed comprising an alkene and one or more alkanes are introduced into said first alkylation reaction zone. The operating conditions, e.g. temperature and pressure, of the first alkylation reaction zone are controlled effective to cause the alkylatable aromatic compound to be partly in the vapor phase and partly in the liquid phase, and the ratio of the volume of liquid to the volume of vapor of the feed in each zone to be from about 0.1 to about 10. The aromatic compound and the alkene of the feed are reacted in the presence of the alkylation catalyst to form an effluent comprising the alkylaromatic compound, unreacted alkylatable aromatic compound, any unreacted alkene and the alkane. The effluent is withdrawn from the first alkylation reaction zone and then supplied to the second alkylation reaction zone without removal of the alkane.

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Chelmsford, MA, United States of America

Brian Maerz