Exxonmobil Chemical Patents Inc.

Stone & Webster, Inc.

Badger Licensing LLC

Exxonmobile Chemical Patents Inc.

Technip Process Technology, Inc.

Stone & Weber, Inc.

Vijay Nanda

Matthew J Vincent

Brian Maerz

Maruti Bhandarkar

Michael C Clark

Terry Eugene Helton

Chung-Ming Chi

Carlos N Lopez

David L Fletcher

Kathleen M Keville

Joseph C Peters

Douglas Hubbell

Wei-Ping Tai

Teresa A Jurgens-Kowal

Maruti Bhandakar

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

The present disclosure relates to a process for production of a monoalkyl aromatic compound by alkylation of alkylatable aromatic compounds with an alkylating agent in a reactor comprising at least a first and a second series-connected alkylation reaction zones and a cooler disposed between the first and the second series-connected alkylation reaction zones. The process comprising a step of cooling at least a portion of an effluent withdrawn from the first alkylation reaction zone before being introduced into the second alkylation reaction zone.

Production of monoalkyl aromatic compounds

Disclosed is a method for determining when to replace a guard bed material used to remove one or more catalyst poisons from a feed based on a parameter change in a process. A guard bed having a guard bed material is in fluid communication with a catalyst bed having a catalyst. At least three monitors are positioned in said guard bed or said catalyst bed and at least one parameter of the guard bed or catalyst bed is monitored. A feed component comprising one or more catalyst poisons is supplied to said guard bed or said catalyst bed. The feed is contacted with said guard bed material or said catalyst to remove at least a portion of a catalyst poison and to form a product which produces an increase or a decrease in said parameter. The monitored parameters are compared to determine when to replace the guard bed material.

Method for monitoring performance of process catalysts

The present invention provides an improved process for producing an alkylated aromatic compound from an at least partially untreated alkylatable aromatic compound having catalyst poisons and an alkylating agent, wherein said alkylatable aromatic compound stream is treated to reduce catalyst poisons with a treatment composition having a surface area/surface volume ratio of greater than or equal to 30 in(12 cm) in a treatment zone separate from an alkylation reaction zone under treatment conditions including a temperature of from about 30&#xb0; C. to about 300&#xb0; C. to form an effluent comprising said treated alkylatable aromatic compound.

Alkylation process

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.

The present invention provides an improved process for producing an alkylated aromatic compound from an at least partially untreated alkylatable aromatic compound having catalyst poisons, wherein said alkylatable aromatic compound stream is treated to reduce catalyst poisons with a treatment composition having a surface area/surface volume ratio of greater than or equal to 30 in(12 cm) in a treatment zone separate from an alkylation reaction zone under treatment conditions including a temperature of from about 30&#xb0; C. to about 300&#xb0; C. to form an effluent comprising said treated alkylatable aromatic compound.

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.

This disclosure relates to a method for rejuvenating a catalyst, comprising contacting the catalyst with a gaseous feedstock at rejuvenation conditions for at least one hour to form a rejuvenated catalyst and a gaseous product, wherein the catalyst comprises at least 10 wt. % of a molecular sieve, wherein the catalyst prior to the contacting step comprises from 0.001 wt. % to 45 wt. % of hydrocarbons and 0.001 to 10 wt. % nitrogen containing components based on the total weight of the catalyst prior to the contacting step, wherein the molecular sieve comprises at least one of a MCM-22 family molecular sieve, a molecular sieve having a framework type of *BEA, a molecular sieve having a framework type of FAU, and a molecular sieve having a framework type of MOR, wherein the gaseous feedstock comprises at least one of N, H, alkane, He, Ar, CO, and CO, wherein the gaseous product has at least a portion of the gaseous feedstock and at least a portion of the hydrocarbons of the catalyst and at least a portion of the nitrogen containing components of the catalyst, wherein the rejuvenation conditions comprise a temperature in the range from about 400 to 600&#xb0; C., a pressure in the range from about 101.3 kPa-a to 10130 kPa-a, a space hourly velocity in the range of from 0.05 to 10 hr.

Process for rejuvenating a catalyst composition

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.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Vijay Nanda