Alkylbenzene Linear Process by UOP LLC

The UOP/CEPSA process uses a solid, heterogeneous catalyst to produce linear alkylbenzene (LAB) by alkylating benzene with linear olefins made by the UOP Pacol, DeFine and PEP processes.

Linear paraffins are fed to a Pacol reactor (1) to dehydrogenate the feed into corresponding linear olefins. Reactor effluent is separated into gas and liquid phases in a separator (2). Diolefins in the separator liquid are selectively converted to mono-olefins in a DeFine reactor (3). Light ends are removed in a stripper (4) and the resulting olefin-paraffin mixture is sent to a PEP adsorber (5) where heavy aromatics are removed prior to being sent to a Detal reactor (6) where the olefins are alkylated with benzene. The reactor effluent is sent to a fractionation section (7, 8) for separation and recycle of unreacted benzene to the Detal reactor, and separation and recycle of unreacted paraffins to the Pacol reactor. A rerun column (9) separates the LAB product from the heavy alkylate bottoms stream.

Feedstock is typically C10 to C13 normal paraffins of 98+% purity. LAB product has a typical Bromine Index of less than 10.

Based on 100 weight parts of LAB, 81 parts of linear paraffins and 34 parts of benzene are charged to a UOP LAB plant.

Licensor: UOP LLC, A Honeywell Company