Application: Advanced technology to produce high-purity ethylbenzene (EB) by alkylating benzene with ethylene using patented catalytic distillation (CD) technology. The CDTECH EB process uses a specially formulated zeolite alkylation catalyst packaged in a proprietary CD structure. The process is able to handle a wide range in ethylene feed composition from 10% to 100% ethylene. This is the only technology that can handle a very dilute ethylene feedstock while producing high-purity EB.
Description: The CD alkylator stripper (1) operates as a distillation column. Alkylation and distillation occur in the alkylator in the presence of a zeolite catalyst packaged in patented structured packing. Unreacted ethylene and benzene vapor from the alkylator top are condensed and fed to the finishing reactor (2) where the remaining ethylene reacts over zeolite catlayst pellets. The alkylator stripper bottoms is fractionated (4, 5) into EB product, polyethylbenzenes and flux oil. The polyethylbenzenes are transalkylated with benzene over zeolite catalyst pellets in the transalkylator (3) to produce additional EB. The ethylene can be polymer grade or, with only minor differences in the process scheme, dilute ethylene containing as little as 10 mol% ethylene as in FCC offgas. Reactors are designed for up to 6 years of uninterrupted runlength. The process does not produce any hazardous effluent. Low operating temperatures allow using carbon steel for all equipment.
Yields and product quality: Both the alkylation and trans-alkylation reactions are highly selective—producing few byproducts. The EB product has high purity (99.9 wt% minimum) and is suitable for styrene-unit feed. Xylene make is less than 10 ppm. The process has an overall yield of 99.7%.
