A one-step catalytic separation process for the production of cumene
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Catalysis Letters Vol. 102, Nos. 3–4, August 2005 ( 2005) DOI: 10.1007/s10562-005-5870-6
A one-step catalytic separation process for the production of cumene Genoveva. Buelnaa,b and Tina.M. Nenoff a,* a Chemical and Biological Technologies Department, Sandia National Laboratories, PO Box 5800, MS 0734, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA Facultad de Enfermerı´a-Nuevo Laredo, Pino Sua´rez y Aldama, Universidad Auto´noma de Tamaulipas, Nuevo Laredo, Tam, 88000 Me´xico, Me´xico
b
Received 25 February 2005; accepted 25 April 2005
A novel reactor design has been completed and tested for catalytic separation and production of cumene. Use of a reactive separation column packed with a solid acid catalyst where simultaneous reaction and partial separation occur during cumene production allows separation of unreacted excess benzene from other products as they form. This high yielding system allows for one step processing of cumene, with reduced need for product purification. Beta catalysts produced promising results, including cumene selectivity for catalytic separation reactions starting at 85% and cumene reaction yield up to 30% at a reaction temperature of 115 C. Simultaneously, up to 76% of unreacted benzene was separated from the products. KEY WORDS: benzene alkylation; catalytic distillation; cumene; reactive separation.
1. Introduction The alkylation of benzene with propylene is an important commercial alkylation reaction that produces cumene, a petrochemical feedstock produced in large quantities for use in the manufacture of phenol and acetone [1,2]. Conventionally, cumene is manufactured using AlCl3 or phosphoric acid catalysts that create both equipment corrosion and environmental problems [3,4]. The difficulties arising from the conventional catalysts have spurred the use of more environmentally friendly solid acids such as zeolite-based catalysts [5–8]. No matter the catalyst used, conventional techniques require large excess amounts of benzene. Compounding matters, the reaction occurs with no simultaneous separation, which necessitates further multiple energyintensive distillation steps including (1) separation of the product from the excess benzene, and (2) purification through separation of cumene from the by-products. More recent technologies, such as catalytic or reactive distillation, achieve catalytic reaction and continuous separation of unreacted benzene and products by distillation in one step, in a single catalytic distillation reactor [9,10]. The advantage of using a solid-catalyzed reaction over a catalyst that acts as distillation packing inside the distillation column is more pronounced when used in reactions limited by equilibrium. While these systems still require cumene be separated from the reaction by-products, they contain an energy efficient distillation step of separating unreacted benzene from the products. However, these later technologies require the use of high pressures in the column to operate [9,11]. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]
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