Kinetics of Transalkylation of Diisopropylbenzenes with Benzene

Abstract

Transalkylation is an important class of reaction to utilize low value by-products of alkylation reactions. Diisopropylbenzenes (DIPBs) are such by-products formed during the production of cumene by isopropylation of benzene. In the present work, the DIPBs were utilized to produce value-added chemical like cumene by transalkylation with benzene. Transalkylation reactions were carried out in the vapor phase over commercial H-mordenite catalyst in a fixed-bed down-flow laboratory scale reactor. The influences of various process parameters such as temperature, space-time, and benzene-to-DIPB mole ratio on conversion were studied. The experiments were carried out to choose the zone in which the mass transfer effects were negligible. A detailed literature review was made establish a suitable mechanism to explain the course of the reaction.