Alkylaromatic process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9238599-B2
Application number	US-201113313380-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2011
Priority date	Dec 7, 2011
Publication date	Jan 19, 2016
Grant date	Jan 19, 2016

Abstract

This invention is directed to a new process for making an alkylaromatic compound. In an embodiment of this invention, the process is directed to selective synthesizing an alkylaromatic compound comprising a high amount of dialkylate product. In general, this process involves contacting at least one alkylatable aromatic compound with an alkylating agent and a catalyst under suitable reaction conditions such that the resulting reactor effluent prior to any stripping step may be characterized by a dialkylate product content of at least 44 wt % and a trialkylate and higher polyalkylate product content of no more than 20 wt %. The alkylaromatic compounds produced have excellent thermal and oxidative stabilities, good additive solvency, and improved seal compatibility while maintaining good VI and low temperature properties. They are useful as lubricant basestocks and lubricant additives.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process to produce an alkylaromatic compound comprising contacting:
a. at least one alkylatable aromatic compound;
b. an alkylating agent; and
c. a USY catalyst with a sodium content of no more than 1 wt % of Na 2 O and a SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 mole ratio of at least 30;

under alkylation conditions in a suitable reactor, wherein, prior to any stripping or distillation step, the reactor effluent stream comprises at least 44 wt % dialkylate product and no more than 20 wt % trialkylate and higher polyalkylate product.

2. The process according to claim 1 wherein the alkylatable aromatic compound is selected from the group including substituted and unsubstituted benzene and polynuclear aromatic compounds, toluene, o,m,p-xylene, hemimel-litene, pseudocumene, ethylbenzene, n-propylbenzene, cumene, n-butylbenzene, isobutylbenzene, sec-butylbenzene, tert-butylbenzene, p-cymene, biphenyl, diphenylmethane, triphenyl methane, 1,2-diphenylethane, phenol, catechol, acylphenols, carbonate esters, alkylphenols, choloro- and bromo-benzene, aniline, acyl anilines, methyl- and ethyl-benzoate, thiophenol and acylated thiophenol, nitrobenzene, diphenylether, diphenylsulfide, and naphthols.

3. The process according claim 1 wherein the alkylatable aromatic compound is selected from the group including naphthalene, methylnaphthalenes, and substituted naphthalenes.

4. The process according to claim 1 wherein the catalyst has a pore size of at least 7 Å.

5. The process according to claim 1 wherein the catalyst wt % in the feed is no more than 8 wt %.

6. The process according to claim 1 wherein the alkylation conditions comprise a temperature between −30° C. and 500° C. and a pressure between 20 and 25,000 kPa.

7. The process according to claim 1 wherein a stripping or distillation step is applied to the reactor effluent stream.

8. The process according to claim 1 wherein at least some portion of unreacted feed and/or monoalkylate product is recycled back to the reactor.

9. The process according to claim 1 wherein the amount of dialkylate product in the reactor effluent stream is at least 55 wt %.

10. The process according to claim 1 wherein the amount of trialkylate and higher polyalkylate product in the reactor effluent stream is no more than 10 wt %.

11. The process according to claim 1 wherein the reactor effluent stream comprises no more than 10 wt % of dimers of olefins used as alkylating agent in the reactor.

12. The process according to claim 1 wherein the wt % ratio of monoalkylate to dialkylate product in the reactor effluent stream prior to any stripping or distillation step ranges from 50:50 to 10:90.

13. The process according to claim 1 wherein the alkylaromatic compound has a kinematic viscosity at 100° C. between 2 cSt and 100 cSt.

Assignees

• Winsett Beth A
• Exxonmobil Chem Patents Inc

Inventors

• Winsett Beth A

Classifications

• C07C25/02

  Monocyclic aromatic halogenated hydrocarbons · CPC title

• C10M2203/065

  used as base material · CPC title

• C10M109/02

  Reaction products · CPC title

• C10N2070/00

  Specific manufacturing methods for lubricant compositions · CPC title

• C07C15/02

  Monocyclic hydrocarbons · CPC title