Selective hydrogenation of styrene to ethylbenzene

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9353024-B2
Application number	US-201414165255-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2014
Priority date	Feb 6, 2013
Publication date	May 31, 2016
Grant date	May 31, 2016

Abstract

A feedstream comprising paraxylene and styrene is contacted, in the presence of hydrogen, with a catalyst comprising at least one metal, selected from one or more metals selected from Groups 8-10.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process comprising contacting a feedstream including paraxylene and styrene in the presence of hydrogen and a catalyst comprising at least one metal selected from Groups 8-10 of the Periodic Table, and obtaining a product comprising a reduced concentration of styrene, wherein less than 0.2 wt % of paraxylene is isomerized by contact with the catalyst;
wherein the feedstream is the product stream of a process comprising contacting benzene and/or toluene with methanol and/or dimethyl ether in the presence of a phosphorus-modified ZSM-5 catalyst, which has been steamed at a temperature of at least 950° C., and contains at least 70 wt % of paraxylene.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein said metal is selected from Pd, Co, Ni, Ru, and mixtures thereof.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein said catalyst further comprises at least one metal or metal compound selected from Ag, Au, In, alkali metals, and alkaline earth metals.

4. The process of claim 1 , said catalyst further comprises a support selected from Al 2 O 3 , carbon, SiO 2 , TiO 2 , and mixtures thereof.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein said product has no detectable levels of styrene as measured by gas chromatography.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein said product has no detectable levels of ethylcyclohexane or dimethylcyclohexane as measured by gas chromatography.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein said product contains an increased amount of ethylbenzene relative to said feedstream.

8. The process of claim 7 , wherein said increased amount of ethylbenzene is equal to the amount of styrene in said feedstream as measured by gas chromatography.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the amount of paraxylene in the feedstream, where the feedstream is obtained from an alkylation reaction, is in the amount of from 70 wt % to 98 wt %, based on the total xylene concentration.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein the amount of styrene in the feedstream, where the feedstream is obtained from an alkylation reaction, is in the range of from 0.01 wt % to 2.00 wt %.

Assignees

• Exxonmobil Chem Patents Inc

Inventors

• Chen Tan-Jen
• Ou John Di-Yi
• Abichandani Jeevan S
• Heeter Glenn Allen

Classifications

• C07C7/163 Primary

  by hydrogenation · CPC title

• C07C5/05 Primary

  Partial hydrogenation · CPC title

• C07C2523/44

  Palladium · CPC title

• C07C5/03

  of non-aromatic carbon-to-carbon double bonds · CPC title

• C07C2521/04

  Alumina · CPC title