Treatment of aromatic alkylation catalysts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9744530-B2
Application number	US-201414781781-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 22, 2014
Priority date	May 9, 2013
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method for treating a catalyst that is useful for producing mono-alkylaromatic compounds, the method comprises the steps of (a) contacting the untreated catalyst with water to produce water-contacted catalyst, and (b) drying the water-contacted catalyst with a drying gas without steam being formed at a temperature of less than 300° C. to produce a treated catalyst. The treatment is effective to improve the activity and catalyst selectivity. A process for producing a mono-alkylaromatic compound comprising such a catalyst treatment is also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A process for producing an alkylated aromatic compound, comprising the step of contacting an alkylatable aromatic compound and an alkylating agent with a treated catalyst under alkylation or transalkylation conditions to produce the alkylated aromatic compound, wherein the treated catalyst was treated by the method comprising the steps of:
(a) contacting an untreated catalyst with water to produce a water-contacted catalyst, and
(b) drying the water-contacted catalyst with a drying gas at a temperature of less than about 300° C. to produce a treated catalyst; and
wherein the water-contacted catalyst of drying step (b) is dried at a deposit height of less than about 10 centimeters.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the drying gas flows along the direction of the catalyst deposit height through the water-contacted catalyst.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the drying gas flows in a direction vertical to the catalyst deposit height.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the drying step (b) is conducted at a temperature of from about 50° C. to about 250° C.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein drying step (b) is conducted for a period of from about 1 minute to about 96 hours.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the catalyst comprises a fresh catalyst, and at least partially deactivated catalyst, or combinations thereof.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the water is deionized water.

8. The process of claim 1 , further comprising the step of, prior to contacting the catalyst with water in step (a), calcining the catalyst at a temperature of greater than about 300° C.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the molecular sieve is selected from the group consisting of a MCM-22 family molecular sieve, faujasite, mordenite, or zeolite-beta, and combinations thereof.

10. The process of claim 9 , wherein the MCM-22 family molecular sieve is selected from the group consisting of MCM-22, PSH-3, SSZ-25, MCM-36, MCM-49, MCM-56, ERB-1, EMM-10, EMM-10-P, EMM-12, EMM-13, UZM-8, UZM-8HS, ITQ-1, ITQ-2, ITQ-30, and combinations thereof.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein the contacting step is conducted under at least partial liquid phase conditions.

12. The process of claim 1 , wherein the alkylating agent is an alkylating olefinic group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms or a poly-alkylaromatic compound.

13. The process of claim 1 , wherein the alkylating agent is ethylene or propylene.

14. The process of claim 1 , wherein the alkylatable aromatic compound is benzene.

15. The process of claim 1 , wherein the alkylation or transalkylation conditions comprises a temperature of from 50° C. to about 400° C., and a pressure of from about 100 kPa to about 7000 kPa.

16. A method of treating a catalyst comprising a molecular sieve, comprising the steps of:
(a) contacting an untreated catalyst with water to produce a water contacted catalyst; and
(b) drying the water-contacted catalyst with a drying gas at a temperature of less than about 300° C. to produce a treated catalyst; and
wherein the water-contacted catalyst of drying step (b) is dried at a deposit height of less than about 10 centimeters.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein drying step (b) is conducted at a temperature of from about 50° C. to about 250° C.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein drying step (b) is conducted for a period of from about 1 minute to about 96 hours.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the untreated catalyst comprises a fresh catalyst, an at least partially deactivated catalyst, or combinations thereof.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the water is deionized water.

21. The method of claim 16 , further comprising the step of, prior to contacting step (a), calcining the catalyst at a temperature of greater than about 300° C.

22. The method of claim 16 , wherein the molecular sieve is selected from the group consisting of a MCM-22 family molecular sieve, faujasite, mordenite, zeolite-beta, and combinations thereof.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the MCM-22 family molecular sieve is selected from the group consisting of MCM-22, PSH-3, SSZ-25, MCM-36, MCM-49, MCM-56, ERB-1, EMM-10, EMM-10-P, EMM-12, EMM-13, UZM-8, UZM-8HS, ITQ-1, ITQ-2, ITQ-30, and combinations thereof.

Assignees

• Exxonmobil Chemical Company
• Exxonmobil Chemical Patents Inc

Inventors

• Vincent Matthew J
• Helton Terry E
• Zurlo Dominick A

Classifications

• B01J37/06

  Washing {(B01J37/0009, B01J37/0018 take precedence)} · CPC title

• C07C2529/70

  of types characterised by their specific structure not provided for in groups C07C2529/08 - C07C2529/65 · CPC title

• B01J29/7038

  MWW-type, e.g. MCM-22, ERB-1, ITQ-1, PSH-3 or SSZ-25 · CPC title

• Y02P20/52

  using catalysts, e.g. selective catalysts · CPC title

• B01J38/48

  Liquid treating or treating in liquid phase, e.g. dissolved or suspended · CPC title