Processes for converting benzene and/or toluene via methylation

A process for converting benzene and/or toluene to xylenes, the process comprising:

• (a) feeding an aromatic hydrocarbon feed and a methylating agent feed into a methylation reactor, wherein the aromatic hydrocarbon feed comprises benzene and/or toluene, and the methylating agent comprises methanol and/or dimethyl ether;
• and
• (b) contacting the aromatic hydrocarbon feed with the methylating agent in the presence of a methylation catalyst system under methylation reaction conditions effective to produce a methylation product mixture effluent, wherein the methylation catalyst system comprises a molecular sieve catalyst and an auxiliary catalyst, the molecular sieve catalyst comprises a MWW framework type zeolite, the auxiliary catalyst comprises an oxide of a metal element selected from Group 2, Group 3, the lanthanide series, the actinide series, and mixtures and combinations thereof, and the methylation product mixture effluent comprises p-xylene, the methylation reaction conditions comprise an aromatic inlet feed temperature in a range from 200 to 500° C., an absolute pressure in a range from 100 to 8,500 kPa, a WHSV in a range from 5.0 to 10, and a molar ratio of the aromatic hydrocarbon feed to the methylating agent feed of R(a/m), where
• R
• ⁡
• (
• a
• /
• m
• )
• =
• M
• ⁡
• (
• tol
• )
• +
• 2
• ·
• M
• ⁡
• (
• bz
• )
• M
• ⁡
• (
• methanol
• )
• +
• 2
• ·
• M
• ⁡
• (
• DME
• )
• ,
• M(tol) and M(bz) are the moles of toluene and benzene in the aromatic hydrocarbon feed, respectively, and M(methanol) and M(DME) are the moles of methanol and dimethyl ether in the methylating agent feed, respectively, and 1≤R(a/m)≤5.