Selective production of meta-diisopropylbenzene

A process for the selective production of meta-diisopropylbenzene, said process comprising the steps of:

• (a) alkylating benzene with propylene under alkylation conditions in the presence of a solid alkylation catalyst to produce an alkylation product comprising unreacted benzene, cumene and diispropylbenzene isomers;
• then
• (b) contacting at least part of said alkylation product under conversion conditions with a further catalyst comprising a molecular sieve selected from the group consisting of zeolite beta, mordenite and a porous crystalline inorganic oxide material having an X-ray diffraction pattern including the d-spacing maxima at 12.4±0.25, 6.9±0.15, 3.57±0.07 and 3.42±0.07 Angstrom, said contacting step selectively converting ortho-diisopropylbenzene in the alkylation product to produce an effluent in which the ratio of meta-diispropylbenzene to ortho-diispropylbenzene is greater than that of the alkylation product;
• and then
• (c) feeding said effluent to a separation zone to recover from said effluent a product rich in meta-diisopropylbenzene.