Process for the alkylation of benzene with isopropanol or blends of isopropanol and propylene
AssigneePolimeri Europa S.p.A.
InventorsLoreno Lorenzoni, Paolo Calaresu, Pier Gianni Cabras
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Abstract
The invention relates to a process for the alkylation of benzene with isopropanol (IPA) as alkylating agent, or blends of isopropanol and propylene, which comprises effecting said reaction completely in gaseous phase and in the presence of a catalytic system containing a zeolite belonging to the MTW family.
Claims18
1) A process for the alkylation of benzene with isopropanol, or a blend of isopropanol and propylene, which comprises effecting said alkylation reaction under temperature and pressure conditions corresponding to complete gas phase of the reagents and in the presence of a catalytic system containing a zeolite belonging to the MTW family.
6) The process according to any of the previous claims, wherein the zeolite is used in the form bound with a ligand.
8) The process for the alkylation of benzene according to one or more of the previous claims, wherein the process is effected at a temperature ranging from 150 to 230° C. and a pressure ranging from 1 to 20 bar.
11) The process for the alkylation of benzene according to the previous claim, wherein the reaction is carried out with a molar ratio between benzene and isopropanol, or between benzene and a blend of isopropanol and propylene, which ranges from 2 to 4.
13) The process for the alkylation of benzene according to the previous claim, wherein the reaction is carried out with a molar ratio between isopropanol and propylene preferably ranging from 5 to 0.1.
14) The process according to one or more of the previous claims, wherein the catalytic system contains phosphorous.
16) A process for preparing phenol comprising the following steps:
- 1) alkylation of benzene with isopropanol, and optionally propylene, to give cumene and water;
- 2) oxidation of the cumene thus obtained to cumyl hydroperoxide;
- 3) treatment of the cumyl hydroperoxide with acids in order to obtain a mixture of phenol and acetone;
- 4) hydrogenation of the acetone to isopropanol characterized in that the alkylation of benzene in step (1) is carried out by means of the process according to one or more of the claims from 1 to 15.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.