Processes for methylation of aromatics in an aromatics complex

A process for the methylation of toluene, comprising:

• passing a toluene feed stream and a plurality of methanol feed streams to an alkylation reaction zone comprising an alkylation catalyst comprising at least one MWW, UZM-8, or UZM-37 zeolite where external acid sites have been removed by steaming or by contacting with an Al-chelating agent at alkylation reaction conditions to produce an alkylation reaction zone product stream having an increased ratio of para-xylene to xylenes compared to an untreated MWW, UZM-8, or UZM-37 zeolite, wherein the alkylation reaction conditions comprise a temperature of about 200° C. to about 400° C. and a pressure of about 15 psig to about 400 psig;
• separating the alkylation reaction zone product stream into a vent gas stream, an overhead steam comprising toluene and xylenes, a side cut comprising xylenes, and a bottoms stream comprising C9+, containing diphenylmethane;
• and
• passing the bottoms stream to a transalkylation zone.