Alkylation of organic aromatic compounds

A system for the production of ethyl benzene comprising:

• (a) a first vessel suitable for reacting ethylene with benzene to produce ethyl benzene and diethyl benzene;
• (b) benzene feed means in fluid communication with said first reactor;
• (c) ethylene feed means in fluid communication with said first reactor;
• (d) inert distillation structure contained within the upper one-third of said first vessel capable of distillation;
• (e) catalytic distillation structure comprising granular acidic molecular sieve catalyst contained within pockets on a cloth belt twisted into a helix with open mesh knitted stainless steel wire and supported above the lower one-third of said first vessel;
• (f) inert distillation structure contained within said first vessel below said catalytic distillation structure and being capable of substantially completely separating by fractional distillation any unreacted benzene leaving the lower portion of said catalytic distillation structure from ethyl benzene and diethyl benzene by fractional distillation;
• (g) a first conduit connected to the upper portion of said first vessel for removing first overhead stream from said first vessel, said first overhead stream containing unreacted benzene and ethylene and said first conduit being connected to;
• (h) a condensing means for condensing said unreacted benzene while leaving said unreacted ethylene in the gaseous state;
• (i) a second conduit connecting said condensing means to;
• (j) a second vessel for accumulating said condensed benzene;
• (k) a third conduit connecting said first and second vessels for returning substantially all of said condensed unreacted benzene to said first vessel as reflux;
• (l) a fourth conduit connected from the bottom portion of the first vessel to;
• (m) a third vessel suitable to separate by only fractional distillation said first bottoms into a second overhead stream substantially free of said diethyl benzene and a second bottoms stream substantially free of said ethyl benzene;
• and
• (n) a fifth conduit connecting the lower portion of said third vessel to said first vessel for carrying said second bottoms stream to said first vessel for further reaction.