New Technologies and Alternative Feedstocks in Petrochemistry and Refining

DGMK Conference October 9 11, 2013, Dresden, Germany

Research and Development for Ethylbenezene Production

Mingwei Xue, Hongmin Sun, Zhenhao Shen, Bin Zhang, Mingyao Huan, Weimin Yang
SINOPEC Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology, Shanghai, China

Abstract
Ethylbenezene (EB) is mainly used for the production of styrene. The ethylbenezene is
mainly produced by alkylation of benzene with ethylene. The current commercially-used
processes mainly include the Mobile/Badger vapor phase process, EB-One liquid phase
process, EB-Max liquid phase process and CDTECH catalysis distillation process.
Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology (SRIPT) began to research
the catalysts for the production of ethylbenezene in 1993. Now, with near 20 years work,
three series of catalysts for the alkylation of benzene with pure ethylene, dilute ethylene (dry
gas) and ethanol are in commerical use in China, respectively.
The AB-96, AB-97 catalysts for the alkylation of benzene with pure ethylene and the AB97-T catalyst for the transklation of benzene with diethylbenzene in vapor phase were
developed by SRIPT from 1994 to 1997. Base on the high activity catalysts, SRIPT
developed the technology for the alkylation of benzene with pure ethylene in vapor phase.
With this technology, the purity of ethylbenzene in product is over 99.7% and the xylene in
product is lower than 800 ppm. The service life of the catalyst is over 3 years and the
regeneration cycle is over 21 month. Now, the catalysts and technology are commercially
applied in four plants in China.
The off-gas of catalytic cracking (dry gas) contains some ethylene, which can be used to
produce ethylbenezene. The cost of raw material is greatly decreased with this method. In
2008, the SEB-08 catalyst was developed by SRIPT, which showed high catalytic ability for
the alkyation of benzene with dilute ethylene (dry gas) and high resistence to impurity of dry
gas. The industrial catalyst performance showed that the life of the catalyst is over 2 years
and the regeneration cycle is over 12 month. SRIPTand its parter cooperated to develop the
technology for the alkylation of benzene with dilute ethylene using SEB-08 and AEB-1
catalysts. With this technology, the purity of ethylbenzene in product is over 99.8% and the
xylene is lower than 800 ppm. Now, the SEB-08 catalyst is commercialized in 4 plants and is
to be used in 7 plants in the next 2 years in China.
Ethylbenezene can also be produced by alkylation of benzene with ethanol. With this
method, the source of raw material is increased. DF-AS catalyst with high hydrothermal
stability was developed by SRIPT in 2007, which displayed high catalytic ability for the
alkylation of benzene with biomass ethanol. The catalyst was commercialied in the industrial
plant with capacity of 200, 000 t/y. The conversion of ethanol is about 99.99% and the ethyl
selectivity is over 99.7% as well as the first cycle of the catalys is over 12 month. The purity
of ethylbenzene in product is over 99.7% and the xylene is lower than 900 ppm.