Synthesis of 4-tert-Butyltoluene by Vapor Phase tert-Butylation of Toluene with tert-Butylalcohol over USY Zeolite

Yanming Shen (School of Chemical Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang 110142)
Shan Yuan (School of Chemical Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang 110142)
Lihui Fan (School of Chemical Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang 110142)
Dongbin Liu (School of Chemical Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang 110142)
Shifeng Li (School of Chemical Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, Shenyang 110142)

Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis
2015: BCREC Volume 10 Issue 1 Year 2015 (April 2015)

Vapour phase tert-butylation of toluene with tert-butylalcohol was studied over ultra-stable Y zeolite (USY) catalyst. The effects of reaction temperature, toluene/TBA molar ratio and liquid space velocity on conversion of toluene and selectivity for 4-tert-butyltoluene were studied. The deactivation and regeneration of the catalyst was also investigated. The results showed that the USY zeolite catalyst offered better toluene conversion of about 30 % and 4-tert-butyltoluene selectivity of about 89 % at the suitable reaction condition as follows: reaction temperature of 120 oC, toluene/TBA ratio of 2:1 and liquid space velocity of 2 ml/g·h. The clogging of mocropores by the formed carbon or oligomers was the main reason for the deactivation of the catalyst. By combustion at 550 oC, the catalyst just lost about 5 % in toluene conversion and about 2 % in PTBT selectivity. © 2015 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)