Patrizia Ingallina

Recent advances in the industrial alkylation of aromatics: new catalysts and new processes

Huge improvements towards the development of environmentally friendly processes have been achieved in the alkylations of aromatics with olefins, since the last four or five decades. Particularly, much efforts have been devoted to the research of solid catalysts adequate to substitute mineral or Lewis acids and free bases traditionally employed as catalysts in the acid or base catalyzed alkylations. Here we review the options industrially worthy of note in the alkylations of benzene and toluene for the production of ethylbenzene (EB), cumene, linear alkyl benzene and cymene. We also discuss features of different zeolites as a function of their activity and selectivity in the reactions considered.

Production of titanium containing molecular sieves and their application in catalysis

Abstract This paper reviews several important issues related with industrial application of catalysts based on titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1). The catalyst preparation has been discussed, especially considering the most critical parameters for industrial application. Two processes already demonstrated on industrial scale (phenol hydroxylation and cyclohexanone ammoximation), and a process, under development by several industrial groups (propylene epoxidation), have been reported and discussed. The possibility to insert titanium in large pore zeolites, in order to widen the application field of this kind of materials, has been considered and the behaviour of several new materials has been reported and compared with the catalytic properties of TS-1.

Combining alkylation and transalkylation for alkylaromatic production

The alkylation of aromatic hydrocarbons with olefins is applied on a large scale in the chemical industry. The efficiency of these productions is highly improved performing alkylation combined with transalkylation, the latter allowing conversion of some low valued by-products such as polyalkylbenzenes into their monosubstituted homologues. The aim of this contribution is to summarize some examples of novel industrial processes, based on new catalysts that are environmentally friendly, for the production of ethylbenzene and cumene, two of the most important chemicals produced by alkylation/transalkylation.