Benzene production from toluene

Direct esr evidence for the intermediacy of radical-cations was obtained on flowing solutions of Co(III) acetate and a variety of substituted benzenes and polynuclear aromatics together in glacial acetic acid or trifluoroacetic acid solution . A p value of —2.4 was reported for a series of toluenes but addition of chloride ions, which greatly accelerated the reaction rate, resulted in p falling to —1.35. Only trace quantities of -CH2OAC adducts were obtained and benzyl acetate is the chief product from toluene, in conformity with the equation given above. 

It has become clear that benzoate occupies a central position in the anaerobic degradation of both phenols and alkylated arenes such as toluene and xylenes, and that carboxylation, hydroxylation, and reductive dehydroxylation are important reactions for phenols that are discussed in Part 4 of this chapter. The simplest examples include alkylated benzenes, products from the carboxylation of napthalene and phenanthrene (Zhang and Young 1997), the decarboxylation of o-, m-, and p-phthalate under denitrifying conditions (Nozawa and Maruyama 1988), and the metabolism of phenols and anilines by carboxylation. Further illustrative examples include the following ... 

The addition of ammonia or primary and secondary amines to pyrylium salts is usually accompanied by a rapid ring opening without detection of the expected 2//-pyran intermediates. The exceptional behavior of the salt 160a was observed in its reaction with Af./V-dimethylaniline, affording 85% of 4H-pyran 210, whereas analogous addition products from toluene and methoxy-benzene were too unstable to be isolated.214... 

Calculate the benzene selectivity from toluene. Let Pb be the production rate of benzene. Then,... 

The liquid stream from the separator (after part is taken for the quench) is fed to the stabilizer column, which has a partial condenser and removes any remaining hydrogen and methane gas from the liquid components. The bottoms stream from the stabilizer is fed to the product column, where the distillate is the benzene product from the process and the bottoms is toluene and diphenyl fed to the recycle column. The distillate from the recycle column is toluene that is recycled back to the reactor and the bottoms is the diphenyl byproduct. 

A column with partial condenser and reboiler is to be used for the separation of benzene (1) from toluene (2), giving a distillate with 0.95 mole fraction benzene and a bottoms product with 0.10 mole fraction benzene. The column will operate at 105 kPa pressure and a reflux ratio of 4. The feed, at 55°C and a flow rate of 100 kmol/h containing 45 mol% benzene and 55 mol% toluene, enters the column at the fifth theoretical stage from the top. The estimated average relative volatility (benzene relative to toluene) is assumed constant, and estimated at 2.41. Based on the column conditions and thermodynamic properties, the predicted q-value is 1.2. It is required to determine the number of theoretical stages below the feed to complete the separation. 

Since the primary reaction products always have more possible metalation sites than does the starting telogen, the secondary products are necessarily more complex. Whereas benzene produces only 1-phenylalkanes, the ethylbenzene derived from it may undergo secondary attack to form homologous ethylphenyl-n-alkanes and 2-phenyl-n-alkanes. Similarly, the primary product, n-butylbenzene, may lead to homologous n-butylphenyl-n-alkanes and 4-phenyl-n-alkanes. The secondary reaction products from toluene and ethylbenzene are correspondingly more complex. The product patterns are shown in Figure 3. 

The purity of the benzene product from the benzene and toluene (BT) fractionation section is such that no further extraction is needed. The mixed-xylenes product containing only 1%-4% ethylbenzene is a good feedstock for paraxylene (PX) production. 

THM-GC analysis of the cured Burmese lacquer results in a series of straight-chain and branched-chain alkyl benzenes ranging from toluene to dodecyl benzene, and Cg- to Ciy-alkanes and alkenes. These products are similar in composition to the products obtained by conventional pyrolysis. Compounds corresponding to peaks marked with an asterisk are FAMES that are products of the THM reaction and... 

Make an order-of-magnitude estimate of the total capital investment, as of the year 2001 (MS = 1,110), to produce benzene according to the toluene hydrodealkylation process shown in Figure 5.13. Assume an overall conversion of toluene to benzene of 95% and 330 days of operation per year. Also, assume the makeup gas enters at the desired pressure and a clay adsorption treater must be added to the flow sheet after the stabilizer. The treater removes contaminants that would prevent the benzene product from meeting specifications. In addition, in order for the reactor to handle the high temperature, it must have a brick lining on the inside, so take a material factor of Fm = 15. Otherwise, aU major equipment is constructed of carbon steel. The plant will be constructed outdoors with major additions to existing facilities. 

An example of where recycling can be effective in improving selectivity is in the production of benzene from toluene. The series reaction is reversible. Hence recycling diphenyl to the reactor can be used to suppress its formation at the source. 

Toluene, Proceed as for Benzene but use 0-5 ml. of toluene and a mixture of 3 ml. of concentrated sulphuric acid and 2 ml. of fuming nitric acid. Gently warm the mixture over a free flame for 1-2 minutes, cool, and pour into 20 ml. of ice water. Recrystalhse the product from dilute alcohol. 2 4-Dinitrotoluene, m.p. 71°, is obtained. 

Phenylmagnesium bromide (2.8 mol) was prepared in anhydrous ether (21) from bromobenzene (440 g, 2.9 mol) and magnesium turnings (68.0 g 2.8 g-atom). To this solution was added dropwise a solution of indole (328 g, 2.8 mol) in benzene (8(X)ml). The resulting solution was stirred for 10 min and then a solution of cyclopentanoyl chloride (322 g, 2.4 mol) in benzene (800 ml) was added dropwise. The solution was stirred for 1 h and then water (11) was added carefully. The precipitate which formed was collected by filtration and dried to give 169 g of crude product. Additional product (97 g) was obtained by evaporation of the organic layer of the filtrate. The combined products were recrystallized from toluene to give 250 g (49% yield) of pure product. 

In 1980, the last year for which a breakdown has been pubUshed, the amount of benzene derived from coal in the United States was 168,000 t or 2.5% of domestic benzene production. Coal-derived toluene was 0.8% of production, and xylenes from coal were only 0.1% of total chemical production (9). The amounts and proportions of BTX components derived from coal in the United States are expected to be nearly the same today as in 1980. Based on information submitted to the International Trade Commission, approximately 25 companies participated in the coal-tar industry in the United States in 1990. 

The Tatoray process, which was developed by Toray Industries, Inc., and is available for Hcense through UOP, can be appHed to the production of xylenes and benzene from feedstock that consists typically of toluene [108-88-3] either alone or blended with aromatics (particularly trimethylbenzenes and ethyl-toluenes). The main reactions are transalkylation (or disproportionation) of toluene to xylene and benzene or of toluene and trimethylbenzenes to xylenes in the vapor phase over a highly selective fixed-bed catalyst in a hydrogen atmosphere at 350—500°C and 1—5 MPa (10—50 atm). Ethyl groups are... 

Figure 5 illustrates a typical distillation train in a styrene plant. Benzene and toluene by-products are recovered in the overhead of the benzene—toluene column. The bottoms from the benzene—toluene column are distilled in the ethylbenzene recycle column, where the separation of ethylbenzene and styrene is effected. The ethylbenzene, containing up to 3% styrene, is taken overhead and recycled to the dehydrogenation section. The bottoms, which contain styrene, by-products heavier than styrene, polymers, inhibitor, and up to 1000 ppm ethylbenzene, are pumped to the styrene finishing column. The overhead product from this column is purified styrene. The bottoms are further processed in a residue-finishing system to recover additional styrene from the residue, which consists of heavy by-products, polymers, and inhibitor. The residue is used as fuel. The residue-finishing system can be a flash evaporator or a small distillation column. This distillation sequence is used in the Fina-Badger process and the Dow process. 

Toluene, Benzene, and BTX Reeoveiy. The composition of aromatics centers on the C - and Cg-fraction, depending somewhat on the boihng range of the feedstock used. Most catalytic reformate is used directiy in gasoline. That part which is converted to benzene, toluene, and xylenes for commercial sale is separated from the unreacted paraffins and cycloparaffins or naphthenes by hquid—hquid extraction or by extractive distillation. It is impossible to separate commercial purity aromatic products from reformates by distillation only because of the presence of azeotropes, although comphcated further by the closeness in boihng points of the aromatics, t/o-paraffin, and unreacted C -, C -, and Cg-paraffins. 

Because much toluene is demethylated for use as benzene, considerable effort has been expended on developing processes in which toluene can be used in place of benzene to make directiy from toluene the same products that are derived from benzene. Such processes both save the cost of demethylation and utilize the methyl group already on toluene. Most of this effort has been directed toward manufacture of styrene. An alternative approach is the manufacture of i ra-methylstyrene by selective ethylation of toluene, followed by dehydrogenation. Resins from this monomer are expected to displace... 

The principal chemical uses of BTX are illustrated in Figure 1 and Hsted in Table 1 (2). A very wide range of consumer products from solvents to fibers, films, and plastics are based on BTX. The consumption of BTX is approximately in the proportions of 67 5 28, respectively. However, no BTX process gives BTX in these proportions. The economic value of benzene and xylenes (especially -xylene) is normally higher than that of toluene. Because of this, processes that convert toluene to benzene by hydrodealkylation (3) and disproportionate toluene to benzene and xylenes (4) have been commercialized. In addition, reforming processes that emphasize production of either benzene or -xylene [106 2-3] have been described (5). Since these are not classified as BTX processes they are not discussed in detail here. 

The performance of many metal-ion catalysts can be enhanced by doping with cesium compounds. This is a result both of the low ionization potential of cesium and its abiUty to stabilize high oxidation states of transition-metal oxo anions (50). Catalyst doping is one of the principal commercial uses of cesium. Cesium is a more powerflil oxidant than potassium, which it can replace. The amount of replacement is often a matter of economic benefit. Cesium-doped catalysts are used for the production of styrene monomer from ethyl benzene at metal oxide contacts or from toluene and methanol as Cs-exchanged zeofltes ethylene oxide ammonoxidation, acrolein (methacrolein) acryflc acid (methacrylic acid) methyl methacrylate monomer methanol phthahc anhydride anthraquinone various olefins chlorinations in low pressure ammonia synthesis and in the conversion of SO2 to SO in sulfuric acid production. 

Until the mid-1950s the main raw material source for the European plastics industry was coal. On destructive distillation coal yields four products coal tar, coke, coal gas and ammonia. Coal tar was an important source of aromatic chemicals such as benzene, toluene, phenol, naphthalene and related products. From these materials other chemicals such as adipic acid, hexamethylenedia-mine, caprolactam and phthalic anhydride could be produced, leading to such important plastics as the phenolic resins, polystyrene and the nylons. 

The main product, benzene, is represented by solute (B), and the high boiling aromatics are represented by solute (C) (toluene and xylenes). The analysis of the products they obtained are shown in Figure 12. The material stripped form the top section (section (1)) is seen to contain the alkanes, alkenes and naphthenes and very little benzene. The product stripped from the center section appears to be virtually pure benzene. The product from section (3) contained toluene, the xylenes and thiophen which elutes close to benzene. The thiophen, however, was only eliminated at the expense of some loss of benzene to the lower stripping section. Although the system works well it proved experimentally difficult to set up and maintain under constant operating conditions. The problems arose largely from the need to adjust the pressures that must prevent cross-flow. The system as described would be virtually impossible to operate with a liquid mobile phase. 

The residue crystallizes in ether and yields about 600 mg of (3-3, 5 -di-p-toluyl-2 -desoxy-5-iodo-uridine which is recrystallized from toluene. The product Is obtained as colorless crystals, soluble in chloroform and pyridine, sparingly soluble In acetone, benzene ether and alcohol. Insoluble in water, MP 193°C. 

The Fricdel-Crafts type polyalkylation of alkyl-substituted benzenes with 3 becomes easier and faster as the number of electron-donating methyl groups on the phenyl group increases. This is consistent with the fact that the alkylation occurs in the fashion of electrophilic substitution. The tendency of starting incthylben-zenes to form reoriented products also increases in the same order from toluene to mesitylene. 

Toluene alkylation with isopropyl alcohol was chosen as the test reaction as we can follow in a detail the effect of zeolite structural parameters on the toluene conversion, selectivity to cymenes, selectivity to para-cymene, and isopropyl/n-propyl ratio. It should be stressed that toluene/isopropyl alcohol molar ratio used in the feed was 9.6, which indicates the theoretical toluene conversion around 10.4 %. As you can see from Fig. 2 conversion of toluene over SSZ-33 after 15 min of T-O-S is 21 %, which is almost two times higher than the theoretical toluene conversion for alkylation reaction. The value of toluene conversion over SSZ-33 is influenced by a high rate of toluene disproportionation. About 50 % of toluene converted is transformed into benzene and xylenes. Toluene conversion over zeolites Beta and SSZ-35 is around 12 %, which is due to a much smaller contribution of toluene disproportionation to the overall toluene conversion. A slight increase in toluene conversion over ZSM-5 zeolite is connected with the fact that desorption and transport of products in toluene alkylation with isopropyl alcohol is the rate controlling step of this reaction [9]... 

The catalytic performances obtained during transalkylation of toluene and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene at 50 50 wt/wt composition over a single catalyst Pt/Z12 and a dualbed catalyst Pt/Z 121 HB are shown in Table 1. As expected, the presence of Pt tends to catalyze hydrogenation of coke precursors and aromatic species to yield undesirable naphthenes (N6 and N7) side products, such as cyclohexane (CH), methylcyclopentane (MCP), methylcyclohexane (MCH), and dimethylcyclopentane (DMCP), which deteriorates the benzene product purity. The product purity of benzene separated in typical benzene distillation towers, commonly termed as simulated benzene purity , can be estimated from the compositions of reactor effluent, such that [3] ... 

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