Mobil-Badger process

Eig. 4. Mobil—Badger process for ethylbenzene production H = heater Rx = reactor P = prefractionator BC = benzene recovery column ... 

ABB Lummus Crest Inc. and Unocal Corp. have Hcensed a benzene alkylation process usiag a proprietary zeoHte catalyst. Unlike the Mobil-Badger process, the Unocal-Lummus process is suitable for either ethylbenzene or cumene manufacture (27,28). 

All lation. An exceUent example of alkylation is the Mobil-Badger process, which uses ZSM-5-type zeoHte to produce ethylbenzene by alkylation of benzene with ethylene (12,40) ... 

EBMax A continuous, liquid-phase process for making ethylbenzene from ethylene and benzene, using a zeolite catalyst. Developed by Raytheon Engineers and Constructors and Mobil Oil Corporation and first installed at Chiba Styrene Monomer in Japan in 1995. Generally similar to the Mobil/Badger process, but the improved catalyst permits the reactor size to be reduced by two thirds. 

A more recent development in ethylbenzene technology is the Mobil-Badger process,161,314-316 which employs a solid acid catalyst in the heterogeneous vapor-phase reaction (400-45O C, 15-30 atm). A modified H-ZSM-5 catalyst that is regenerable greatly eliminates the common problems associated with... 

Alkylation. In the field of alkylation of benzene with ethene zeolite-based catalysts are used for the past 20 years, replacing the conventional A1C13- and BF3-on-alumina based processes. Here the question in case of a new plant is not whether a zeolite-based process will be selected but rather which one to choose. The Mobil-Badger process uses ZSM-5 as the catalyst and is the most widely applied though recently other zeolites (Y, Beta and MCM-22) have come to the fore. 

The Mobil-Badger process has also been modified to use dilute ethylene from FCC off-gas streams as a feedstock. The dilute ethylene process was first commercialized at Shell s Stanlow U.K. refinery in 1991 and has been in continuous use ever since. 

Application To produce cumene from benzene and any grade of propylene—including lower-quality refineiy propylene-propane mixture—using the Mobil/Badger process and a new generation of zeolite catalysts from ExxonMobil. 

Commercial plants The first commercial application of this process came onstream in 1996. At present, there are seven operating plants with a combined capacity exceeding 3 million mtpy. In addition, three revamped facilities and one grassroots plant with a combined capacity of over 1.5 million mtpy will be onstream by the year 2001. At that time, more than 50% of the worldwide cumene production will be from plants using the Mobil/Badger process. 

AH of the processes described above require more benzene recycle than the aluminum chloride-based processes. Retrofitting an existing aluminum chloride-based plant to a zeoHte-based plant requires not only replacement of the reaction section but also additional investment in the distiHation train. Several producers have chosen to replace their old plants during the 1980s and early 1990s with new ones based on the Mobil-Badger process, at expanded capacities. 

Table 8.2 presents comparatively the four reactor types proposed above. Liquid-phase alkylation was practiced in the past, but is nowadays completely obsolete, mainly because of pollution problems. Vapour-phase alkylation (UOP Alkar process) was popular up to 1970, when Mobil/Badger process based on ZMS-5 synthetic zeolite catalyst was launched. This process dominates the market nowadays, but is in competition with the liquid-phase process based equally on zeolite catalyst proposed by UOP/Lummus. The two processes have similar performances. The selection depends greatly on the catalyst behaviour, price and regeneration cost. We would prefer the last, for the following reasons ... 

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