Selectivity Enhancement to the Exclusive Formation of Ethyltoluenes and Hydrogen During Dehydroalkylation of Toluene with Ethane

Abstract

The dehydroalkylation of toluene with ethane to the isomeric ethyltoluenes was studied on 0.4Pt/H-ZSM-5 at varying contact times (1/WHSV). At a high contact time of 1.0 h, toluene disproportionation and hydrogenolysis reactions dominate, resulting in low selectivity to the desired ethyltoluenes via the alkylation reaction. However, at a low contact time of 0.12 h side reactions are eliminated, resulting in maximum selectivities to the kinetically favored ethyltoluenes and hydrogen. Results at high selectivities to ethyltoluenes provide significant insight into reaction pathways.

Selective Production of 2-Phenylhexane from Benzene and n-Hexane Over Pt- and Ga-Modified Zeolites

“…Although alkylation already occurred over the parent H-ZSM5, its modification with Pt and Ga improved the selectivity to alkylation products. Similar effects were reported for alkylation of benzene with ethane [15,16,18,19] and propane [8,10,11]. We assigned this increase in selectivity to phenylhexanes to the suppression of cracking and improved dehydrogenation of n-hexane over the metal.…”