Abstract
The alkylation of toluene with 1,3-pentadiene to produce pentyltoluene is designed to obtain 2,6-dimethylnaphalene for the monomer production of 2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylic acid. The possibility of the reaction is examined by the thermodynamics of the alkylation reaction using Thinh's group contributions method, and tested over silica supported aluminum chloride catalyst in a newly developed extracting-distilling reactor. The thermodynamics calculations results show that the alkylation reaction is exothermic and can proceed at 298-350K under normal pressure with an equilibrium constant higher than 106. Based on the thermodynamic calculation and the properties of the reactants and product, the extracting-distilling reactor was designed to allow 1,3-pentadiene to react with toluene at much lower temperature than the boiling point of toluene at the catalyst site. The alkylation product, which has a higher boiling point than that of toluene, is transferred from the catalytic site into the toluene bath and collected. The experimental results show that the reactor functions as designed and promotes the selectivity of the alkylation reaction close to 100%. The effect of raw material ratio of toluene to 1,3-Pentadiene and reaction time are discussed in this paper. The suitable catalytic reactions are follows: at reaction temperature of 338K and ambient pressure, the reactant ration of toluene to 1,3-pentadiene is 5:1 for a six-hour reaction
*Supported by Basic Research Project of SINOPEC (Grant No. X504010)
Notes
*Supported by Basic Research Project of SINOPEC (Grant No. X504010)