Hydrodealkylation

Hydrodealkylation

Chemicals from Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Published in James G. Speight, Handbook of Petrochemical Processes, 2019

Dealkylation, in the current context is the removal of an alky group from an aromatic ring (Rabinovich and Maslyanskii, 1973; Noda et al., 2009). In the same context, hydrodealkylation is a chemical reaction that often involves reacting with an aromatic hydrocarbon derivative, such as toluene, in the presence of hydrogen to form a simpler aromatic hydrocarbon devoid of the alkyl group(s). An example is the conversion of 1,2,4-trilethylbenzene [1,2,4-(CH3)3C6H3] to xylene (CH3C6H4CH3). The process requires high temperature and high pressure or the presence of a catalyst containing transition metals, such as chromium and molybdenum.

Soft sensors model optimization and application for the refinery real-time prediction of toluene content

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Journal Information

Published in Chemical Engineering Communications, 2018

Ivan Mohler, Željka Ujević Andrijić, Nenad Bolf

The aromatic complex unit consists of sulfolane, hydrodealkylation, fractionation and xylene units. From produced reformate coming from reformate unit, rich in aromatics (up to 78 vol%), aromatics are separated in the sulfolane unit from non-aromatic hydrocarbons. In the hydrodealkylation unit, due to petrochemical high demand (especially for benzene), the selective conversion process of toluene and C8+ aromatics to benzene is conducted. This process enables production mostly of benzene (reaction conversion factor 90%) and additional amount of xylene.

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Chemicals from Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Soft sensors model optimization and application for the refinery real-time prediction of toluene content