Patent ID: 6670516
Filing Date: 2003-12-30
Classification: C07C

Abstract:
A process for producing phenyl-alkanes, the process comprising the steps of:a) dehydrogenating a feedstock comprising C8-C28 paraffins in a dehydrogenation section operating at dehydrogenation conditions sufficient to dehydrogenate paraffins, and recovering from the dehydrogenation section a dehydrogenated product stream comprising monoolefins and paraffins; b) passing at least a portion of the dehydrogenated product stream to an isomerization section operating at isomerization conditions sufficient to isomerize olefins, and recovering from the isomerization section an isomerized product stream comprising monoolefins and paraffins, wherein the monoolefins in the isomerized product stream have from about 8 to about 28 carbon atoms, and wherein at least a portion of the monoolefins in the dehydrogenated product stream have 3 or 4 primary carbon atoms and no quaternary carbon atoms; c) passing a phenyl compound and at least a portion of the isomerized product stream comprising monoolefins to an alkylation section, operating the alkylation section at alkylation conditions sufficient to alkylate the phenyl compound with monoolefins in the presence of an alkylation catalyst to form phenyl-alkanes comprising molecules having one phenyl portion and one aliphatic alkyl portion containing from about 8 to about 28 carbon atoms; wherein at least a portion of the phenyl-alkanes formed in the alkylation section have 2, 3, or 4 primary carbon atoms and no quaternary carbon atoms except for any quaternary carbon atom bonded by a carbon-carbon bond with a carbon atom of the phenyl portion; and wherein the alkylation has a selectivity to 2-phenyl-alkanes of from 40 to 100 and a selectivity to internal quaternary phenyl-alkanes of less than 10; d) recovering from the alkylation section an alkylate product stream comprising phenyl-alkanes and a recycle stream comprising paraffins; and e) passing at least a portion of the recycle stream to the dehydrogenation section.