Patent ID: 9156028
Filing Date: 2015-10-13
Classification: B01J,C07C,C10G

Abstract:
1. A process for the alkylation of isoparaffins comprising: passing an isoparaffin having from 4 to 10 carbon atoms to an alkylation reactor; and passing an olefin having from 2 to 10 carbon atoms to the alkylation reactor, wherein the alkylation reactor is operated at reaction conditions and has an unsupported liquid phosphonium based ionic liquid catalyst for reacting the olefin and the isoparaffin to generate an alkylate, wherein the phosphonium based ionic liquid is a quaternary phosphonium haloaluminate, which comprises a phosphonium based organic cation and an inorganic anion, having a structure of the form PR1R2R3R4 with P being the phosphonium group and R1, R2, R3 and R4 being alkyl groups appended to the phosphonium group, and wherein R1, R2 and R3 are the same alkyl group containing between 3 and 6 carbon atoms and R4 is an alkyl group having from 4 to 12 carbon atoms, and wherein the R4 alkyl group contains more carbon atoms than the R1, R2 and R3 alkyl groups, and wherein the boiling point at atmospheric pressure of a compound HR4 is at least 30° C. greater than the boiling point at atmospheric pressure of a compound HR1, and wherein the volume fraction of the phosphonium based ionic liquid catalyst is less than 30% of a reaction mixture, and wherein the reaction mixture refers to a mixture of the phosphonium based ionic liquid catalyst and hydrocarbons contained in the alkylation reactor.