Patent ID: 7109389

Claim:
A process for the disproportionation and transalkylation of toluene and heavy aromatics, comprising the following steps: a) providing raw materials: a stream of toluene, a stream enriched in aromatics of nine carbon atoms and a stream enriched in heavy aromatics of ten and more carbon atoms, wherein the stream of toluene is divided into a first stream of toluene and a second stream of toluene; b) feeding the first stream of toluene, and the stream enriched in aromatics of nine carbon atoms to a first reaction zone; and feeding the second stream of toluene and the stream enriched in heavy aromatics of ten and more carbon atoms to a second reaction zone; c) subjecting the first stream of toluene, and the stream enriched in aromatics of nine carbon atoms to toluene disproportionation and transalkylation reactions in the presence of hydrogen in the first reaction zone to produce a first product mixture comprising benzene, aromatics of eight carbon atoms and heavy aromatics of ten and more carbon atoms; and subjecting the second stream of toluene, and the stream enriched in heavy aromatics of ten and more carbon atoms to transalkylation reaction in the presence of hydrogen in the second reaction zone to produce a second product mixture comprising benzene, aromatics of eight carbon atoms and aromatics of nine carbon atoms; and d) isolating and recovering benzene and aromatics of eight carbon atoms from the first and the second product mixtures from step c).