Patent ID: 8426661

Claim:
A method comprising: introducing benzene into a liquid phase reaction zone containing an alkylation catalyst comprising beta-zeolite modified with cerium and sodium; separately introducing a dilute ethylene stream into the liquid phase reaction zone, wherein the dilute ethylene stream comprises from about 7% to about 25% ethylene, wherein the remainder of the dilute ethylene stream consisting of methane and hydrogen wherein the dilute ethylene stream is introduced in a manner to contact a molar excess of the benzene and the alkylation catalyst in the liquid phase reaction zone at a molar ratio of benzene to ethylene of about 8:1 or less in a catalyst bed; wherein the liquid phase reaction zone is housed within a plurality of multi-stage reaction vessels, and wherein there are one or more catalyst beds within each reaction vessel; recovering a product stream comprised of ethylbenzene and 0.2 wt.% or less butylbenzene from the reaction zone; separating the product stream in one or more separation zones to thereby obtain a separated product stream, and introducing a least a portion of the separated product stream into a transalkylation system; wherein a transalkylation catalyst is selected from the group consisting of zeolite MCM-22, zeolite MCM-36, zeolite MCM-49, and zeolite MCM-56.