Patent ID: 7189886

Claim:
A process for producing an alkylbenzene having the structure of R 1 R 2 C(Ph) from an alkylphenyl alcohol having the structure R 1 R 2 C(Ph)OH comprising the steps of: (a) feeding a feed stream comprising alkylphenyl alcohol having the structure R 1 R 2 C(Ph)OH to a reactor having a catalytic distillation zone; and, (b) concurrently in the reactor: (i) contacting the feed stream comprising R 1 R 2 C(Ph)OH with hydrogen in the catalytic distillation zone to convert R 1 R 2 C(Ph)OH to R 1 R 2 CH(Ph) and form a reaction mixture, and (ii) separating R 1 R 2 CH(Ph) from the reaction mixture by fractional distillation to produce, at a position higher than the catalytic distillation zone, a stream comprising R 1 R 2 CH(Ph) having a lower concentration of R 1 R 2 C(Ph)OH than the feed stream from the reactor at a position higher than the catalytic reaction zone; wherein R 1 and R 2 each is hydrogen or a hydrocarbon group having 1–10 carbon atoms and at least one of R 1 and R 2 is not a hydrogen.