Patent ID: 8426662

Claim:
An alkylation system comprising: a preliminary alkylation system adapted to receive an input stream and contact the input stream with a second preliminary alkylation catalyst, followed by a first preliminary alkylation catalyst, followed by the second preliminary alkylation catalyst, disposed therein, wherein the second preliminary alkylation catalyst is comprised of a Y zeolite, and the first preliminary alkylation catalyst is a molecular sieve catalyst containing a zeolite selected from the group consisting of PSH-3, SSZ-25, ERB-1, ITQ-1, MCM-36, ZSM-22, ZSM-23, and ZSM-48, and combination thereof to form a first output stream, wherein the input stream comprises an alkyl aromatic hydrocarbon; wherein the first preliminary alkylation catalyst comprises from about 50 wt. % to about 90 wt. % of the total weight of the first preliminary alkylation catalyst and the second preliminary alkylation catalyst, and a first alkylation system adapted to receive the first output stream and contact the first output stream with a first alkylation catalyst disposed therein and an alkylating agent to form a second output stream, wherein the first alkylation catalyst comprises a zeolite beta alkylation catalyst.