Patent ID: 7154014

Claim:
A process for converting a hydrocarbon feed comprising C 9 + aromatic compounds or a toluene compound, and at least one contaminant species compound, said process comprising: (a) a first step of contacting the feed with a high surface area alumina guard bed comprising an activated alumina component having gamma phase under guard bed conditions including a temperature from about 200° to about 540° C. to produce a guard bed product; and (b) a second step of contacting the guard bed product with a transalkylation catalyst comprising a solid-acid component selected from the group consisting of mordenite, mazzite, zeolite beta, ZSM-11, ZSM-12, ZSM-22, ZSM-23, MFI topology zeolite, NES topology zeolite, EU-1, MAPO-36, MAPSO-31, SAPO-5, SAPO-11, SAPO-41, silica-alumina and mixtures thereof under transalkylation conditions to produce a transalkylation product containing C 8 aromatic compounds.