Patent ID: 6936742

Claim:
A process for the production of diisobutene comprising the steps of: (a) feeding tertiary butyl alcohol to a distillation column reactor into a feed zone; (b) concurrently in said distillation column reactor (i) contacting said tertiary butyl alcohol with an acid ion exchange resin catalyst as a component in distillation structure in a distillation reaction zone under conditions of temperature and pressure to dissociate said tertiary butyl alcohol to isobutene and water to react a portion of the isobutene with itself to form diisobutene and to remove water and maintain the acid ion exchange resin catalyst in a dry condition and (ii) separating said diisobutene from unreacted isobutene and said water by fractional distillation; (c) withdrawing said unreacted isobutene and water from said distillation column reactor as overheads; and (d) withdrawing said diisobutene and water from said distillation column reactor as bottoms; and (e) separating the water from said diisobutene.