Patent ID: 7683228

Claim:
A process for producing an cumene product having a purity of at least 99.50 percent based on the weight of cumene present in the product—using a hydrocarbon composition feed that has not undergone extraction, is substantially free of C 4 − hydrocarbons and C 7 + aromatic hydrocarbons, and contains benzene and from about 1 to about 75 percent by weight of at least one C 6 + non-aromatic hydrocarbon having a boiling point within 10° C. at a pressure of about 101.3 kPa-a of the boiling point of benzene, said process comprising: (a) providing said hydrocarbon feed having impurities selected from the group consisting of olefins, dienes, sulfur-containing compounds, nitrogen-containing compounds, and mixtures thereof; (b) removing at least a portion of said impurities from said hydrocarbon feed to produce an alkylation feed having less than 5 wppm of sulfur, less than 1 wppm of nitrogen, and less than 2500 wppm of olefins and dienes; (c) alkylating the benzene in said alkylation feed with propylene in an alkylation reaction zone which comprises an acid-active catalyst, to produce an effluent which comprises cumene and a reduced amount of cumene coboilers as compared to an effluent produced from said hydrocarbon composition feed which has said impurities, said reaction zone is maintained under at least partial liquid phase conditions, that include a temperature in the range of from about 110° C. to about 170° C., a pressure sufficient to maintain the benzene in the liquid phase, a mole ratio of propylene to benzene in the range of from about 0.01:1 to about 0.75:1, and a feed weight hourly space velocity in the range of from about 0.1 to about 10 hr 1 ; and (d) distilling said effluent of step (c) to produce a cumene product having a purity of at least 99.50 percent based on the weight of cumene present in said cumene product.