Patent ID: 7041861

Claim:
A process for the production of neohexene comprising the steps of: (a) feeding isobutylene to a distillation column reactor containing a fixed bed of acidic cation resin catalyst prepared in the form of a catalytic distillation structure: (b) concurrently in said distillation column reactor (i) contacting said isobutylene with said fixed bed catalyst so as to react at least a portion of said isobutylene to produce diisobutylene and heavier oligomers and create a reaction mixture containing unreacted isobutylene, ethylene, diisobutylene, heavier oligomers and (ii) separating the ethylene and unreacted isobutylene from the diisobutylene and heavier oligomers by fractional distillation; (c) removing the ethylene and isobutylene from said distillation column reactor as a first overheads product; (d) removing the diisobutylene and heavier oligomers from said distillation column reactor as a first bottoms; (e) separating said diisobutylene from said heavier oligomers by fractional distillation wherein said diisobutene is removed as a second overheads and said heavier oligomers are removed as a second bottoms; (f) reacting at least a portion of said diisobutylene with at least a portion of the ethylene from said distillation column reactor in a reactor containing a fixed bed of metathesis catalyst to produce neohexene and isobutylene.