Study on suspension catalytic distillation for synthesis of linear alkylbenzene

An extensive study is presented of linear alkylbenzene (LAB) synthesis by suspension catalytic distillation (SCD) with supported PW heteropoly acid catalyst. SCD is a new development of catalytic distillation in which the catalyst particles are suspended in the liquid and recirculated through a separator equipped without the column, while in traditional catalytic distillation the catalyst is generally fixed in the column. SCD ha,: shown more advantageous characteristics for LAB synthesis in an exploratory experiment of bench scale. A completely rate-based simulator RaCOLUMN for SCD process is developed, and as a case study used to simulate the profiles of concentrations, temperatures and other important process variables in SCD for LAB synthesis. Simulation results can agree well with the experimental data obtained in a stainless steel tray column with 23 sieve trays. It is found that, although the benzene/olefin ratio in the feed entering into the SCD column is very small, the concentration of benzene in the reaction section of the SCD column could maintain a large value because of the distillation effect, which is favorable to prohibit side reactions in alkylation process. (C) 2005 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.