ExSact: Novel solid-acid catalyzed iso-paraffin alkylation process

The synergistic integration of the "green" solid acid catalyst with the novel reactor is expected to provide refiners with a cleaner-by-design alternative to produce a high-octane gasoline component to meet both state and Federal requirements. The successful development of this new "green" technology to produce alkylate. Alkylation of isobutane with light (C₃-C₅) olefins in the presence of a strong catalyst involved a series of consecutive and parallel reactions occurring through carbocation intermediates. By integrating optimized acid-sites with superior mass transport characteristics and a pore architecture that reduces pore-mouth plugging, Exelus has developed a revolutionary solid acid catalyst. The new catalyst system is easily able to achieve a quantum jump in performance over other solid-acid catalysts. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the ACS Fuel Chemistry Meeting (Washington, DC Fall 2005).