Solid acid catalyzed alkylation of isobutane with butenes

A new breakthrough alkylation process using a solid-acid catalyst was presented. The process was proven out in a pilot-plant over an extended length of time using an MTBE raffinate feed. Through a combination of catalysis and reaction engineering considerations, ranging from optimization of the catalyst properties to shielding of active sites from excessively large olefin concentrations, solid-acid catalysts were designed with lifetimes that are an order of magnitude longer than most solid-acid catalysts. The stable catalyst performance significantly simplified the overall process design, which reduces the capital cost of the alkylation plant, while lowering energy consumption. The new process is expected to reduce both capital expenses (30%) and operating costs (3¢/gal) over a conventional liquid acid alkylation process, since it uses simple fixed-bed reactor designs and allows a large reduction in utility consumption by eliminating the need for refrigeration. The alkylate octane rating (RON & MON) exceeds that produced by conventional liquid acid processes by over three octane points under similar operating conditions. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA 11/12-17/2006).