Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Benzene is a natural constituent of petroleum and is one of the elementary petrochemicals. Due to the cyclic continuous pi bonds between the carbon atoms, benzene is classed as an aromatic hydrocarbon. Benzene is a colorless and highly flammable liquid with a sweet smell, and is partially responsible for the aroma of gasoline.
In the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, the initialism BTX refers to mixtures of benzene, toluene, and the three xylene isomers, all of which are aromatic hydrocarbons. The xylene isomers are distinguished by the designations ortho – (or o –), meta – (or m –), and para – (or p –) as indicated in the adjacent diagram.
The DETAL process involving dehydrogenation of n-paraffins to olefins, and subsequent reaction with benzene using a fixed bed catalyst. This is newer technology and has several of the stages depicted in the HF/n-paraffins process, but it is principally different in the benzene alkylation step, during which a solid-state catalyst is employed.
Several entrainers can be used for this specific process: benzene, pentane, cyclohexane, hexane, heptane, isooctane, acetone, and diethyl ether are all options as the mixture. [2] Of these benzene and cyclohexane have been used the most extensively, but since the identification of benzene as a carcinogen, toluene is used instead. [citation needed]
In commercial applications, the alkylating agents are generally alkenes, some of the largest scale reactions practiced in industry.Such alkylations are of major industrial importance, e.g. for the production of ethylbenzene, the precursor to polystyrene, from benzene and ethylene and for the production of cumene from benzene and propene in cumene process:
The term stems from cumene (isopropyl benzene), the intermediate material during the process. It was invented by R. Ūdris and P. Sergeyev in 1942 (USSR), [1] and independently by Heinrich Hock in 1944. [2] [3] This process converts two relatively cheap starting materials, benzene and propylene, into two more valuable ones, phenol and acetone.
The most widely practised example of this reaction is the ethylation of benzene. Approximately 24,700,000 tons were produced in 1999. [2] (After dehydrogenation and polymerization, the commodity plastic polystyrene is produced.) In this process, acids are used as catalyst to generate the incipient carbocation. Many other electrophilic reactions ...
Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert naphthas from crude oil into liquid products called reformates, which are premium "blending stocks" for high-octane gasoline. The process converts low-octane linear hydrocarbons (paraffins) into branched alkanes (isoparaffins) and cyclic naphthenes , which are then partially ...