Recent advances in the industrial alkylation of aromatics: new catalysts and new processes

Huge improvements towards the development of environmentally friendly processes have been achieved in the alkylations of aromatics with olefins, since the last four or five decades. Particularly, much efforts have been devoted to the research of solid catalysts adequate to substitute mineral or Lewis acids and free bases traditionally employed as catalysts in the acid or base catalyzed alkylations. Here we review the options industrially worthy of note in the alkylations of benzene and toluene for the production of ethylbenzene (EB), cumene, linear alkyl benzene and cymene. We also discuss features of different zeolites as a function of their activity and selectivity in the reactions considered. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.