Process for para-xylene production from 2,4,4-trimethylpentene

摘要

The subject process obtains a high yield of high-purity para-xylene from 2,4,4-trimethylpentene as contained in butene dimer. A process combination may include dimerization of the isobutene to obtain C8 iso-olefins and isoparaffins, aromatization of the dimerized C8 product, and recovery of high-purity para-xylene from the dimerized product by low-intensity crystallization. Aromatization is effected using a catalyst comprising a large-pore molecular sieve. Each of the processing steps may be tailored to the overall objective of high para-xylene yield from a relatively inexpensive feedstock.