ACA0809

Transalkylation of Toluene

Stripper
column

Reactor Separator

(Source: sci-hub.tw/10.1002/0471238961.02051426061)
Process Description
Two molecules of toluene are converted into one molecule of benzene and one molecule of
mixed-xylene isomers in a sequence called transalkylation or disproportionation.
An example of Toluene Disproportion is the Tatoray process. The Tatoray process uses a very
simple flow scheme consisting of a fixed-bed reactor and a product separation section. The fresh feed
to the Tatoray process unit is combined with hydrogen-rich recycle gas, preheated by exchange with
the hot reactor effluent, and vaporized in a fired heater where it is raised to reaction temperature. The
hot feed vapor goes to the reactor, where it is sent down-flow over a fixed bed of catalyst.
The reactor effluent is cooled by exchange with the combined feed, mixed with make-up gas to
replace the small amount of hydrogen consumed in the Tatoray process reactor, and then sent to a
product separator. Hydrogen-rich gas is taken off the top of the separator and recycled back to the
reactor. A small portion of the recycle gas is purged to remove accumulated light ends from the recycle
gas loop. Liquid from the bottom of the separator is sent to a stripper column.
The C5 overhead from the stripper is cooled and separated into gas and liquid products. The
stripper overhead gas is exported to the fuel gas system. The overhead liquid is recycled back to the
Platforming process unit debutanizer column so that any benzene in this stream may be recovered in
the Sulfolane (extraction) unit. The benzene and xylene products, together with the unreacted toluene
and A9, are taken from the bottom of the stripper and recycled back to the BT fractionation section of
the aromatics complex.
Reference
Fruscella, W. (2002). Benzene. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical
Technology. doi:10.1002/0471238961.0205142606182119.
ACA0809

Tatoray Process. (2011). Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rick_Manner/post/How_can_I_find_the_rate_expressions
_kinetics_for_reactions_of_tatoray_process/attachment/5a5d3db64cde266d58834b22/AS:583
212428271616@1516060086018/download/tatoray+tech+sheet.pdf