Disproportionation and Methylation of Toluene with Methanol Over Zeolite Catalysts

Zeolites TNU-9, SSZ-33, mordenite (MOR) and ZSM-5 were evaluated for their activities in toluene disproportionation and methylation reaction of toluene with methanol. The medium-pore zeolite TNU-9 was found to possess the highest conversion in toluene disproportionation as compared with SSZ-33, mordenite and ZSM-5 based catalyst. Zeolite mordenite with the highest Si/Al ratio of 135.9 (the lowest concentration of active sites) exhibited the highest toluene conversion and maximum xylene yield in toluene methylation. On mordenite, the presence of channel intersections allows more reaction space for the formation of bulky intermediates and/or products and the 12-ring channels on the other hand, allow diffusion without trapping, since the channel diameter is large enough. In toluene methylation, xylene selectivity at the same conversion level follows the order: ZSM-5 > TNU-9 > MOR > SSZ-33, which implies that xylene selectivity is directly related to the size of channels from medium to large pore zeolites. The medium-pore zeolite ZSM-5, with 10-ring channels, shows the lowest reactivity for further alkylation of xylene, while mordenite with 12-ring channel shows the highest reactivity for further alkylation of xylene.