Isobutane Alkylation Catalyzed by H2SO4: Effect of H2SO4 Acid Impurities on Alkylate Distribution

Alkylation catalyzed by concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is an important process for industrial production of excellent high octane gasoline blending components. This process has some vital drawbacks such as extensive side reactions and high consumption of H2SO4 due to the presence of the most notorious impurities including H2O, acid soluble oil (ASO), and esters. In this study, isobutane alkylation was studied with H2SO4 (275 mL) in a batch reactor at -10 to 0 degrees C and 0.45 MPa, with the corresponding stirrer speed, feed rate, acid/hydrocarbon volume ratio, and isobutane/isobutylene volume ratio being 3000 rpm, 5.0 mL/min, 1.2, and 14.3, respectively. The effects of the acid strength and composition of acid on the alkylate quality were investigated. The composition of used acid was analyzed. The results show that used acid is mainly composed of roughly 89% free H2SO4, 6% H2O, 2% esters, and 3% ASO. The compounds existing in the ASO extracted from used acid were identified, and their concentrations were quantitatively determined. The results show that the most abundant ASO molecules are five-membered or six-membered cyclic homoannular conjugated olefins such as cyclopentadiene (15.67%) and cyclohexadiene (14.12%). The effects of acid strength, H2O, ASO, and esters on alkylation depend strongly on the concentrations of H2SO4 and these impurities. Therefore, their optimal concentrations were determined to achieve advantageous effects on the alkylation. The results are about 93-95% for H2SO4, 2-4% for H2O, 1.5-2.5% for ASO, and 0.4-1% for esters, beyond which an adverse effect will appear. Under the optimal concentrations, the value of the research octane number, the trimethylpentane (TMP)/dimethylhexane ratio, and the contents of C-8 and TMP remained steady at high levels of about 92-93, 5.8-6.3, 68-70, and 58-60%, respectively.