High suppression of the formation of ethylbenzene in benzene alkylation with methanol over ZSM-5 catalyst modified by platinum

• Pt modified ZSM-5 is of high suppression ability to the formation of ethylbenzene.
• Hydrogenation of ethylene suppresses benzene alkylation with ethylene.
• An effective method to avoid the separation process of ethylbenzene with xylene

The generation of ethylbenzene is difficult to be avoided in benzene alkylation with methanol over ZSM-5 catalysts to produce toluene and xylene. Moreover, the separation or removal of ethylbenzene from C8 aromatic yet remains as a major challenge. In this study, the effect of Pt addition on the catalytic performance of ZSM-5 for benzene alkylation was investigated. It was found that the presence of a small amount of Pt in ZSM-5 catalyst would largely suppress the formation of ethylbenzene and extend the life-span of the catalyst, which was mainly due to the hydrogenation of ethylene into ethane on Pt particles.

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