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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