Disproportionation of Toluene and Isomerization of m-Xylene Simultaneously Catalyzed by Synthetic H-Mordenite

Abstract

The disproportionation of toluene simultaneously with isomerization of m-xylene over Hmordenite catalyst was investigated in a fixed bed type flow reactor under atmospheric pressure.
It was found that the addition of m-xylene did not depress the disproportionation of toluene to form benzene and xylenes, and the isomerization of xylenes completely proceeded to reach equilibrium for xylene isomer distribution.
It is concluded that in the disproportionation of toluene over H-mordenite catalyst, the addition of m-xylene up to 17.8mol% to toluene results in improved yields of o- and p-xylenes without decreasing the yield of benzene.