Caprolactam as a New Additive To Enhance Alkylation of Isobutane and Butene in H2SO4

Abstract

Searching for new additives to enhance the alkylation of isobutane and butene in H2SO4 has attracted the interest of academic as well as industrial researchers since the process was introduced to produce high-quality oil product on a large scale. This research focused on alkylation of isobutane and butene with caprolactam as an additive in H2SO4. With the new additive of caprolactam, the selectivity of C8 was obviously improved due to the improved solubility of isobutane in H2SO4 and the decreased acidity. Different additive amounts of caprolactam were tested, showing that 1.0 wt % is optimal and that the selectivity of alkane C8 can be improved from nearly 80% to 88%. The effects of stirring speed, reaction temperature, acid to hydrocarbon volume ratio, isobutane to butene molar ratio, reaction time, and variety of olefin were also studied carefully and respectively. Extended duration runs were practiced, which has demonstrated that the system was stable. This new additive has potential to be applied in ...