{"id":{"repo_id":"cape-town","oai_identifier":"oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8595"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cape-town/oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8595","repository":{"repo_id":"cape-town","name":"University of Cape Town","base_url":"https://open.uct.ac.za/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Alkylation of phenol with methanol over H-ZSM-5, H-Beta, H-Mordenite, H-USY and H-MCM-22","abstract":"Alkylphenols are intermediates used in the synthesis of many important substances. The most signiﬁcant of the commercially important lower alkylphenols are cresols (methyl phenols) and xylenols (dimethyl phenols). The main markets for alkylphenol products are nonionic detergents, phenolic resins, polymer additives and agrochemicals. Of the western world cresol market, 55% originates from synthetic cresols whereas 45% originates from so-called “natural” cresols obtained from coal tars and reﬁnery caustics. The methylation of phenol is the only process speciﬁcally developed to produce cresols and xylenols. There are three cresol isomers, namely ortho, para and meta. It is possible to produce a high selectivity to o-cresol by alkylation of phenol with methanol over a basic or a Al2O3 catalyst or a Fe/V catalyst. A mixture of the cresol isomers can be obtained over aluminium oxides with strong acid sites, silica alumina, zeolites, aluminium phosphates and phosphoric acid-Kieselguhr catalysts. However, direct synthesis of high purity m-cresol and p-cresol is desirable due to the high costs of separating these two isomers. Thus to synthesize p-cresol, a m-cresol free or very low m-cresol concentration in the product is desirable for puriﬁcation reasons and a high p/o-cresol ratio is also desirable in the product for yield reasons since separation of the p- and the o-cresols is economically possible.","abstract_html":"Alkylphenols are intermediates used in the synthesis of many important substances. The most signiﬁcant of the commercially important lower alkylphenols are cresols (methyl phenols) and xylenols (dimethyl phenols). The main markets for alkylphenol products are nonionic detergents, phenolic resins, polymer additives and agrochemicals. Of the western world cresol market, 55% originates from synthetic cresols whereas 45% originates from so-called “natural” cresols obtained from coal tars and reﬁnery caustics. The methylation of phenol is the only process speciﬁcally developed to produce cresols and xylenols. There are three cresol isomers, namely ortho, para and meta. It is possible to produce a high selectivity to o-cresol by alkylation of phenol with methanol over a basic or a Al2O3 catalyst or a Fe/V catalyst. A mixture of the cresol isomers can be obtained over aluminium oxides with strong acid sites, silica alumina, zeolites, aluminium phosphates and phosphoric acid-Kieselguhr catalysts. However, direct synthesis of high purity m-cresol and p-cresol is desirable due to the high costs of separating these two isomers. Thus to synthesize p-cresol, a m-cresol free or very low m-cresol concentration in the product is desirable for puriﬁcation reasons and a high p/o-cresol ratio is also desirable in the product for yield reasons since separation of the p- and the o-cresols is economically possible.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Moon, Gillian Catherine"],"institution":"Department of Mechanical Engineering","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["O'Connor, Cyril","Möller, Klaus"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2003,"date_issued":"2003","date_published":"2003","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:52Z","subjects":[],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8595","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["O'Connor, Cyril","Möller, Klaus"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Moon, Gillian Catherine"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2014-10-18T05:57:51Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-10-18T05:57:51Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2003"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Department of Mechanical Engineering"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cape Town"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Doctoral Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["PhD"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8595"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Bibliography: leaves 223-232."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Alkylphenols are intermediates used in the synthesis of many important substances. The most signiﬁcant of the commercially important lower alkylphenols are cresols (methyl phenols) and xylenols (dimethyl phenols). The main markets for alkylphenol products are nonionic detergents, phenolic resins, polymer additives and agrochemicals. Of the western world cresol market, 55% originates from synthetic cresols whereas 45% originates from so-called “natural” cresols obtained from coal tars and reﬁnery caustics. The methylation of phenol is the only process speciﬁcally developed to produce cresols and xylenols. There are three cresol isomers, namely ortho, para and meta. It is possible to produce a high selectivity to o-cresol by alkylation of phenol with methanol over a basic or a Al2O3 catalyst or a Fe/V catalyst. A mixture of the cresol isomers can be obtained over aluminium oxides with strong acid sites, silica alumina, zeolites, aluminium phosphates and phosphoric acid-Kieselguhr catalysts. However, direct synthesis of high purity m-cresol and p-cresol is desirable due to the high costs of separating these two isomers. Thus to synthesize p-cresol, a m-cresol free or very low m-cresol concentration in the product is desirable for puriﬁcation reasons and a high p/o-cresol ratio is also desirable in the product for yield reasons since separation of the p- and the o-cresols is economically possible."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Alkylation of phenol with methanol over H-ZSM-5, H-Beta, H-Mordenite, H-USY and H-MCM-22"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["O'Connor, Cyril","Möller, Klaus"],"dc:creator":["Moon, Gillian Catherine"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2014-10-18T05:57:51Z"],"dc:date.available":["2014-10-18T05:57:51Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2003"],"dc:description":["Bibliography: leaves 223-232."],"dc:description.abstract":["Alkylphenols are intermediates used in the synthesis of many important substances. The most signiﬁcant of the commercially important lower alkylphenols are cresols (methyl phenols) and xylenols (dimethyl phenols). The main markets for alkylphenol products are nonionic detergents, phenolic resins, polymer additives and agrochemicals. Of the western world cresol market, 55% originates from synthetic cresols whereas 45% originates from so-called “natural” cresols obtained from coal tars and reﬁnery caustics. The methylation of phenol is the only process speciﬁcally developed to produce cresols and xylenols. There are three cresol isomers, namely ortho, para and meta. It is possible to produce a high selectivity to o-cresol by alkylation of phenol with methanol over a basic or a Al2O3 catalyst or a Fe/V catalyst. A mixture of the cresol isomers can be obtained over aluminium oxides with strong acid sites, silica alumina, zeolites, aluminium phosphates and phosphoric acid-Kieselguhr catalysts. However, direct synthesis of high purity m-cresol and p-cresol is desirable due to the high costs of separating these two isomers. Thus to synthesize p-cresol, a m-cresol free or very low m-cresol concentration in the product is desirable for puriﬁcation reasons and a high p/o-cresol ratio is also desirable in the product for yield reasons since separation of the p- and the o-cresols is economically possible."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8595"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher.department":["Department of Mechanical Engineering"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Cape Town"],"dc:title":["Alkylation of phenol with methanol over H-ZSM-5, H-Beta, H-Mordenite, H-USY and H-MCM-22"],"dc:type":["Doctoral Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["Doctoral"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:52Z"}