Studies lead to a fuller understanding of how sulphuric acid droplets form in alkylation reactions and how to combat resulting downstream corrosion.

Sulphuric acid alkylation technologies typically incorporate intense mixing of sulphuric acid (catalyst) with the hydrocarbon feeds to produce alkylate. Real world and laboratory experiments on Stratco alkylation equipment show that additional incremental mixing improves product quality and lowers catalyst consumption. But does more mixing in the reaction zone correlate to an increase in small droplets of entrained acid? Does reduced mixing intensity in the reaction zone correlate to a decrease in micron-sized droplets of entrained acid?

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