Alkylation reaction diagram
Alkylation of olefins by paraffins

The alkylation of an olefin by an isoparaffin is an exothermic reaction with a reduction in the number of molecules. It can be carried out without a catalyst, but under very severe conditions of temperature (500°C) and pressure (200 to 400 bar, i.e. 20 to 40 MPa). Industrially, alkylation is carried out at low temperatures (10 to 40°C) in the presence of acid catalysts such as sulfuric acid or hydrofluoric acid. A large number of researchers have proposed various hypotheses to explain the formation of products during the alkylation of olefins with isobutane [10] . All these hypotheses are based on a chain mechanism mediated by carbonium ions.

The reaction scheme for the alkylation...