A process for the disproportionation of cumene is disclosed which
comprises the step of contacting a feed containing cumene, under
disproportionation conditions, with a catalyst comprising a molecular
sieve, preferably TEA-mordenite. The contacting step disproportionates at
least part of the cumene in the feed to provide a disproportionation
effluent containing benzene and a mixture of diisopropylbenzene isomers.
The effluent is then recovered and contains, prior to any separation
step, less 1% of ortho-diisopropylbenzene by weight of the total
diisopropylbenzene content of said effluent, less than 1 wt % of
n-propylbenzene, less than 5 wt % of triisopropylbenzenes and less than 5
wt % of disproportionation products other than benzene and
diisopropylbenzenes.