The zeolite technology was introduced for the commercial production of cumene in the early 1990s. The first installation of a completely
zeolite-based cumene process, which uses Mobil-Badger technology, went on stream at Georgia Gulf’s plant in 1996. In addition to Mobil-
Badger, UOP and CDTech offer zeolite-based processes for licensing. The technology has been extensively used by cumene producers to retrofit
existing solid phosphoric acid (SPA) based plants, allowing significant gains in production capacity and product purity. Several grassroots cumene
plants employing zeolites have also been announced.