The Latest in Denial of Service Attacks: Smurfing

A process for selective hydrodealkylation of ethylbenzene in a hydrocarbon feedstock comprising ethylbenzene and xylenes, and for simultaneous isomerization of the xylenes, which comprises contacting the feedstock with a catalyst comprising a cobalt or nickel component on an acidic inorganic refractory oxide support at a temperature between 650 DEG -950 DEG F., a pressure below 300 psig, and a hydrogen-to-hydrocarbon feed ratio between 1:1 and 20:1. Preferably the catalyst used is cobalt on silica-alumina.