H2SO4 alkylation of isobutane and butene is one of the primary commercial processes used to produce alkylates. This work presents a technology for the intensification of sulfuric acid alkylation with the addition of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). The addition of TFA increased the solubility of isobutane in H2SO4, decreased its viscosity, and adjusted the acidity of H2SO4. With the addition of TFA, the selectivity of C8 was dramatically improved from 36.8 to 95.7%. The TFA content, stirring speed, reaction temperature, volume ratio of acid to hydrocarbon (H/C), molar ratio of isobutane to 2-butene (I/O), reaction time, and reuse of H2SO4/TFA were also investigated in this work. Compared with the conventional process, the new technology provided a considerably higher quality alkylation with considerably lower energy consumption. (c) 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 65: 113-119, 2019