Patent ID: 11952332
Assignee: VIRENT, INC.
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C  B  Y | IPC B  C

Claim 0:
1. A process for producing and separating aromatic hydrocarbons from a hydrocarbon feed stream, the hydrocarbon feed stream comprising a plurality of non-aromatic hydrocarbons and aromatic hydrocarbons, wherein the non-aromatic hydrocarbons comprise a paraffin, an olefin, a naphthene, or a combination thereof, and wherein the aromatic hydrocarbons comprise an aryl, a fused aryl, a polycylic compound, or a combination thereof, the process comprising:
(i) fractionating, using a series of distillation columns, the hydrocarbon feed stream to separate an aromatics product stream and a heavy hydrocarbon stream from the hydrocarbon feed stream, wherein the aromatics product stream comprises a C6 aromatic, a C7 aromatic, a C8 aromatic, or a combination thereof, and wherein the heavy hydrocarbon stream comprises C11+ compounds;
(ii) contacting the heavy hydrocarbon stream with a hydrogenation catalyst in the presence of hydrogen to produce a hydrogenated C11+ stream; and
(iii) contacting the hydrogenated C11+ stream with at least one conversion catalyst to dealkylate at least a portion of the C11+ compounds to generate a reformate stream, wherein the reformate stream is fed to the series of distillation columns of step (i).