Patent ID: 6179996
Filing Date: 2001-01-30
Classification: C10G

Abstract:
A hydrogenation process comprising providing selective purging of light hydrocarbons from a reactor recycle loop by carrying out the steps of:(a) hydrogenating a hydrocarbon feedstock in a reactor;(b) subjecting an effluent stream comprising hydrogen and hydrocarbons from the hydrogenating step (a) to at least one phase separation step, thereby producing a vapor stream comprising hydrogen and a light hydrocarbon;(c) performing a membrane separation step, comprising passing at least a portion of the vapor stream as a feed stream across the feed side of a polymeric membrane having a feed side and a permeate side, and being selective for the light hydrocarbon over hydrogen;(d) withdrawing from the permeate side a permeate stream enriched in the light hydrocarbon compared with the vapor stream;(e) withdrawing from the feed side a residue stream enriched in hydrogen compared with the vapor stream, and(f) completing the reactor recycle loop by recirculating at least a portion of the residue stream to the hydrogenating step.