Patent ID: 6740788
Filing Date: 2004-05-25
Classification: C07C,C10G,Y02P

Abstract:
A process for producing benzene and para-xylene from a catalytic reformate stream comprising the steps of:(a) providing the reformate stream to a first olefin saturation zone, wherein said stream is contacted with an olefin saturation catalyst under olefin saturation conditions to produce an olefin-treated reformate stream; (b) combining the olefin-treated reformate stream with a transalkylation product stream to form a blended stream; (c) separating the blended stream of step (b) in a benzene-toluene fractionation zone to produce a benzene-enriched stream, a toluene-enriched stream, and a xylene-plus-enriched stream; (d) passing the benzene-enriched stream to an extractive-distillation zone to produce a raffinate steam and a benzene product which is recovered as a product stream from said process; (e) combining the toluene-enriched stream with a stream from a xylene column rich in C9 and C10 alkylaromatics; (f) passing the combined streams of step (e) to a transalkylation zone, wherein said streams are contacted with a metal-stabilized transalkylation catalyst under transalkylation conditions to produce the transalkylation product stream of step (b); (g) separating the xylene-plus-enriched stream of step (c) in a xylene fractionation zone to produce an overhead xylene stream and the stream from a xylene column rich in C9 and C10 alkylaromatics of step (e); and (h) passing the overhead xylene stream to a para-xylene separation zone, wherein para-xylene is concentrated into a para-xylene enriched product stream which is recovered as a product stream of said process.