Patent ID: 7553998
Filing Date: 2009-06-30
Classification: C07C,C10G,Y02P

Abstract:
1. A process for the production and recovery of one or more high-purity xylene isomers from a catalytic reformate, comprising the sequential steps of: (a) fractionating the catalytic reformate to obtain a light reformate and a heavy-reformate feed stream comprising alkylaromatic hydrocarbons and containing about 1.0 wt.-% or more of C (b) contacting the feed stream in the presence of hydrogen with a heavy-aromatics-conversion catalyst in a heavy-aromatics-conversion zone at heavy-aromatics-conversion conditions to obtain a de-ethylated stream having a lower content of methylethylbenzenes than the content in the feed stream; (c) fractionating the de-ethylated aromatic stream to separate a light product comprising C (d) subjecting the light reformate stream to an aromatics-extraction and fractionation step to separate benzene, toluene and a toluene-bottoms stream from a non-aromatic raffinate; (e) contacting the heavy product comprising C (f) fractionating the transalkylation product to separate a C (g) subjecting at least a portion of the intermediate stream, along with an isomerized stream, to an isomer-recovery process to recover at least one high-purity xylene isomer and yield a C (h) contacting at least a portion of the C