Patent ID: 7304193

Claim:
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) separating the olefin-treated reformate stream, an isomerization product stream, and a transalkylation product stream, or a combined stream thereof, in a transalkylation stripper zone to produce a benzene and lighter hydrocarbon enriched stream and a toluene and heavier hydrocarbon enriched stream; (c) passing the benzene-enriched stream to an extractive-distillation zone to produce a raffinate stream and a benzene product which is recovered as a product stream from said process; (d) passing the toluene and heavier hydrocarbon enriched stream of step (b) to a toluene column to produce a toluene-enriched stream and a xylenes-plus-enriched stream; (e) passing toluene-enriched stream and a stream from a xylene column rich in C 9 and C 10 alkyl aromatics, or a combined stream thereof, 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); (f) separating the xylene-plus-enriched stream of step (d) in a xylene fractionation zone to produce an overhead xylene stream and the stream from a xylene column rich in C 9 and C 10 alkylaromatics of step (e); (g) 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 the process, and a para-xylene separation zone effluent stream; and (h) passing the para-xylene separation zone effluent stream to a xylenes isomerization zone to contact an isomerization catalyst under isomerization conditions and produce the isomerization product stream of step (b).