Patent ID: 7169368

Claim:
An integrated apparatus for producing benzene and xylene isomers from an aromatics rich stream: (a) an extractive-distillation zone comprising a main-distillation column and a benzene column, wherein a benzene-enriched stream produces a raffinate stream and a benzene product stream which is recovered as a product of said apparatus; (b) a fractionation zone comprising a toluene column, wherein the aromatics rich stream and at least a portion of a transalkylation product stream are separated to produce a toluene-enriched stream, and a xylene-plus-enriched stream; (c) a transalkylation zone comprising a reactor and a transalkylation stripper column wherein the toluene-enriched stream and a xylene-column stream rich in C 9 and C 10 alkylaromatics are contacted with a metal-stabilized transalkylation catalyst under transalkylation conditions to produce the transalkylation product stream of step (b) and the benzene-enriched stream of step (a); and (d) a xylene recovery section comprising a xylene fractionation column and a xylene-isomer separation zone, wherein the xylene fractionation column separates the xylene-plus-enriched stream of step (b) to provide the xylene-column stream rich in C 9 and C 10 alkylaromatics of step (c) and an overhead xylene stream, and wherein the xylene-isomer separation zone concentrates the overhead xylene stream into a xylene isomer enriched product stream which is recovered as a product stream of said apparatus.