Patent ID: 8436220

Claim:
A process comprising: reacting at least gaseous alkanes and a halogen to produce at least a halogenation product stream, wherein the halogenation product stream comprise alkyl halides, hydrogen halide, and unreacted alkanes; separating the alkyl halides from the hydrogen halides and unreacted alkanes in the halogenation product stream using a fractionator to form at least a gaseous stream and a liquid alkyl halides stream, wherein the gaseous stream comprises the hydrogen halide and the unreacted alkanes, and wherein the liquid alkyl halides stream comprises the alkyl halides, the alkyl halides comprising mono-halogenated alkanes and poly-halogenated alkanes, wherein a reflux condenser of the fractionator generates a reflux stream that is fed into the fractionator; recovering at least a portion of the hydrogen halide from the gaseous stream; and reacting at least a portion of the alkyl halides from the liquid alkyl halides stream in the presence of a catalyst to produce a synthesis product stream, wherein the synthesis product stream comprises higher molecular weight hydrocarbons and hydrogen halides.