Patent ID: 7273957

Claim:
A process for the production of gasoline components comprising the steps of: (a) feeding a hydrocarbon stream containing C 3 -C 5 olefins to a single pass downflow fixed bed reactor containing a cationic acidic resin catalyst under oligomerization conditions within the range of 120° F. to 300° F. wherein the temperature in said reactor maintains a boiling mixture in said reactor thereby reacting at least a portion of said C 3 -C 5 olefins with each other or themselves to form oligomers; (b) feeding the effluent from said single pass downflow fixed bed reactor and hydrogen to a distillation column reactor containing hydrogenation catalyst consisting essentially of Pd on an alumina support in a distillation reaction zone; (c) concurrently in said distillation reaction zone under conditions of concurrent hydrogenation and distillation: (i) contacting said oligomers with said hydrogen in the presence of said hydrogenation catalyst at a temperature of 150° F.-350° F., at 10 to 150 psig to hydrogenate a portion of said oligomers to the corresponding alkanes; and (ii) separating the corresponding alkanes from other hydrocarbons and hydrogen by fractional distillation; (d) removing said corresponding alkanes from said distillation column reactor at a point below said distillation zone; (e) removing said other hydrocarbons and hydrogen from said distillation column as overheads; (f) cooling said overheads to separate said other hydrocarbons from said hydrogen; and (g) recycling a portion of said other hydrocarbons to said distillation column reactor as reflux.