Patent ID: 7514590

Claim:
A process for the isomerization of a feedstream comprising C 5 to C 6 hydrocarbons said process comprising: charging hydrogen and a feedstream comprising at least normal C 5 to C 6 hydrocarbons into an isomerization zone and contacting said hydrogen and feedstream with a solid acid isomerization catalyst at isomerization conditions to increase the branching of the feedstream hydrocarbons and produce an isomerization effluent stream comprising at least hydrogen, normal alkanes, branched alkanes, and light ends; passing the isomerization effluent stream to a product separator zone to separate a product separator zone overhead stream containing hydrogen from a product separator zone effluent containing the remainder of the isomerization effluent stream; passing the product separator zone effluent to a flash drum to separate a flash drum overhead stream containing light ends from a flash drum bottoms stream containing the remainder of the product separator zone effluent; and passing the flash drum bottoms stream to an adsorptive separation zone to separate three streams, a light ends stream comprising at least light ends, an raffinate stream comprising at least branched alkanes, an extract stream comprising at least normal alkanes.