Patent ID: 7320745

Claim:
A process for recovering the heat of reaction of a reaction component from a multi component petroleum stream to assist in fractional distillation of the multi component petroleum stream from which the reaction component is derived comprising: fractionating said multi component petroleum to recover at least two fractions, a first fraction containing said reaction component having a first boiling range and comprising less than the entire multi component petroleum stream, and a second fraction having a second boiling point which is lower than the first boiling range; removing said first fraction from said fractional distillation; reacting said reaction component under conditions to exothermically react said reaction component and produce a reaction stream having a temperature higher than said second boiling range; removing said second fraction from said fractional distillation; heating said second fraction by indirect heat exchange with said reaction stream; and returning the heated second fraction to said fractional distillation; wherein said multi component petroleum feed comprises a gasoline mixture containing C 5 -C 10 paraffin and aromatic components: benzene is said reaction component in said first fraction; said benzene is reacted with hydronen in a reaction mixture at the boiling point of said first fraction in plug flow in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst under conditions of temperature and pressure to convert benzene to cyclohexane.