Patent ID: 8552243

Claim:
A process for preparing an alkylate, comprising: contacting in a reaction zone a hydrocarbon mixture comprising at least isoparaffin and an olefin with an acidic ionic liquid catalyst under alkylation conditions to obtain an alkylate; withdrawing an alkylate-comprising effluent from the reaction zone; separating at least part of the alkylate-comprising effluent into an hydrocarbon-rich phase and an ionic liquid catalyst-rich phase, wherein the separated hydrocarbon-rich phase comprises alkylate and isoparaffin; fractionating part of the hydrocarbon-rich phase into at least an alkylate-comprising product and a isoparaffin-comprising stream; mixing another part of the hydrocarbon-rich phase, without further fractionation, with an olefin-comprising stream to form the hydrocarbon mixture; and providing the hydrocarbon mixture to the reaction zone.