Patent ID: 7345211

Claim:
A process for producing a synthetic diesel, the process comprising: (A) feeding a syngas to a hydrocarbon synthesis reactor, wherein at least a portion of the syngas is reacted to generate a hydrocarbon synthesis product comprising C 5+ hydrocarbons; (B) hydrotreating a hydrocarbon feed comprising the hydrocarbon synthesis product to provide a hydrotreated hydrocarbon stream; (C) fractionating a fractionator feedstream comprising the hydrotreated hydrocarbon stream to produce a light diesel distillate, a heavy diesel distillate, and a waxy fraction, said light diesel distillate comprising less than 10 wt % branched hydrocarbons; (D) thermally cracking at least a portion of the waxy fraction to produce a thermal cracker effluent; (E) hydrotreating at least a portion or a fraction of the thermal cracker effluent to form a hydrotreated thermal cracker product; and (F) isomerizing at least a portion of the heavy diesel distillate to produce an isomerized heavy diesel product comprising at least 30% branched hydrocarbons; wherein said synthetic diesel comprises a combination of at least a portion or a fraction of said isomerized heavy diesel product from step (F) and at least a portion of said light diesel distillate from step (C), wherein the process is carried out without substantially increasing the branching of hydrocarbon components of the at least said portion of said light diesel distillate from step (C).