Patent ID: 6946068

Claim:
A process for the desulfurization of a full boiling range naphtha comprising the steps of: (a) feeding (1) a full boiling range naphtha containing olefins, diolefins, organic sulfur compounds comprising mercaptans and thiophene and (2) hydrogen to a first distillation column reactor; (b) concurrently in said first distillation column reactor; (i) contacting the thiophene contained within said full boiling range naphtha in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst in a first distillation reaction zone in the lower section of said first distillation column reactor to convert a portion of the thioghene to n-butyl mercaptan, (ii) contacting the diolefins and mercarptans in the presence of a Group VIII metal catalyst in a second distillation reaction zone in the upper section of said distillation column reactor thereby reacting a portion of said mercaptans with a portion of the diolefins to form sulfide products and a distillate product and (iii) fractionating said full boiling range naphtha into a light naphtha and a heavier naphtha, said heavier naphtha containing said organic sulfur compounds and said sulfide products; (c) removing said distillate product as a first overheads from said first distillation column reactor; (d) removing said heavier naphtha from said first distillation column reactor as bottoms; (e) feeding said bottoms and hydrogen to a second distillation column reactor; (f) concurrently in said second distillation column reactor; (i) contacting sulfur compounds comprising the organic sulfur compounds in said heavier naphtha with hydrogen in the presence of a hydrodesulfurization catalyst in a hydrodesulfurization zone to convert a portion of said organic sulfur compounds to hydrogen sulfide, and (ii) fractionating said heavier naphtha into an intermediate naphtha having a boiling range of about 160° F. to about 300° F. and a heavy naphtha; (g) removing said intermediate naphtha and said hydrogen sulfide from said second distillation column reactor as a second overheads; and (h) removing said heavy naphtha containing sulfur compounds comprising said sulfides from said distillation column reactor as a second bottoms.