Patent ID: 8395002

Claim:
A process for recovering benzene, the process comprising: feeding hydrogen and a hydrocarbon fraction comprising benzene, components lighter than benzene, components heavier than benzene, and diolefins to a catalytic distillation reactor system comprising at least one reaction zone comprising a hydrogenation catalyst; concurrently in the catalytic distillation reactor system: contacting the diolefins and hydrogen in the presence of the hydrogenation catalyst to selectively hydrogenate at least a portion of the diolefins; and fractionating the hydrocarbon fraction to form a fraction comprising benzene and other C 6 hydrocarbons, and a heavies fraction comprising C 7 + hydrocarbons; recovering the heavies fraction from the catalytic distillation reactor system as a bottoms fraction; withdrawing the fraction comprising benzene and other C 6 hydrocarbons from the catalytic distillation reactor system as a benzene concentrate fraction; feeding the benzene concentrate fraction to an aromatics extraction unit; extracting benzene from the benzene concentrate fraction; and recovering a C 6 hydrocarbon fraction having a reduced benzene concentration.