Patent ID: 8025773

Claim:
An apparatus for cracking a liquid hydrocarbon feedstock in a thermal gas cracker, to produce a cracked effluent from the cracker that includes tar, the apparatus comprising: (a) a thermal gas cracker for receiving a liquid hydrocarbon feed stream, the cracker comprising a convection section and a radiant section to produce a process effluent comprising olefins; (b) a primary transfer line exchanger (TLE) to receive the cracked effluent from the cracker, for the recovery of process energy from the cracked effluent; (c) a first separator system for receiving the cracked effluent from the TLE and separating the cracked effluent into a first separator byproduct stream comprising tar and a first separator product stream; (d) a second separator system to receive the first separator product stream and separate the first separator product stream into an overhead cracked gas effluent for recovery and a second separator byproduct stream comprising tar; and (f) a tar solvation system for receiving the second byproduct stream, said tar solvation system in fluid communication with and downstream of the second separator system for receiving the second separator byproduct stream comprising tar.