Patent ID: 7223894

Claim:
A process for total hydrogenation of polyunsaturated compounds that have n nonsaturations contained in a hydrocarbon feedstock, said process being conducted in a catalytic reactor comprising an inorganic catalytically inactive hydrogen-selective membrane having an upstream face and a downstream face, and downstream of said downstream face at least one reaction zone containing a bed particulate catalyst, said process comprising: a) co-mixing said feedstock with hydrogen in a concentration of at least 1% of the hydrogen necessary for total hydrogenation and in a mol ratio such that H 2 /polyunsaturated compounds is less than 0.8n, wherein n is greater than or equal to 2, and introducing the resultant mixture directly into said at least one reaction zone of said reactor, b) contacting at least a portion of a gas containing additional hydrogen necessary to the hydrogenation reaction with the upstream face of said membrane and selectively passing at least a portion of said hydrogen through said membrane into the reaction zone, and c) conducting the catalytic reaction in said reaction zone of the feedstock introduced in stage a) with at least a portion of the hydrogen that selectively traverses said membrane, whereby the hydrogen co-mixed with the feedstock and the hydrogen selectively passed through the membrane jointly contribute to the total hydrogenation.