Saudi Arabian Oil Company

Vishvedeep Bhat

Omer Refa Koseoglu

Vinod Ramaseshan

A process for reverse isomerization of a light naphtha feedstock containing branched C-Cparaffins. The process includes feeding a mixed feed stream including the light naphtha feedstock to a separation unit to generate an iso-paraffin stream and one or more normal paraffin streams. The process further includes mixing hydrogen gas and a hydrocarbon feed stream containing the iso-paraffin stream to form a hydrogen-enriched liquid feed stream which is provided to a reverse isomerization reactor. The hydrogen-enriched liquid feed stream is contacted with a solid reverse isomerization catalyst for reverse hydroisomerization in a substantially two-phase liquid-solid reverse isomerization fixed-bed reaction zone convert iso-paraffins to normal paraffins. The isomerization effluent stream is provided to a stabilization column to generate a stabilized isomerate stream which is combined with the light naphtha feedstock to generate the mixed feed stream. An associated system for performing the process is also provided.

Reverse isomerization process using feedstock containing dissolved hydrogen

A process for upgrading a hydrocarbon feed includes contacting the hydrocarbon feed with hydrogen in the presence of a ring opening catalyst in a naphthene conversion unit, the contacting causing naphthenes in the hydrocarbon feed to react to produce a converted effluent comprising isoparaffins and normal paraffins. The process includes separating the converted effluent in a paraffin separation system to produce an isoparaffin-rich stream and an n-paraffin-rich stream. The process includes contacting the isoparaffin-rich stream with hydrogen in the presence of an isomerization catalyst in a reverse isomerization unit, the contacting causing isomerization to produce an isomerate comprising an equilibrium mixture of normal paraffins and isoparaffins. The process include separating the isomerate in the paraffin separation system to produce the isoparaffin-rich stream and the n-paraffin-rich stream, and passing the n-paraffin-rich stream to a steam cracker to produce a cracker effluent comprising olefins.

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Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Vishvedeep Bhat