Methods for processing aromatic compounds

Abstract

Aromatic compounds may be processed by a method that may include passing a hydrocarbon feed, hydrogen, and a recycle stream to a reactor and forming a reactor effluent. The recycle stream may include at least 90 wt. % of one or more C11+ aromatic compounds, wherein one or more of C11+ aromatic compounds are alkyl-bridged non-condensed alkyl multi-aromatic compounds. A portion of the alkyl-bridged non-condensed alkyl multi-aromatic compounds may be converted to mono-aromatic compounds in the reactor. The reactor effluent may be passed to a separation unit to form a first separated stream including at least 90 wt. % of one or more C6-C9 aromatic compounds, a second separated stream including at least 90 wt. % of one or more C11+ aromatic compounds, and a third separated stream including at least 90 wt. % of C10 aromatic compounds. The second separated stream may be split into a first portion and a second portion. The recycle stream may consist of the second portion of the second separated stream, and the second portion of the second separated stream may include from 5 wt. % to 95 wt. % of the second separated stream.