Manufacture of lower aromatic compounds

Claim 1

In the manufacture of gasoline and concurrent production of chemical grade aromatic compounds of eight or less carbon atoms by catalytic reforming of naphtha and using part of the reformate for each purpose, the improvement resulting in higher quality gasoline of lower "heavy end" content, which comprises fractionating a catalytic reformate to provide a light reformate containing most of the C 8 and lighter components of the reformate and a heavy reformate which contains no more than 20 weight percent of xylenes, blending said light reformate with other motor fuel components to provide a finished gasoline, contacting said heavy reformate with a solid, porous, acid catalyst characterized by a constraint index not higher than 1 at about 550° to about 1000° F., about 100 to about 2000 pounds per square inch, admixed with 0.5 to 10 mols of hydrogen per mol of hydrocarbon and at a weight hourly space velocity between about 0.1 and about 200 unit weights of hydrocarbon per unit weight of said catalyst per hour, and recover at least one aromatic compound of eight or less carbon atoms from the product of contacting said heavy reformate with said catalyst.