Separation and recovery of hydrogen and normally gaseous hydrocarbons from net excess hydrogen from a catalytic reforming process

Claim 1

A process for converting hydrocarbons in the presence of hydrogen which comprises the steps of: (a) contacting said hydrocarbons with a catalyst in the presence of hydrogen at hydrocarbon conversion conditions to produce an effluent stream comprising hydrogen admixed with hydrocarbon conversion products; (b) separating said effluent at a relatively low pressure into a gaseous stream comprising hydrogen admixed with light hydrocarbon conversion products and a liquid stream comprising the heavier hydrocarbon conversion products; (c) contacting at least a portion of said gaseous stream with a hereinafter specified lean oil in a plural stage absorption zone at a relatively high pressure, and at a temperature of from about 0° to about 55° F., to produce a relatively pure hydrogen stream and a light hydrocarbon-enriched oil stream; (d) recovering the relatively pure hydrogen stream; (e) introducing the enriched oil stream into a fractionation zone at conditions to produce an overhead fraction comprising said light hydrocarbon conversion products, and a fraction comprising the heavier hydrocarbon conversion products; and, (f) combining the liquid hydrocarbon stream from step (b) with a portion of the heavier hydrocarbon fraction from step (e) and passing the combination into said plural stage absorption zone as said specified lean oil.