Patents

A process for simultaneous production of benzene lean gasoline and recovery of high purity aromatics from narrow boiling light cracked gasoline fractions. The invention relates to a vacuum based two stage extractive distillation process, with pure NMP, for production of benzene lean gasoline (benzene content less than 0.4 Weight %) by recovery of high purity aromatics (purity more than 99 Weight%) from cracked gasoline fractions (boiling in the range of 40-90°C) comprising benzene in the range of 10-30 weight% and close-boiling non-aromatic hydrocarbons like paraffins, iso-paraffins, olefins, di-olefins (including conjugated di-olefins), and naphthenes in the range of 70-90 weight % along with impurities containing but not limited to oxygenates, metals, chlorides, sulphur compounds, nitrogen compounds and organic peroxides. The invention relates to an improved extractive distillation process for simultaneous production of benzene lean gasoline and benzene rich product from cracked gasoline fraction, with higher recovery of better quality products along with lower utility requirements and investment costs.