US Patent 7960601 Heavy paraffin adsorption separation process

A process is presented for the selective separation and recovery of large normal paraffins from a heavy kerosene boiling point fraction. The process includes passing the heavy kerosene fraction through an adsorption separation system for separating the normal paraffins from the paraffin mixture. The recovered extract and raffinate streams are mixed with a diluent made up of a lighter hydrocarbon. The subsequent diluted extract and raffinate streams are passed through first fractionation columns to separate the desorbent from the diluent and the heavier paraffins. The mixture of the diluent and heavier paraffins is passed through a second set of fractionation columns to separate the diluent and the heavier paraffins.