Ionic liquid catalyst regeneration

A process for regenerating spent ionic liquid catalyst by removing conjunct polymer from the spent ionic liquid catalyst, the process comprising:

• passing a stream of olefins to a reaction vessel in a reaction zone;
• passing a stream of isoparaffins to the reaction vessel in the reaction zone;
• passing a stream of ionic liquid catalyst to the reaction vessel in the reaction zone;
• operating the reaction vessel under conditions sufficient to perform an alkylation reaction between the olefins and the isoparaffins and provide an effluent stream;
• separating the effluent stream in a separation zone into a hydrocarbon stream and a spent ionic liquid catalyst stream, wherein the spent ionic liquid catalyst stream includes conjunct polymer;
• passing a stream of the spent ionic liquid catalyst to a regeneration vessel in a regeneration zone;
• reducing an amount of the conjunct polymer in the spent ionic liquid catalyst with hydrogen in a regeneration vessel to provide a regeneration effluent comprising regenerated ionic liquid catalyst;
• passing a stream of the regeneration effluent to a separation vessel configured to separate the regenerated effluent into a liquid phase comprising the regenerated ionic liquid catalyst and a vent gas stream comprising hydrogen and hydrogen chloride;
• and,
• passing a recycle stream comprising the regenerated ionic liquid catalyst to the reaction zone.

A process for regenerating spent ionic liquid catalyst by removing conjunct polymer from the spent ionic liquid catalyst, the process comprising:

• passing a stream of olefins to a reaction vessel in a reaction zone;
• passing a stream of isoparaffins to the reaction vessel in the reaction zone;
• passing a stream of ionic liquid catalyst to the reaction vessel in the reaction zone;
• operating the reaction vessel under conditions sufficient to perform an alkylation reaction between the olefins and the isoparaffins and provide an effluent stream;
• separating the effluent stream in a separation zone to provide a hydrocarbon stream and a spent ionic liquid catalyst stream, wherein the spent ionic liquid catalyst stream includes spent ionic liquid catalyst and conjunct polymer;
• passing the spent ionic liquid catalyst stream to a regeneration vessel in a regeneration zone;
• reducing an amount of the conjunct polymer in the spent ionic liquid catalyst with hydrogen in a regeneration vessel to provide a regeneration effluent;
• passing a stream of the regeneration effluent to a separation vessel configured to separate the regenerated effluent into a liquid phase comprising regenerated ionic liquid catalyst and a vent gas stream comprising hydrogen and hydrogen chloride;
• separating the hydrocarbon stream in a product recovery zone into a plurality of liquid hydrocarbon streams and at least one vapor stream;
• combining at least one of the liquid hydrocarbon stream and the at least one vapor stream to provide a combined recycle stream;
• and,
• passing the combined recycle stream to the reaction vessel in the reaction zone, wherein the at least one vapor stream does not pass through a process for HCl separation between being separated in the product recovery zone and being combined with the liquid hydrocarbon stream.