Ethylene-to-liquids systems and methods

A method of producing a plurality of hydrocarbon products including hydrocarbon compounds with two or more carbon atoms (C2+ compounds), comprising:

• (a) directing methane and an oxidant to an oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) reactor that is upstream of a post-bed cracking (PBC) unit, wherein the OCM reactor is configured to facilitate an OCM reaction using the methane and the oxidant to generate the C2+ compounds including ethylene and one or more alkanes, and wherein the PBC unit is configured to convert the one or more alkanes, including ethane, to one or more alkenes, including ethylene;
• (b) in the OCM reactor, reacting the methane and the oxidant in the OCM reaction to generate an OCM product stream and heat, wherein the OCM product stream comprises ethylene and one or more alkanes;
• (c) directing the OCM product stream to the PBC unit;
• (d) in the PBC unit, subjecting the OCM product stream to thermal cracking under conditions that crack ethane to ethylene, wherein the thermal cracking is conducted at least in part with the heat from (b), thereby producing a PBC product stream comprising ethylene;
• (e) directing the PBC product stream to a separations module, and, in the separations module, separating ethane from the PBC product stream to generate an ethane stream;
• and
• (f) directing the ethane stream to the PBC unit.