Distillate production from olefins in moving bed reactors

A method for upgrading a feed to form distillate boiling range compounds, comprising:

• passing a catalyst flow comprising an olefin oligomerization catalyst into a first moving bed reactor of a plurality of serially connected moving bed reactors, the olefin oligomerization catalyst comprising a 1-D 10-member ring zeolite;
• exposing an olefin-containing feed comprising C3-C8 olefins and a recycle stream comprising at least 20 wt % C5+ olefins to the catalyst flow in the plurality of moving bed reactors under olefin oligomerization conditions to form an oligomerized effluent, the olefin oligomerization conditions comprising substantially adiabatic operation of the plurality of moving bed reactors and an average reactor temperature of 170° C.-190° C.;
• separating the oligomerized effluent to form a distillate boiling range fraction and one or more lower boiling fractions, the one or more lower boiling fractions comprising the recycle stream;
• wherein exposing the olefin-containing feed and the recycle stream to the catalyst flow in the plurality of serially connected moving bed reactors comprises:
• passing the catalyst flow comprising a catalyst into a first moving bed reactor of the plurality of serially connected moving bed reactors;
• exposing the feed and the recycle stream to the catalyst flow in the first moving bed reactor under first olefin oligomerization conditions to form a partially reacted effluent, a temperature differential between the first reactor feed inlet and the first reactor effluent outlet being 85° C. or less;
• stripping the catalyst flow with a first stripping fluid to separate at least a portion of the first partially reacted effluent from the catalyst flow, the at least a portion of the first partially reacted effluent comprising a liquid phase effluent portion and a vapor phase effluent portion;
• passing the stripped catalyst flow into a second moving bed reactor of the plurality of serially connected moving bed reactors;
• passing the liquid phase effluent portion into the second moving bed reactor as a substantially axial flow;
• and
• exposing the vapor phase effluent portion to the stripped catalyst flow in the presence of the liquid effluent portion in the second moving bed reactor under second olefin oligomerization conditions to form the oligomerized effluent.