Process for increasing the concentration of normal paraffins in a light naphtha stream

A process for treating a naphtha feed stream comprising:

• separating a naphtha feed stream into a normal paraffin stream and a non-normal paraffin stream comprising C5 and C6 non-normal paraffins and less than about 0.5 wt % cyclic hydrocarbons;
• isomerizing the non-normal paraffin stream over a chlorided alumina catalyst at a temperature in a range from about 225 to 260° C. to produce an isomerization effluent stream;
• separating said isomerization effluent stream with a depropanizer column into a depropanizer overhead stream comprising propane and a depropanizer bottoms stream comprising C4+ paraffins;
• and
• recycling said depropanizer bottoms stream comprising C4+ paraffins to said naphtha feed stream for separation of the normal paraffins from the non-normal paraffins,
• wherein said isomerization effluent stream comprises a C2-C6 normal paraffins to methane selectivity ratio of about 40-55 based on weight, wherein the isomerization is conducted at a liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) of about 4 to 7.5 h−1, and wherein said isomerization feed stream has an inlet mole ratio of H2/hydrocarbon of about 0.5 to 0.6.