Pretreatment of natural gas prior to liquefaction

A method of removing high freeze point components from natural gas, comprising:

• cooling a feed gas in a heat exchanger, wherein the feed gas comprises 90 to 98 molar % methane, and 100 to 20,000 ppm molar benzene and other C5+ components;
• separating the cooled feed gas into a first vapor portion and a first liquid portion;
• heating the first liquid portion using the heat exchanger;
• separating the heated first liquid portion into a high freeze point components stream comprising benzene and other C5+ components and a non-freezing components stream comprising C1-C4 components;
• directing the high freeze point components stream comprising benzene and other C5+ components for removal as a liquid product exit stream;
• directing at least a portion of the non-freezing components stream to an absorber tower;
• directing the first vapor portion to the absorber tower at a feed point below the at least a portion of the non-freezing components stream;
• generating i) an absorber tower overhead vapor stream that is substantially free of high freeze point components, and ii) an absorber tower bottoms stream that includes high freeze point components and non-freezing components;
• recycling at least a portion of the absorber tower bottoms stream to the feed gas upstream of the heat exchanger;
• and
• heating the absorber tower overhead vapor stream using the heat exchanger.