Process for production of Needle coke and aromatics

A process for production of Needle coke and C7-C9 aromatic hydrocarbons from Pyrolytic Fuel Oil (PFO) and Clarified Light Oil (CLO) feedstock, wherein the process comprises steps of:

• routing a Clarified Light Oil (CLO) stream (1) through a CLO Separator Column (2) to obtain a first stream (3) having boiling range below 350° C., a second stream (4) having boiling range between 350-500° C. and a third stream (5) having boiling range above 500° C., wherein, the third stream (5) is mixed with a fresh solvent stream (6) and a recycled solvent stream (13) and routed to a mixer (7) to obtain a mixed stream (8);
• routing the mixed stream (8) through a CLO Purification Section comprising of an Asphaltene separator unit (9) from which a solvent rich stream (10) and a Heavy Residue stream (14) are obtained, wherein the solvent rich stream (10) is routed to a Recovery Column (11) to obtain the recycle solvent stream (13) and a Purified CLO fraction stream (12);
• routing a Pyrolytic Fuel Oil (PFO) stream (29) through a PFO Separator Column (30) to obtain a fourth stream (31) having boiling range below 350° C. and a fifth stream (32) having boiling range above 350° C., wherein the fifth stream (32) is mixed with the second stream (4) and the Purified CLO fraction stream (12) to produce a first mixed stream;
• routing the first mixed stream through a main fractionator (15) to produce a Secondary feed stream (19) containing recycle, the Secondary feed stream (19) is heated to thermal cracking temperature inside a first furnace (20) to produce a heated stream (21);
• routing the heated stream (21) to a first reactor (24), or a second reactor (25) to produce a green coke and a cracked effluent vapor stream (28) by thermal cracking and routing stream (28) to the main fractionator (15) for separation into gases and naphtha (16), Light Gasoil (17) and Heavy Gasoil (18), Green Coke is calcined to produce calcined Needle coke;
• mixing the Light Gasoil (17) with the fourth stream (31) along with a make-up hydrogen (39) and a recycle hydrogen (38) to produce a second mixed stream, routing the second mixed stream through a second furnace (33) for heating and to produce an effluent stream (34);
• and
• selectively hydrocracking the effluent stream (34) in a fixed bed reactor (35) to produce a reactor effluent stream (36), wherein the reactor effluent stream (36) is sent to a separator (37) to obtain a separator effluent (40) and hydrogen, wherein the hydrogen is used as the recycle hydrogen (38) and the separator effluent (40) is routed to a fractionator (41) for separation into gases (42), Light Naphtha (43), Heavy Naphtha (44) enriched in C7-C9 aromatics and Diesel oil (45).