Methods for producing liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC)

A method for producing liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs), the method comprising:

• passing a hydrocarbon feed stream to a selective hydrogenation reactor to generate a hydrotreated feed stream, wherein:
• the hydrocarbon feed stream comprises at least 30% by weight of aromatics and naphthenes;
• and
• the selective hydrogenation reactor is configured to saturate olefins selectively without aromatic saturation and is operated at an operating temperature of 100° C. to 200° C. and a pressure of from 1 to 100 bar;
• passing the hydrotreated feed stream to a fractionation unit to form a light fraction stream and a heavy fraction stream, wherein:
• the fractionation unit separates the light fraction stream and the heavy fraction stream at a cut point in the range of 218° C. to 250° C. to retain naphthenes in the light fraction stream;
• passing the light fraction stream to an aromatics extraction unit to form an aromatic compounds stream and a non-aromatic compounds stream;
• passing the non-aromatic compounds stream to a naphthene separator to generate a naphthenic stream and a non-naphthenic stream;
• passing the aromatic compounds stream, the naphthenic stream, and an input hydrogen stream to a hydrogenation unit to form a hydrotreated effluent stream, wherein:
• the hydrotreated effluent stream comprises saturated compounds and unsaturated compounds;
• and
• passing the hydrotreated effluent stream to a separator to remove the unsaturated compounds to isolate the saturated compounds as a LOHC stream.