Natural gas liquid upgrading by ionic liquid catalyzed alkylation

An integrated process unit for making one or more alkylate products, comprising:

• (a) a dehydrogenation reactor that converts paraffins in a natural gas feedstock to produce a mixture comprising one or more olefins and one or more unconverted paraffins;
• (b) a single alkylation reactor, comprising an ionic liquid catalyst, that is fluidly connected to the dehydrogenation reactor, that receives the mixture and converts the one or more olefins into the one or more alkylate products;
• (c) a separator, fluidly connected to and following the single alkylation reactor, that separates an effluent from the single alkylation reactor into a catalyst phase and a hydrocarbon phase;
• (d) a distillation unit, fluidly connected to and following the separator, that receives the hydrocarbon phase and separates the hydrocarbon phase into the one or more alkylate products, an unreacted paraffin phase, and an isoparaffin phase;
• (e) a first recycle line from the distillation unit that feeds the unreacted paraffin phase to the dehydrogenation reactor;
• and
• (f) a second recycle line from the distillation unit that feeds the isoparaffin phase to the single alkylation reactor.