Process to prepare normal paraffins

A process to prepare normal paraffins, the process comprises the steps of:

• (a) providing a Fischer-Tropsch product stream;
• (b) separating the Fischer-Tropsch product stream of step (a), thereby obtaining a first gaseous hydrocarbon stream and a first liquid hydrocarbon stream;
• (c) cooling and separating of the first gaseous hydrocarbon stream of step (b) in one or more steps to obtain a second liquid hydrocarbon stream and a third liquid hydrocarbon stream;
• (d) separating the second and the third liquid hydrocarbon streams of step (c) by atmospheric distillation, thereby obtaining a normal paraffin fraction comprising 5 to 9 carbon atoms and a normal paraffin fraction comprising 10 to 35 carbon atoms;
• (e) separating the normal paraffin fraction comprising 10 to 35 carbon atoms of step (d) by atmospheric distillation, thereby obtaining a normal paraffin fraction comprising 10 to 18 carbon atoms and a normal paraffin fraction comprising 19 to 35 carbon atoms;
• (f) hydrogenation of the normal paraffin fraction comprising 10 to 18 carbon atoms of step (e) to obtain a hydrogenated normal paraffin fraction comprising 10 to 18 carbon atoms;
• (g) separation of the hydrogenated normal paraffin fraction comprising 10 to 18 carbon atoms as obtained in step (f), thereby obtaining a normal paraffin comprising 10 to 13 carbon atoms and a normal paraffin comprising 14 to 18 carbon atoms.