Aromatic saturation and ring opening process

In an integrated process for the upgrading of an initial hydrocarbon comprising not less than 5 weight % of one or more aromatic compounds containing at least two fused aromatic rings which compounds are unsubstituted or substituted by up to two C1-4 alkyl radicals comprising subjecting the hydrocarbon to several distillation steps to yield an intermediate stream comprising not less than 20 weight % of one or more aromatic compounds containing at least two fused aromatic rings which compounds are unsubstituted or substituted by up to two C1-4 alkyl radicals the improvement comprising:

• (i) passing said intermediate stream to a ring saturation unit at a temperature from 300° C. to 500° C. and a pressure from 2 to 10 MPa together with from 100 to 300 kg of hydrogen per 1,000 kg of feedstock over an aromatic hydrogenation catalyst to yield a resulting stream in which in not less than 60 weight % of said one or more aromatic compounds containing at least two rings which compounds are unsubstituted or substituted by up to two C1-4 alkyl radicals at least one of the aromatic rings has been completely saturated;
• (ii) passing the resulting stream to a ring cleavage unit at a temperature from 200° C. to 600° C. and a pressure from 1 to 12 MPa together with from 50 to 200 kg of hydrogen per 1,000 kg of said resulting stream over a ring cleavage catalyst to produce a resulting product stream;
• and
• (iii) separating the resulting product into a C2-4 alkanes stream, a liquid paraffinic stream and an aromatic stream wherein the resulting product stream comprises not less than 35 weight % of a mixture of C2-4 alkanes.