Process of distillation of a multicomponent hydrocarbon mixture

Claim 1

An energy saving process for distilling a multicomponent hydrocarbon mixture in which the multicomponent hydrocarbon mixture is separated into products by means of distillation columns and which comprises: feeding a hydrocarbon mixture, as a raw material, to a series of at least two distillation columns, said hydrocarbon mixture being a mixture of products in which the relative volatility between the dominant component in the lightest product and the dominaant component in the heaviest product is between 1.10 and 7; said raw material being fed to the first of said series of at least two distillation columns, all of the products of said hydrocarbon mixture being recovered separately and at one time from the last of said series of at least two distillation columns, and all of the products of said first column and columns intermediate said first and last columns being fed separately to the next adjacent column; each of said series of at least two distillation columns having an overhead condenser and a bottom reboiler, the operating pressure in the first column being 0-6 kg/cm 2 G, the pressure difference between the first and last columns being 2-10 kg/cm 2 G, and the operating pressure of the distillation columns increasing successively from the first column to the last column; and indirectly contacting (1) as heat source streams, the products of said hydrocarbon mixture recovered from the last column and overhead vapors from each of said at least two distillation columns, and (2) as heat sink streams, the raw material, product streams from the first column and from columns intermediate the first and last columns, and streams to be reboiled, to recover heat energy from the heat source streams by passing the heat sink streams and heat source streams successively through a plurality of groups of heat exchangers, each group of heat exchangers being at a different temperature level, the heat sink streams and heat source streams contacted indirectly in each group of heat exchangers being chosen so that the outlet temperatures of the heat sink streams from each heat exchanger in the group are almost the same and so that the outlet temperatures of the heat source streams from each exchanger in the group are almost the same, and wherein heat is recovered from at least one of the overhead vapors of the distillation columns by said groups of heat exchangers.