SELECTIVE HYDROGENATION USING A FLOW INDEX

A process includes hydrogenating, in a reaction zone, a highly unsaturated hydrocarbon received from a hydrocarbon stream to yield a product having an unsaturated hydrocarbon, the hydrogenating step occurring in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst which has a selectivity for conversion of the highly unsaturated hydrocarbon to the unsaturated hydrocarbon of about 90 mol% or greater based on the moles of the highly unsaturated hydrocarbon which are converted to the product, the hydrogenating step occurring in a reaction zone under conditions which include a flow index (IF) in a range of about 0.09 to about 35, wherein the IF is defined as: Formula (1), wherein F is the flow rate of the hydrocarbon stream into the reaction zone in units of kg/h, [CO] is the concentration of carbon monoxide in the hydrocarbon stream in units of mol%, and V is the volume of the reaction zone in units of ft3. 种方法包括在反应区中将从烃流接收的高度不饱和烃氢化以得到具有不饱和烃的产物，所述氢化步骤在氢化催化剂存在下进行，所述氢化催化剂对于将所述高度不饱和烃转化为所述不饱和烃的选择性是以转化为所述产物的所述高度不饱和烃的摩尔数计约90mol％以上