A Novel Study of Upgrading Catalytic Reforming Unit by Improving Catalyst Regeneration Process to Enhance Aromatic Compounds, Hydrogen Production, and Hydrogen Purity

Abstract

Catalytic reforming is a chemical process utilized in petroleum refineries to convert naphtha, typically having low octane ratings, into high octane liquid products, called reformates, which are components of high octane gasoline. In this study, a mathematical model was developed for simulation of semi-regenerative catalytic reforming unit and the result of the proposed model was compared with the plant data to verify accuracy of the model. Then, an extra fixed bed reactor was added for upgrading the semi-regenerative process to cyclic process. The optimal condition of the cyclic process was calculated mathematically. The results show that the proposed configuration is capable to enhance the octane number, yield of product, hydrogen production rate, and hydrogen purity by 1.5%, 7.14%, 8.1%, and 13.2%, respectively. The modifications improve the performance in comparison with the current facilities. The results indicate that aromatic and hydrogen production and hydrogen purity improve in comparison with the semi-regenerative reformatting process. Due to the additional swing reactor, which is a spare one, each of the reactors must be removed for regeneration process and, then, be replaced with a rebuilt one.