Developing a steady-state kinetic model for industrial scale semi-regenerative catalytic naphtha reforming process

Abstract

Due to the demand for high octane gasoline as a transportation fuel, the catalytic naphtha reformer has become one of the most important processes in petroleum refineries. In this research, the steady-state modelling of a catalytic fixed-bed naphtha reforming process to predict the momentous output variables was studied. These variables were octane number, yield, hydrogen purity, and temperature of all reforming reactors. To do such a task, an industrial scale semi-regenerative catalytic naphtha reforming unit was studied and modelled. In addition, to evaluate the developed model, the predicted variables i.e. outlet temperatures of reactors, research octane number, yield of gasoline and hydrogen purity were compared against actual data. The results showed that there is a close mapping between the actual and predicted variables, and the mean relative absolute deviation of the mentioned process variables were 0.38 %, 0.52 %, 0.54 %, 0.32 %, 4.8 % and 3.2 %, respectively.