Title : Prolong the catalyst life cycle of naphtha catalytic reforming process by optimization of operating conditions
Abstract:
To lengthen the catalyst life cycle of a Pt-Re/γ-Al2O3 catalyst of Naphtha catalytic reforming process and to improve the yield of reformate, an optimization procedure was applied. At first a pilot plant was designed and set up. Based on the industrial operating condition of the process, the operating conditions of the experiments were determined. Then a set of experiments was designed and analyzed based on Central Composite Design (CCD) method. Based on the results of conducted experiments the impact of reactor inlet temperature, feed flow rate and reactor pressure are investigated. To determine the effect of some other operating conditions including chloride injection flow rate and the average boiling point of naphtha feed stock, a wide range of industrial data had been collected in a six-year- operating period. Moreover, a data-driven-model was developed, trained, tested and validated by utilizing the collected information. Also, a rigorous model was developed based on experimental data and retuned with Industrial data. To determine suitable operating condition an evolutionary optimization algorithm was applied. It is concluded that despite the common belief, increasing the inlet temperature of the reactor is not always a suitable way to compensate the deactivation effects of the naphtha catalytic reforming. Indeed, considering certain changes in feed flow rate, reactor inlet temperature, reactor pressure and chloride injection over time is prolonged the catalyst life. Moreover the energy consumption is minimized and the RON of the produced gasoline is maximized. It is also shown that, increasing the chloride injection increases the (C3+C4)/C1 to a maximum point. However, this ratio falls rapidly with higher chloride injection rate. Which decreases the yield of reformate, changes the RVP of produced gasoline and declines the quality of recycle stream which is fed to the reactors. Consequently it deactivates the catalyst. It is also shown that the mean average boiling point of naphtha feed stock have strong effects on RON, production of light hydrocarbons and Yield of reformate.
