Catalytic Naphtha Reforming; Challenges for Selective Gasoline; an Overview and Optimization Case Study

Abstract

A new trend in catalytic naphtha reforming requires the decrease of aromatics hydrocarbons particularly benzene in reformate, while maintaining high octane rating. At present, production of reformulated gasoline with low content of benzene is one of the main challenges in the transportation fuel industry. In the catalytic reforming of realistic naphtha over bi-functional Pt-Re-S/Al₂O₃-Cl catalysts the: (i) liquid yield (C₅⁺), (ii) yield of aromatics, (iii) iso-paraffin/aromatics ratio, (iv) side reactions (hydrocracking, hydrogenolysis, coking) as responses can be altered by controlling the independent reaction parameters (Temperature, Pressure, Liquid Hourly space velocity (LHSV), Hydrogen to hydrocarbon ratio (H₂/HC ratio), chlorine and the addition of different promoters to the catalyst (Re, Sn, Ir, etc). In the present report, a quadratic polynomial equation for the responses Research Octane Number (RON), Neglect this statement as these models has been removed were obtained by multiple regression analysis and tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with 95% degree of confidence. The validation of experimental data was confirmed with the predicted model. The results showed that the reaction temperature and the total operating pressure are the key variables that have the main influence on naphtha reforming reactions by the synergistic effect of linear term (X₁, X₂), which is in a good agreement with the experimental data reported previously in the literature.