Experimental and modeling study of a catalytic reforming unit

An experimental and modeling investigation of catalytic reforming of naphtha in a pilot-scale packed bed reactor is described in the present work. The effects of operating conditions on the reactor products were studied utilizing statistical method. A kinetic model including three pseudo species and eight light components was proposed and the coefficients of reaction rate equations were obtained. Good agreement was achieved between the proposed model results and the experimental measurements. Different regions of the reactor with different growth rate of pseudo species and light components were detected by analyzing concentration profiles along the reactor. It was concluded that the precision of the developed kinetic model make it suitable for implementing in a reactor model to predict the analysis of products of an industrial catalytic reforming unit. This is crucial for optimum operation of the industrial unit and its downstream processes, including steam reforming and hydrocracking units which uses light component streams of catalytic reforming process as feed stock or part of their inputs streams. Also, the achieved results about the effects of different operating conditions on the reactor productivity, may offer several clues for improvement of control philosophy, startup and shutdown procedure of this process.