Modeling and Simulation of a Novel Membrane Reactor in a Continuous Catalytic Regenerative Naphtha Reformer Accompanied with a Detailed Description of Kinetics

Abstract

Today, improving the performance of reformers by increasing the octane number of products has received more attention in refineries. In this regard, researchers have been looking for ways of increasing the content of high-octane number products such as aromatics. The present research proposes an alternative configuration for a conventional moving bed naphtha reactor. In this new configuration, the membrane concept is applied in the moving bed reactors to increase the aromatics and hydrogen yields. Most studies on the simulation of continuous catalytic regenerative (CCR) naphtha reactors focused on a one-dimensional mathematical model, while in this work, a two-dimensional mathematical model (in the radial and axial directions) is considered. In the process model, a new reaction network based on 32 pseudocomponents and 84 reactions, as well as a new deactivation model including the most effective parameters, is considered. To verify the efficiency of the conventional configuration model, its results are compared with the industrial data. Results demonstrate that the application of a membrane can increase the aromatics and hydrogen production rates by about 54 and 220 kmol/h, respectively.