Modeling a Reaction Section of a Commercial Continuous Catalytic Reformer

Abstract

Continuous catalytic reforming (CCR) is known to convert refinery naphtha to a high-octane liquid product, also known as the reformate. In this paper, a First Principle Reaction Section Model for a CCR process is presented. Even though CCR is a well-established technology, the application of advanced, real-time optimization techniques that are able to quickly respond to any imposed changes onto the process, are necessary in the refinery business. This becomes particularly important as a result of changes in profit margin, changes in operating cost, and the introduction of new environmental legislations. Hence, we present a kinetic model for the CCR process using the so-called "lumped" concept. The reactors have been modeled using a quasi-steady-state approach. The unknown model parameters have been estimated by bench marking the First Principle Reaction Section results with a commercial CCR process owned by the Hungarian Oil and Gas Public Limited Company (INA-MOL). The proposed model has been tested and compared to data obtained from an existing CCR plant. The predictions of the model were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. The relative absolute errors between the measured and model estimated variables have been found to be lower than 2%. The relative absolute error associated with the required fired heater duties were less than 1.0%. Simulating the reaction section of the CCR process requires less than 0.1 s of CPU time, which clearly indicates that this model can be very suitable for performing optimization studies. Moreover, this study shows that, although there is fluctuation in the composition of feedstock, the lumped kinetic approach was capable to predict the behavior of the CCR process well.