A comparative study on optimised and non‐optimised axial flow, spherical reactors in naphtha reforming process

Abstract

In this study, the operating conditions of an axial flow spherical reactor have been optimised using a reliable optimisation technique and the results are compared with the results of non-optimised conditions. The dynamic behaviour of the reactor has been considered in the optimisation process and orthogonal collocation method has been used in order to solve the obtained equations from mathematical modelling of the process. The goal of this study is to maximise the aromatics and hydrogen production rate. Therefore, the objective function is the combination of two terms which include the production rate of the mentioned components. The catalyst distribution for each reactor, the inlet pressure of the system, Length per radius for each reactor, the naphtha feed molar flow rate and the hydrogen mole fraction in the recycle stream as well as the inlet temperature of each reactor have been optimised in this study.

Progress in spherical packed-bed reactors: Opportunities for refineries and chemical industries

“…For instance, using a hydrogen perm-selective membrane in naphtha reforming process leads to the rapid reduction of H2/HC ratio, which is a very important factor in catalyst deactivation. Hence, its level must be controlled to be higher than a specific value (usually 4) [57]. This implies that owing to the novelty of the idea, taking advantages from the membrane technology in a spherical reactor for various processes have been faced some difficulties and still seeks more analytical investigations.…”

“…DE has been considered as the optimization technique for the spherical reactors of many different processes, such as methanol production [17], naphtha reforming [16,57], dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis [75]. Iranshahi et al [16] aiming to find the desired inlet temperature, resulting in optimum styrene production rate; and meanwhile, the minimum of toluene and benzene production rates.…”