Lecture – 9 and 10 - (Oil

refining)
Chemical Process Technology
(CHE F419)

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To start with…..

• Recap
• Catalytic Reforming
• Winding up with Oil refinery portion

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To start with…..

Table 1
Carbon 83-87%
Hydrogen 10-14%
Nitrogen 0.1-2%
Oxygen 0.1-1.5%
Sulfur 0.5-6%
Metals < 0.1%

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Catalytic Cracking process

• Most important catalytic processes in the oil

refinery, in terms of throughput,
1. Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC)
2. Hydro treating,
3. Hydro cracking
4. Catalytic reforming
5. Alkylation

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Revisiting – Flexi coking
process
• Explain the flexi-coking process.
• What are process conditions (Temperature and
Pressure) for the overall process?
• How is the fluidized conditions maintained in the
flexi-coking process?
• Why is heater provided in between reactor and gasifier in
the flexi-coking process?
• How is the heat of reaction maintained in the process?
• Design the flexi-coking process based on the Exxon ?
• Explain the pollution abatement techniques in the
flexi-coking process.

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Revisiting – FCC process

• Why is FCC process called as heat balanced process?

• Explain the fluidization concept with regard to the FCC
process?
• Why is riser utilized in the FCC process?
• Design the complete FCC process with reactor,
regenerator, abatement technique, and the product
streams.
• Why is ESP designed in the overall process flow sheet of
the FCC process?

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Catalytic reforming

• Catalytic reforming is a key process in the

• production of gasoline components with a high octane

number

• Also plays an important role in the production of aromatics

for the chemical industry

• Furthermore, catalytic reforming is a major source of

hydrogen

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 Component Feed Product
Paraffin 30 -70 30 -50
Catalytic reforming
Olefins 0–2 0–2
Napthenes 20 -60 0–3
• Feed stocks: Aromatics 7 - 20 45 - 60
• naphtha and feeds in the gasoline boiling range
(about C6 – C11)
• Heavy straight run gasoline
• Heavy straight run naptha
• Heavy hydrocracker naptha

• Products:
• Transforms low octane naphtha into high-octane motor gasoline
blending stock and
• aromatics rich in benzene, toluene, and xylene with hydrogen
• and LPG gas as a byproduct

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Catalytic reforming

• Octane no.:
• Octane number is a measurement of antiknock characteristics of
fuels

• Among the same carbon number compounds, the order of Octane

Number ) Paraffins < Naphthenes < Aromatics
• Branched paraffins also have high octane no. & it increases with
degree of branching

• With the fast growing demand in aromatics and

demand of high - octane numbers,
• catalytic reforming is likely to remain one of the most important unit
processes in the petroleum and petrochemical industry
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So what happens in
catalytic reforming

• change in molecular weight of the feed is

relatively small, as the process mainly involves
internal rerargagenent of dhyroracbons

• rearrangement of hydrocarbons

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• Dehydrogenation of naphthenes to aromatics
• De hydro cyclisation of paraffins to aromatics
• Highly endothermic, very high reaction rates
• Isomerisation of paraffins and naphthenes
• Endothermic, slightly exothermic
Catalytic reforming:
Reactions
Desirable
• Dehydrogenation of naphthenes to aromatics
• Iso merisation of paraffins and naphthenes
• De hydro cyclisation of paraffins to aromatics

Undesirable
• Hydro cracking of paraffins to coke
• Hydro de alkylation of aromatics such as
toluene and ethyl benzene

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Thermodynamically favorable reaction
conditions
• At atmospheric pressure,
thermodynamically
attainable conversion is essentially
100% at temperatures over 620 K

• At higher pressure much higher

temperatures are required for high
conversions

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Reforming process

• Most important issue in the development of a catalytic

reforming process is to find a tradeoff

• between optimal octane number and product yield

(low hydrogen pressure) and optimal catalyst stability,
i.e minimal coke formation (high hydrogen pressure
optimal)

• Two main types of processes applied in catalytic

reforming are
• semi-regenerative reforming (SRR) and
• continuous-regenerative reforming (CRR)

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Flow sheet development

Feed: Naptha
Operating conditions: 720 K & 25 – 30 bar
Catalysts: Al Cl3 based catalyst
A typical catalytic reforming unit consists of a feed
system, several heaters, reactors in series, and a flash
drum.

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Flow sheet development

Feed: Naptha
Operating conditions: 720 K & 25 – 30 bar
Catalysts: Al Cl3 based catalyst
A typical catalytic reforming unit consists of a feed
system, several heaters, reactors in series, and a flash
drum. Part of the flashed hydrogen is recycled to the
feed before it enters the first heater, while the liquid is
sent to the fractionation section (stabilizer). The
reformate is obtained as a bottoms product from the
stabilizer. Off-gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are
recovered from the top of the stabilizer

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Semi-regenerative
reforming (SRR)

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Semi-regenerative
reforming (SRR)
1. Since most of the reforming
reactions are endothermic, several
heaters are used to maintain the
reactor temperature at the desired
levels (400 to 500°C)
2. As the feed flows through the
catalytic bed in the reactor, the
major reaction is the
dehydrogenation of naphthenes to
aromatics, which is fast and highly
endothermic, resulting in a large
decrease of temperature within the
reactor
3. Product from the first reactor is
reheated and fed to the following
reactor

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• SRR units consist of several (three to four) adiabatic fixed bed reactors in series with
intermediate heating

• Feed is preheated and sent to the first reactor

• In this reactor the kinetically fastest reactions occur
• These are the dehydrogenation reactions of naphthenes to aromatics
• To maintain high reaction rates, product gases are reheated in a furnace before
being sent to a second reactor, and so on
• Early SRR units (∼1950) were operated at relatively high pressure (25–35 bar) in
order to maximize catalyst life (higher hydrogen pressure minimizes the coke
formation)

• Development of improved catalysts that had a lower tendency for coke formation
enabled operation at lower pressure (15–20 bar), while maintaining the same catalyst
life (typically one year).
Catalytic reforming

• For further reduction of the operating pressure

• to improve the product octane number and
• the yield on liquid products and hydrogen,

• Only catalyst development was not

sufficient
• Therefore, _________innovations were
needed

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Fully-regenerative
reforming
• 1960s, fully-regenerative or cyclic regenerative reforming was
developed

• This technology employs fixed bed reactors, but an

additional “swing” reactor is present

• It is thus possible to take one reactor off line, regenerate the

catalyst, and then put the reactor back on line

• In this way regeneration is possible without taking the

reforming unit off stream and losing production

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Continuous regenerative reforming
(CRR)

• With a moving catalyst bed, which enabled continuous regeneration

of the catalyst, that is, the CRR process

• Process, introduced by UOP and IFP, enabled the use of a much

lower operating pressure (3–4 bar), since coke deposits were no
longer such an issue, as they were continuously being burned off

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Continuous regenerative reforming
(CRR)

• Regenerated catalyst enters the first reactor at the top

• Catalyst withdrawn from the bottom enters the next
reactor, and so on
• Catalyst from the fourth reactor is sent to the
regenerator
• continuous flow of catalyst particles is crucial for this
system

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http://what-when-how.com/petroleum-refining/the-catalytic-reforming-process/

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Catalytic reforming

• Processes have developed with time & operating pressures have

reduced due to development of catalysts as coke formation has been
reduced even operating at higher temperature but medium pressure

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Catalytic reforming:
Process
1. Feed preparation: Naphtha Hydro treatment
2. Preheating: Temperature Control
3. Actual process: Catalytic Reforming
4. Catalyst Circulation and Regeneration in case
of continuous reforming process
5. Product separation: Removal of gases and
Reformate by fractional Distillation
6. Separation of aromatics in case of Aromatic
production

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