SIMULATION AND MODELING OF CATALYTIC REFORMING PROCESS

One of the most important processes in oil refineries is catalytic reforming unit in which high octanegasoline is produced. The catalytic reforming unit by using Hysys-refinery software was simulated.The results are validated by operating data, which is taken from the Esfahan oil refinery catalyticreforming unit. Usually, in oil refineries, flow instability in composition of feedstock can affect theproduct quality. The attention of this paper was focused on changes of the final product flow rate andproduct’s octane number with respect to the changes in the feedstock composition. Also, the effects oftemperature and pressure on the mentioned parameters was evaluated. Furthermore, in this study,Smith kinetic model was evaluated. The accuracy of this model was compared with the actual dataand Hysys-refinery’s results. The results showed that if the feed stream of catalytic reforming unitsupplied with the Heavy Isomax Naphtha can be increased, more than 20% of the current value,the flow rate and octane number of the final product will be increased. Also, we found that the variationsof temperature and pressure, under operating condition of the reactors of this unit, has no effect onoctane number and final product flow rate.