Catalytic reforming costs

C, 0.356—1.069 m H2/L (2000—6000 fU/bbl) of Hquid feed, and a space velocity (wt feed per wt catalyst) of 1—5 h. Operation of reformers at low pressure, high temperature, and low hydrogen recycle rates favors the kinetics and the thermodynamics for aromatics production and reduces operating costs. However, all three of these factors, which tend to increase coking, increase the deactivation rate of the catalyst therefore, operating conditions are a compromise. More detailed treatment of the catalysis and chemistry of catalytic reforming is available (33—35). Typical reformate compositions are shown in Table 6. 

Originally, extractive distillation was limited to two-component problems. However, recent developments in solvent technology enabled applications of this hybrid separation in multicomponent systems as well. An example of such application is the BTX process of the GTC Technology Corp., shown in Figure 6, in which extractive distillation replaced the conventional liquid-liquid extraction to separate aromatics from catalytic reformate or pyrolysis gasoline. This led to a ca. 25% lower capital cost and a ca. 15% decrease in energy consumption (170). Some other examples of existing and potential applications of the extractive distillations are listed in Table 6. 

Toluene disproportionation is a catalytic process in which 2 moles of toluene are converted to 1 mole of xylene and 1 mole of benzene. Although the mixed xylenes from toluene disproportionation are generally more costly to produce than those from catalytic reformate or pyrolysis gasoline,... 

Dualforming A process that enables a petroleum refiner to improve the catalytic reforming step at minimal capital cost. A new reactor with continuous catalyst recirculation is integrated into the existing reactor train. Developed and offered by Axens. 

Gasoline is usually produced as a blend of several petroleum streams that boil in the range of naphtha. A typical gasoline might contain 50% by volume of cracked naphtha with benzene content between 0.5 wt% and 2.0 wt% and 25% by volume of catalytically reformed naphtha with benzene content between 1 wt% and 3 wt%. Estimate the cost per gallon of gasoline of reducing the final benzene content to 0.62% by volume. Compositions of other components in the naphtha streams can be found in the patent literature. 

In several cases effluent gases have to be recycled (e.g., in catalytic reforming — hydrogen and light hydrocarbons in ammonia synthesis — the non-condensed fraction of the effluent, because of equilibrium limitations on the conversion per pass). To limit the cost of recycling and get a maximum capacity... 

Many hydrotreaters are stay-in-business investments, so it s diffieult to quantify their upgrade value, which is the value of products minus costs -labor, materials (liquid feed, hydrogen, catalysts and chemicals), utilities, maintenance, and investment amortization. In some plants, the refinery planning LP assigns equal value to treated and imtreated naphtha, and even to treated and untreated distillates. This reflects the underlying assumption that the increase in value across a hydrotreater is equal to the cost of running the unit, i.e., the upgrade value is zero. In other LPs, the NHT that pretreats catalytic reformer feed is lumped in with the reformer. Certainly, if a key naphtha or distillate hydrotreater shuts down, ihe refinery may have to run at reduced rate, but that can be said of most units. 

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