(587f) A Novel Recuperative Configuration for Enhancement of Hydrogen Production Via Integration of Naphtha Reforming Process with Hydrogenation of Benzene

Process integration (PI) is currently one of the most significant trends in chemical engineering and process technology and researchers have paid more attention to this concept recently. One of the ways of minimizing energy is coupling energy intensive endothermic reaction systems with suitable exothermic reactions improve the thermal efficiency of process and reduce the size of the reactors. In this paper, the performance of a novel thermally coupled reactor (TCR) containing the catalytic reforming of naphtha in the endothermic side and the hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexane in the exothermic side has been considered, and also, comparison of TCR and the conventional tubular reactor (CTR) has been carried out at the same condition. The first and second reactors in the conventional naphtha reforming process are replaced by two thermally coupled heat exchanger reactors which contain the naphtha reforming reactions in the shell side, and the hydrogenation reaction in the tube side. Thermal coupling of naphtha reforming reactors provides a desirable situation to enhance the aromatic production by overcoming the equilibrium limitations. The achieved results of simulation, demonstrate the production rate of the high octane gasoline (reformate) and the consumption rate of the paraffins have improved. The results suggest that coupling of these reactions in the TCR could be feasible and beneficial to be used and revamped the available adiabatic conventional naphtha reactor.