Chinese J . Chem. Eng.

, 14(5) 584-591 (2006)

Modeling, Simulation and Optimization of a Whole Industrial Cata-
lytic Naphtha Reforming Process on Aspen Plus Platform*
HOU Weifeng(fEEq), SU Hongye(%%;'$)**, HU Yongyou(H &%) and CHU Jian(##)
National Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology, Institute of Advanced Process Control, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou 310027, China
Abstract A new 18-lump kinetic model for naphtha catalytic reforming reactions is discussed. By developing this
model as a user module, a whole industrial continuous catalytic reforming process is simulated on Aspen plus plat-
form. The technique utilizes the strong databases, complete sets of modules, and flexible simulation tools of the
Aspen plus system and retains the characteristics of the proposed kinetic model. The calculated results are in fair
agreement with the actual operating data. Based on the model of the whole reforming process, the process is opti-
mized and the optimization results are tested in the actual industrial unit for about two months. The test shows that
the process profit increases about 1000yuanK' averagely, which is close to the calculated result.
Keywords catalytic reforming, kinetic model, Aspen plus, computer simulation, process optimization
1 INTRODUCTION
Catalytic naphtha reforming is a very important
process for producing high octane gasoline, aromatic
feedstock and hydrogen in petroleum-refining and
petrochemical industries"]. To design new plants and
optimize the existing ones, an appropriate mathema-
tical model for simulatin the industrial catalytic re-
forming process is needed %,31 .
The naphtha used as catalytic reforming feed-
stock is very complex usually consisting of about
three hundred hydrocarbons with carbon number
ranging from one to twelve, and each of them under-
goes various reactions. Thus a detailed kinetic model
considering all the components and reactions is too
complex. By this reason, attempts have been made to
model naphtha by considering groups of components
(i.e. kinetic lumps) taking part in reforming reactions.
Accordingly, various lumping kinetic models to rep-
resent catalytic reforming reactions have been re-
ported in the literature, which have different levels of
sophi~tication'~-'~'.
In a previous study, we presented a simple lump-
ing kinetic model for catalytic reforming with 17
lumps involving only 17 reaction^"^]. However, this
model did not subdivide 8-carbon aromatics into their
four isomeric compounds, i .e. PX (para-xylene), MX
(meta-xylene), OX (ortho-xylene), and EB
(ethyl-benzene). When the catalytic reforming process
is for producing BTX (benzene, toluene, xylene), the
subdivision of 8-carbon aromatics is necessary. In ad-
dition, this model supposes that the rate coefficients of
hydrocracking reactions of the same paraffin lump are
almost equal, which is not consistent with the experi-
ment res~l ts"~"~~. In this article, the 17-lump kinetic
model is extended in order to consider these deficien-
cies.
On the other hand, most of the studies were
based on their own programs merely for simulating
catalytic reforming reaction units, so that the whole
reforming process composed of many unit operations
could not be simulated. Aspen plus system is one of
the standard software for flowsheet simulation in the
process industries. It is supported by strong databases,
complete sets of modules, and flexible simulation
tools. However, some complex chemical reactions,
such as catalytic reforming reactions, can not be
simulated appropriately on Aspen plus platform by
using its built-in modules. Therefore, the purpose of
this article is to develop a modified kinetic model for
catalytic reforming reactions as a self-defined model
and then connect it with Aspen plus as a user module.
This technique utilizes the strong databases, comp-
lete sets of modules, and flexible simulation tools of
the Aspen plus system and retains the characteristics
of the self-defined model. In this way, a whole com-
mercial continuous catalytic reforming process is
simulated on Aspen plus platform.
Finally, the process is optimized based on the
model of the whole reforming process and the opti-
mization results are tested in an actual industrial cata-
lytic reforming process.
2 18-LUMP KINETIC MODEL
The proposed kinetic model is an extension of
the reported 17-lump model[141. Fig.1 displays the re-
forming reaction network used for kinetic modeling.
The characteristics and the assumptions made in
this work are listed below.
~~~~
Received 2005-08-18, accepted 2006-01-19.
* Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.60421002).
** To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hysu@iipc.zju.edu.cn
Modeling, Simulation and Optimi2ation of a Whole Industrial Catalytic Naphtha Reforming procesS on Aspen Plus Plalfonn 585
Figure 1 Reaction scheme for naphtha reforming
( 1) Because of the wide variation in thermody-
namic and kinetic behavior, paraffins, naphthenes, and
aromatics (P, N, A) within a carbon number fraction,
in c6to C9range, are treated separately for the lump-
ing scheme.
(2) All paraffins or naphthenes in each carbon
number group are not divided but lumped together.
(3) The Cg aromatics are subdivided in detail. For
the 8-carbon aromatics, the isomerization reactions
between PX, MX, and OX occur so rapidly so as to
approach the thermodynamic equilibrium under nor-
mal reforming conditions, while isomerization be-
tween EB and xylene isomers occurs so slowly that
this reaction is ign~red"~'. Hence, in this work the
8-carbon aromatics are subdivided to two lumps, EB
and the xylene isomers, and the xylene distribution is
also calculated by chemical equilibrium.
(4) Under the reaction conditions, hydrocracking
of aromatics and naphthenes to lower carbon number
paraffins is almost negligible.
( 5) All the hydrocracking reactions of paraffins
are subdivided in detail.
On the basis of the above discussion, the chemi-
cal reactions included in the proposed kinetic model
are presented in Table 1.This model has 18 lumps (not
including H2) and 31 reactions. Except for isomeriza-
tion, all the main reactions, such as dehydrogenation
of naphthenes to aromatics, dehydrocyclization of
paraffks to naphthenes, hydrocracking of paraffins,
Table 1 Reactions of the 17-lump kinetic model and the proposed 18-lump one
Reactions 17-Lump model This work
dehydrogenation N; +A; N; + A;, i =6,7,9 +
i=6,7,8,9+ N8 +PX+OX+MX
N8 + EB
dehydrocyclization
hy drodealkylation
hy dro-cracking
P; + N;
i=6,7,8,9+
A; + A;-1
A,++ A7
i=7,8,9+
P; + N;
i=6,7,8,9+
A7 $ A6
PX +OX +MX + A,
EB + A7
A,++PX+OX+MX
-49, + EB
A,++ A7
4
Ps + P; +Ps-i
P5+-CP; 1
i=l
2
Pg3- CPi +P4
4 f 7 ;=I 1
i=1,2
i=1,2,3
P7-+P; +P7-i
i=1,2,3
Pg3 P; +Pg-;
i=l,2,3,4
P9+--j P; +P9-i
1 8
4 ;=I
p9++- cp;
i=1,2,3,4
Chinese J. Ch. E. 14(5) 584 (2006)
586 Chinese J. Ch. E. (Vol. 14, NOS)
and hydrodealkylation of aromatics, are included in
this model. And the 17-lump kinetic model is also
given in Table 1 for comparison.
All the rates of reactions shown in the second col-
umn of Table 1 are of nonlinear pseudomonomolecular
form. Corresponding rate equations are presented below.
rJ =dYN /dt=k,.(YNz -Y A,/Kep,),j=l-5 (1)
r, =dY,/dt=k,.(Y, -YN, l K , ), j =6- 9 (2)
Dehydrogenation
Dehydroc yclization
Hydrodealkylation
Hydrocracking
r, =dY,, /dt =k, . Y,, , j =10 - 15
r, =dYp, /dt =k, .Yp,, j =16-31
(3)
(4)
In Eqs.( 1)-(4), the subscript j represents the re-
actions in sequence in the second column of Table 1;
P,, N, and A, represent paraffin, naphthene and aro-
matics of the corresponding reaction. The reaction
equilibrium constant KepJ can be calculated by the fol-
lowing thermodynamic relation,
( 5)
All the rate coefficients obey the well-known
Kc, =exp (-AG, / R T ) , j =1 - 9
k, =ko, .exp(-E,/RT).P,' 8 .@
Arrhenius' law,
0 < @6 1,j 4- 31 (6)
where @ is the catalyst deactivation function, which
varies between 0 and 1, and is used to multiply the
rates of the main reforming reactions calculated with-
out deactivation"*'.
Under the normal reformer operating conditions,
radial and axial dispersion effects were found to be
For radial flow reactor, the global mate-
rial and heat balance equations are given by Eqs.(7)
and (8) respectively,
dY/dR =2xR. H I(LHSV .V,). K, . Y
(7)
dT I dR =2xR. H I(LHSV .V,).
j =l
where Y is the vector of molar flow rates including 18
lumps and H2. Eq.(7) is solved by a mixed numerical
algorithm of fourth order Runge-Kutta and Gear and
Eq.(8) is solved by modified Euler method. The ther-
mochemical properties of each lump, such as heat of
formation, free energy of formation and specific heat
coefficient of ideal gas, etc., are computed by taking
an arithmetic average of the properties of the corre-
sponding pure chemical components constituting the
lump.
3
PLATFROM
3.1 Flowsheet of a whole reforming process
Figure 2 shows the industrial flowsheet of a
whole continuous catalytic reforming process to pro-
duce aromatics and hydrogen. The naphtha feedstock
is mixed with recycle gas and then heated to required
MODEL DEVELOPMENT ON ASPEN PLUS
nit
to LPG system
Figure 2 Industrial flowsheet of a whole continuous catalytic reforming process
October, 2006
Modeling, Simulation and Optimization of a Whole Industrial catalytic Naphtha Reforming Process on Aspen Pius platform587
reaction temperature by heat exchanger E-1 and heater
B-1. Since the major reactions in the reactors are en-
dothermic, catalytic reformers are designed with mul-
tiple reactors and with heaters between the reactors to
maintain reaction temperature at operable levels. Ac-
cordingly, the reactant passes in the sequence of heat-
ing in heaters B-1 to B-4 and reacting in reactors R-1
to R-4. The effluent from the last reactor R-4 is cooled
by heat exchanger E-1 and coolers E-2 to E-3 and then
enters the product separator F-1. The majority of
flashed vapor, containing 80% to 90% (by mol) hy-
drogen, circulates to join the naphtha feedstock as
recycle gas. All that mentioned above is the reaction
unit of the reforming process, as presented within the
thick line of Fig.2.
Excess hydrogen from separator F-1 passes to
compressor G-1 and cooler E-4, and enters separator
F-2. After through compressor G-2 and pump G-3
respectively, the liquid from separator F-1 is mixed
with the vapor from separator F-2. The mixture, com-
prised mostly of the desired reformate product but
also containing light gases, passes through coolers E-5
to E-6, heat exchangers E-7 to E-10, ammonia cooler
E-11 in sequence, and then enters separator F-3. The
flashed vapor, containing over 90% hydrogen, passes
heat exchangers E-10 and E-8 and is obtained as hy-
drogen product. The flashed liquid from F-3 is mixed
with the liquid from separator F-2 after through heat
exchangers E-9 and E-7. The mixture is then fed into
distillation column D- 1 after passing heat exchanger
E-12. The distillate is separated into two streams. One
is vapor and is sent to the fuel gas system, the other is
liquid and is sent to the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas)
system. The reformate product, having removed the
light gases, is acquired as the bottom from D-1 and
fed into distillation column D-2. The mixture of xy-
lene, ethyl-benzene, and heavy aromatics is obtained
as the bottom product of D-2 and sent to the xylene
unit. The distillate containing benzene, toluene, and
heavy paraffins is sent to the aromatics extraction unit.
3.2 Design of reforming reaction user module on
Aspen plus platform
The modified 18-lump kinetic model is devel-
oped as a user module to simulate the reforming reac-
tion unit. The steps of design of the user module are
described as follows:
(1) The reactor model including the 18-lump ki-
netic model is developed as a subroutine in
FORTRAN language.
(2) The subroutine is compiled into an object file
or a shared library by an appropriate FORTRAN com-
piler using given command.
(3) The object file or shared library is copied to
the working directory and distributed to Aspen plus
users.
(4) A USER module is selected on the Aspen plus
user interface. The name of the subroutine is then
written in the page layout of the block input identifi-
cations as the name of the users model. The subrou-
tine will be loaded automatically when the user mod-
ule is simulated.
(5) The input parameters, calculation results and
important inner information (such as temperature and
reformate composition profiles within the four reac-
tors) are output in the report file by calling Aspen plus
common blocks.
According to these steps, the proposed kinetic
model is loaded in the USER module and connected
with Aspen plus.
3.3 Modeling of the whole reforming process on
Aspen plus platform
For the recycle gas contains 80% to 90% hydro-
gen, a little light gas and negligible heavy paraffins,
the convergence of all lumps is difficult and unneces-
sary. In this work, separator F-1 and the circulation
shown within the thick line of Fig. 2 are included in
the USER module mentioned in section 3.2 and only
the convergence of hydrogen is executed within the
user subroutine. The effluent of this module is then
defined as the outlet charge of reactor R-4 when the
convergence is met. Another USER module only re-
peats the flash computation of F- 1.
Except for the reaction unit, comprised of four
reactors R-1 to R-4, four heaters B-1 to B-4, and the
product separator F-1, is simulated by the above two
USER modules, and the other equipment is all repre-
sented by the built-in modules of Aspen plus system.
The heat exchangers are represented by HEATX mod-
ules, the heaters and coolers by HEATER modules,
the separators by FLASH2 modules, the pumps by
PUMP modules, the compressors by COMPR modules,
and the distillation column systems by RADFRAC
modules.
The 18 lumps (i. e. pseudocomponents) are ap-
plied for all the modules to represent about three hun-
dred hydrocarbons flowing through the catalytic re-
forming process. The property methods specially used
for petroleum systems are selected to compute the
thermochemical properties of the reforming system.
The GRAYSON method is applied for the reforming
reaction unit and separators F-1 to F-3, the
CHOA-SEA method for the distillation column sys-
tem D-1, and the BKlO method for the distillation
column system D-2.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After the model of the whole reforming process
is developed on Aspen plus platform, the estimation of
related parameters is a very important step to simulate
the industrial continuous catalytic reforming process.
To decrease the difficulty in estimating the kinetic
parameters, i.e. the rate constants k in Eq.(l), we take
Chinese J. Ch. E. 14(5) 584 (2006)
588
the value of E and I9 in Eq.(6) from the literature""
and only estimate ko embodying the estimation differ-
ence of parameters E, I9 and un-modeling kinetics. The
operating and assay data of the industrial process for
several months, which are firstly reconciled by mate-
rial balance, are used to estimate ko by Marquardt op-
timization algorithm. The stage efficiencies of distilla-
tion columns D-1 and D-2 are amended by actual
stage temperature values.
The developed second simulation software on
Aspen plus platform is applied to the commercial con-
Chinese J. Ch. E. (Vol. 14, No.5)
tinuous catalytic reforming process as presented in
Fig.2. The simulation results are listed in Table 2. Ta-
ble 2 shows that the calculated compositions of the
recycle gas stream, the hydrogen product stream, the
bottom stream of D-1, and the distillate and bottom
streams of D-2 agree well with the operating data. The
calculated values of several important operating points,
such as liquid yield, aromatics yield, total drop of re-
action temperature, catalyst coking content, distillate
and bottom temperatures of distillation column, sensi-
tive stage temperature, are also close to the operating
Table 2 Comparison between calculated and actual results of chief operation points
Bottoms of D-1 (S3) Distillate of D-2 (S6) Bottoms of D-2 (S7) Recycle gas (SI) Net gas (S2)
Item
Calc. Actual Calc. Actual Calc. Actual Calc. Actual Calc. Actual
flowrate, kgC' 37.82 37.82 16.31 16.31 21.51 21.51 11.69 11.65
compositions
PI (methane)
P2(ethane)
P3(prop=)
p4
ps
p7
P8
p9+
N7
N8
N9
NA
A6(benzene)
A7( toluene)
PX
MX
ox
EB
'49,
p6
N6
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.39
6.97
6.54
0.70
0.00
0.34
0.19
0.04
0.00
15.17
7.36
20.75
5.44
11.73
'6.37
3.21
29.97
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.74
7.33
5.96
0.96
0.00
0.36
0.29
0.03
0.00
15.67
7.18
20.39
5.18
11.17
6.53
3.35
30.53
(by mass) (by volume)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.90
16.16
15.16
1.08
0.00
0.79
0.44
0.03
0.00
34.56
17.06
47.75
0.13
0.27
0.14
0.09
0.00
35.96
16.65
46.99
0.08
0.17
0.09
0.06
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.41
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.05
0.00
0.46
0.00
0.27
9.46
20.42
11.10
5.58
52.71
0.28
0.00
0.21
9.05
19.51
11.41
5.85
53.69
3.97
3.73
3.13
2.21
0.13
0.04
0.01
0.00
0.00
0.02
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.95
2.80
2.94
2.06
0.76
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
3.49 3.42
(by volume)
3.98
2.03
1.02
0.59
0.18
0.04
0.01
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
3.41
1.87
1.06
0.39
0.03
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
H2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 86.74 88.49 92.13 93.24
Operating points Calculated value Actual value
liquid yield, % (by mass) 77.98 77.97
aromatics yield, % (by mass) 66.91 66.50
total drop of reaction temperature, "C 256.97 252.57
catalyst coking content, % (by mass) 5.28 5.6
distillate temperature of D-1, "C 87.67 91.64
bottom temperature of D- 1, "C 219.13 221.29
sensitive stage temperature of D-1, "C 121.84 121.00
distillate temperature of D-2, "C 109.88 107.03
bottom temperature of D-2, 'C 180.91 176.13
sensitive stage temperature of D-1, "C 118.39 116.78
October, 2006
Modeling, Simulation and Optimization of a Whole Industrial Catalytic Naphtha Refonning procesS on Aspen Plus Platform 589
data. It can be concluded that the modified 18-lump
kinetic model and the selected property methods are
applicable to the flowsheet simulation of the industrial
continuous catalytic reforming process.
Based on the model of the whole reforming proc-
ess, the optimization can be realized on Aspen plus
platform to improve the process performance and
maximize the process profitability. After plentiful sensi-
tivity analyses of the process variables, the four reactor
inlet temperatures and the reaction pressure are consid-
ered as key variables to influence the process perform-
ance such as aromatics yield (AY) and energy cost. As
the reaction pressure can not be changed obviously due
to the given process technology, the four reactor inlet
temperatures are then selected as decision variables to
maximize the process profit. The optimization problem
with process constraints is described as follows,
i a
s.t. Equations of the process model listed in sec-
tion 3
Tk d Tk d T y k =1,2,3,4
CKL d CK d CKu
HCL < HC d HCu
ECL d EC d ECu
(9)
where Yprducti and Yf d i are the molar flow rates
of product and feed of each lumps; EC is the energy
cost of heaters B-1 to B-4, a=24kg.GJ P', pi and pfuel
represent the price of each lump and fuel. The process
profit f means the return after all operating and mate-
rial expenses have been met.
Tk ( kl , --, 4) are the four reactor inlet tempera-
tures in sequence. In the sensitivity analyses based on
the above process model, it is found that the aromatics
yield decreases slowly when the first or second reactor
inlet temperature increases over 520"C, and it in-
creases rapidly when the fourth reactor inlet tempera-
ture closes to 525C. Thus the upper and lower limits
of the four reactor inlet temperatures (?--F) are
further compressed within 5 18-523"C, 5 18-523 "C ,
5 15-525 "C and 523-528 "C respectively. Process
constraints are mainly catalyst coking content (CK),
molar ratio of hydrogen to oil ( HC) and EC. Their
upper limits mainly lie on the loads of regeneration
system, compressors and heaters of the catalytic re-
forming process.
The SQP (sequential quadratic programming)
method is adopted to solve this NLP (non-linear pro-
gramming) problem. This method is widely used in
industrial process (such as chemical engineering, elec-
tric power and metall~rgy)"~'. Because the four deci-
sion variables are limited within very narrow ranges,
the SQP algorithm is proved to be an effective method
and can converge rapidly. The CPU time required for
solving the NLP problem on an IBM PC with Pentium
41.7GHz, 256M DDR memory and an ASPEN PLUS
11.1 version software is only about 3e12Os depend-
ing on the initial values of input variants. Table 3
gives the optimization results of key operation condi-
tions to maximize the process profit under specific
naphtha feedstock.
As shown in Table 3, the optimized reactor inlet
temperatures can bring a potential increase of process
profit with 700Yuan.h-', which is mainly gained from
the increase of aromatics yield with 0.3% (by mass).
Furthermore, the optimized process variables are also
tested in the actual industrial continuous catalytic re-
forming unit for about two months and the testing re-
sults are presented in Table 4. The aromatics yield and
process profit increase about 0.49% and 1000Yuan.h-'
averagely, which are close to the calculated value
listed in Table 3. Therefore, the optimization results
obtained by process simulation and optimization are
appropriate. The process profit acquired by only
changing the four reactor inlet temperatures a little
will reach about 8 X lo6 Yuan annually.
Table 3 Calculated optimization results for key process variables
Process variable Constraint value Current value Optimal value Increase
Tl, "C 5188T16523
T2, "C 5 188T28S23
T3. "C 5156T36525
T4, 'C
523 6 T48 528
HC, mol.mol-' 64. 0
CK, % (by mass) 66. 5
EC, GJ 6 ' G275
522.1
521.3
517.5
523.9
3.29
5.28
263.2
521.0 - 1 . 1
520.1 - 1.2
517.5 0
525.7 1.8
3.28 -0.01
5.30 0.02
263.4 0.2
AY, % (by mass) - 66.91 67.2 1 0.30
profitx YuanK' - 2.68 2.75 0.07
Note: Naphtha feed=171793kg.h-'; LHSV=l.O2h-'; latent aromatics=51.9%; catalyst type: F't-Sn/A1203; catalyst distribution, % (by
mass):Rl:R2 : R3 :R4=10:15:25:50
Chinese J. Ch. E. 14(5) 584 (2006)
590 Chinese J. Ch. E. (Vol. 14, NOS)
Table 4 Actual testing results of the optimization project
TI , C
T2, C
T3, C
T4. C
LHSV, h-
latent aromatics, % (by mass)
HC, mol.mo1-
CK, % (by mass)
EC, GJ 6
AY, % (by mass)
521.9
521.3
517.6
523.7
1.02
53.2
3.57
5.96
266.0
67.36
Averaged values of 20
-
521.3
520.3
517.8
525.8
1.02
53.1
3.58
6.01
266.4
67.85
.0.6
-1.0
0.2
2.1
0
-0.1
0.01
0.05
0.4
0.49
ProfitX Y uanK 2.79 2.89 0.10
5 CONCLUSIONS
This article proposes a new 18-lump kinetic
model for naphtha catalytic reforming reactions and
the model is then developed as a user module on As-
pen plus platform. Using the technique of users
model, a whole industrial continuous catalytic refor-
ming process is simulated. When the calculated data
are in fair agreement with operating data, the devel-
oped second simulation software is used for monitor-
ing process performance, troubleshooting, diagnosing
faults, optimizing process and process control. In this
article, the process is optimized and the optimization
results are tested in the actual industrial unit. The
testing results show that the process simulation and
optimization is appropriate.
NOMENCLATURE
AY
a
CK
E
EC
AG
H
HC
AH
Kep
Kr
k
ko
LHSV
M
P, N, A
PX, MX, OX, EB
CP
Ph
Pfuel
Pi
R
r
T
aromatics yield, % (by mass)
cost of fuel oil per energy unit, kg-GJ -
catalyst coke content, % (by mass)
specific heat, Id.kmol-l.K-
activation energy, W.rnol-
energy cost of four heaters, GJ .h-
free energy of reaction, ~d.kmol-
height of the catalyst bed, m
molar ratio of hydrogen to oil
heat of reaction, I dknol-
reaction equilibrium constant
matrix for reaction rate coefficients
reaction rate coefficient, h-
frequency factor, s-.MPa-
liquid hourly space velocity, h-
molecular weight, kgkmol-
paraffins, naphthenes and aromatics
partial pressure of hydrogen, MPa
para-xylene, meta-xylene, ortho-xylene
and ethyl-benzene
price of fuel oil, Yuan.kg-
price of each lump, Yuamkg-
radius of catalyst bed, m (or gas constant)
reaction rate, kmol.h-
temperature, K
t reaction time, h
V C catalyst volume, m3
Y, Y
e pressure exponent
L, U
i
j reaction number
k reactor number
molar flow rate, kmo1.h-l
Superscripts
Subscripts
upper and lower limits of variables
carbon atom number or lump number
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