Modeling and optimization of a semi-regenerative catalytic naphtha reformer

Modeling and optimization of a Semi-regenerative catalytic naphtha reformer has been carried out considering most of its key constituent units. A detailed kinetic scheme involving 28 pseudo-components connected by a network of 68 reactions was modeled using reaction-rate expressions. Deactivation of catalyst was modeled by including the corresponding equations of coking kinetics. The overall kinetic model was parameterized by benchmarking against industrial plant data. The ordinary differential equations in the model were discretized using Orthogonal Collocation on Finite Elements (OCFE). The resulting optimization problem is solved with Successive Quadratic Programming (SQP) in conjunction with first/second derivative and sparse matrix techniques. The analysis was carried out to study the decision variables over the run length. The improvement of the objective function is obvious.