5TH International Congress on Technology - Engineering & Science - Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia (2018-02-01)

Study Of Production Of Aromatic Compounds By Different Process Configurations In A Crude Oil Refinery

Value improvement of an aromatic stream produced by heavy naphtha catalytic reforming was investigated. The composition of the selected feedstock was the following: benzene (5.13%), toluene (19.25%), orto-xylene (5.97%), meta-xylene (10.37%), para-xylene (5.45%), ethyl benzene (4.15%), trimethyl benzenes (26.12%) ethyl toluenes (20.78%). The design capacity of the aromatic production unit was 1000 t/day. The scenarios those were worked out were the following. Case A contained a simply distillation train only, consequently the ratio of the aromatic compounds was not changed. Case B contained a xylene isomerisation unit to decrease the quantity of meta-xylene and to produce more valuable xylene isomers (orto and para), additionally to the distillation train. Case C contained a distillation train, a xylene isomerisation unit and a transalkylation unit to convert heavy aromatics into valuable aromatic compounds (xylenes). The economic assessment of the investigated cases to be prepared by calculating the added value of products comparing to using them as gasoline blending components showed added value increase in 117 k$/day for Case A, 121 k$/day for Case B and 154 k$/day for Case C, respectively. This result shows the importance of the production of individual aromatics as well as the profit increase ability of the catalytic processes.
Zoltán Varga, István Talabér