Operative Improvement of the Naphtha Catalytic Reforming Process as an Alternative for Reducing Environmental Impact of Benzene Fugitive Emissions from Gasoline

Oil refining industry have as a challenge the high-octane gasoline production and its reformulation with low benzene content. This work reports a mass balance of benzene emissions from gasoline vessel transfers and transport operations in Mexico, with an estimated total maximum flowrate of 1.48 KBPD, considering evaporative losses. The aim of this work is to provide an operative proposal for minimizing benzene emissions by developing an ASPEN HYSYS ® simulation study of the Naphtha Catalytic Reforming (NCR) process in its Continuous Catalyst Regeneration (CCR) mode at different operative conditions, in order to estimating transitional operative routes (TOR) that can improve reformate quality at the time benzene content is reduced. Operative conditions comprise a Hydrogen/ Hydrocarbon (H2/HC) ratio from 2.0 to 6.0 and a reaction temperature from 450 to 525 °C as the framework to find the best TOR by applying the Surface Response Method (SRM) Objective variables were assessed by a multi-objective optimization analysis, focusing on 1.48% (v/V), of benzene content, and 89.87 for Research Octane Number (RON) of produced gasoline. Finally, simulation results were compared with experimental data from a NCR pilot plant, in semi-regenerative (SR) mode, as well as with industrial scale data, observing significant similitudes.