Abstract:
Catalytic reforming process is an important step in refining and chemical industry, which generates a large number of by-product hydrogen gas besides high-octane gasoline and aromatics. Continuous catalytic reforming process is always related with large energy consumption because of its processing and reaction characteristics. During a case study in a refinery of Sinopec, it was found that the energy consumption of the catalytic reforming process was mainly from fuel gas, which accounted for 69.61% of the total energy consumption and ranked as the largest proportion. Subsequently, steam and electricity consumption accounted for 20.76% and 7.34% of the total energy consumption, respectively. Then based on the analysis of the energy consumption status, as well as the existing technology and problems, the energy-saving reforming programs for the feed pretreatment unit and product fractionation unit were proposed respectively. As for the feed pretreatment unit, one more stage of heat transfer was added between the pre-hydrogenation reaction product and the pre-hydrogenated hydrogenated oil. With regard to the product fractionating unit, the reforming gasoline from the stabilizing tower was first adjusted to exchange heat with the oil and gas of product fractionating tower overhead and then with the bottom materials. Therefore, the amount of fuel gas and the air cooling power consumption were reduced. The results showed the total energy consumption decreased 1.76 kgEO/t (1 kgEO/t=41.86 kJ/kg)after the application of the above reforming measures.