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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalytic reforming | 1/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_reforming | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T10:46:30.409156+00:00 | kb-cron |
Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert naphthas from crude oil into liquid products called reformates, which are premium "blending stocks" for high-octane gasoline. The process converts low-octane linear hydrocarbons (paraffins) into branched alkanes (isoparaffins) and cyclic naphthenes, which are then partially dehydrogenated to produce high-octane aromatic hydrocarbons. The dehydrogenation also produces significant amounts of byproduct hydrogen gas, which is fed into other refinery processes such as hydrocracking and hydrodesulfurization. A side reaction is hydrogenolysis, which produces light hydrocarbons of lower value, such as methane, ethane, propane and butanes.
In addition to a gasoline blending stock, reformate is the main source of aromatic bulk chemicals such as benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene, which have diverse uses, most importantly as raw materials for conversion into plastics. However, the benzene content of reformate makes it carcinogenic, which has led to governmental regulations effectively requiring further processing to reduce its benzene content. Catalytic reforming is quite different from and not to be confused with the catalytic steam reforming process used industrially to produce products such as hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol from natural gas, naphtha or other petroleum-derived feedstocks. Nor is this process to be confused with various other catalytic reforming processes that use methanol or biomass-derived feedstocks to produce hydrogen for fuel cells or other uses.
== History == In the 1940s, Vladimir Haensel, a research chemist working for Universal Oil Products (UOP), developed a catalytic reforming process using a catalyst containing platinum. Haensel's process was subsequently commercialized by UOP in 1949 for producing a high octane gasoline from low octane naphthas and the UOP process become known as the Platforming process. The first Platforming unit was built in 1949 at the refinery of the Old Dutch Refining Company in Muskegon, Michigan. In the years since then, many other versions of the process have been developed by some of the major oil companies and other organizations. Today, the large majority of gasoline produced worldwide is derived from the catalytic reforming process. To name a few of the other catalytic reforming versions that were developed, all of which utilized a platinum and/or a rhenium catalyst:
Rheniforming: Developed by Chevron. CCR Platforming: A Platforming version, designed for continuous catalyst regeneration, developed by Universal Oil Products (UOP). Powerforming: Developed by Esso, currently known as ExxonMobil. Magnaforming: Developed by Engelhard and Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. Ultraforming: Developed by Standard Oil of Indiana, now a part of BP. Houdriforming: Developed by the Houdry Process Corporation. Octanizing: A catalytic reforming version developed by Axens, a subsidiary of the French Institute of Petroleum (IFP), designed for continuous catalyst regeneration.
== Typical naphtha feedstocks == A petroleum refinery includes many unit operations and unit processes. The first unit operation in a refinery is the continuous distillation of the petroleum crude oil being refined. The overhead liquid distillate is called naphtha and will become a major component of the refinery's gasoline (petrol) product after it is further processed through a catalytic hydrodesulfurizer to remove sulfur-containing hydrocarbons and a catalytic reformer to reform its hydrocarbon molecules into more complex molecules with a higher octane rating value. The naphtha is a mixture of very many different hydrocarbon compounds. It has an initial boiling point of about 35 °C (95 °F) and a final boiling point of about 200 °C (392 °F), and it contains paraffin, naphthene (cyclic paraffins) and aromatic hydrocarbons ranging from those containing 6 carbon atoms to those containing about 10 or 11 carbon atoms. The naphtha from the crude oil distillation is often further distilled to produce a "light" naphtha containing most (but not all) of the hydrocarbons with 6 or fewer carbon atoms and a "heavy" naphtha containing most (but not all) of the hydrocarbons with more than 6 carbon atoms. The heavy naphtha has an initial boiling point of about 140 to 150 °C (284 to 302 °F) and a final boiling point of about 190 to 205 °C (374 to 401 °F). The naphthas derived from the distillation of crude oils are referred to as "straight-run" naphthas. It is the straight-run heavy naphtha that is usually processed in a catalytic reformer because the light naphtha has molecules with 6 or fewer carbon atoms which, when reformed, tend to crack into butane and lower molecular weight hydrocarbons which are not useful as high-octane gasoline blending components. Also, the molecules with 6 carbon atoms tend to form aromatics which is undesirable because governmental environmental regulations in a number of countries limit the amount of aromatics (most particularly benzene) that gasoline may contain. There are a great many petroleum crude oil sources worldwide and each crude oil has its own unique composition or "assay". Also, not all refineries process the same crude oils and each refinery produces its own straight-run naphthas with their own unique initial and final boiling points. In other words, naphtha is a generic term rather than a specific term. The table just below lists some fairly typical straight-run heavy naphtha feedstocks, available for catalytic reforming, derived from various crude oils. It can be seen that they differ significantly in their content of paraffins, naphthenes and aromatics:
Some refinery naphthas include olefinic hydrocarbons, such as naphthas derived from the fluid catalytic cracking and coking processes used in many refineries. Some refineries may also desulfurize and catalytically reform those naphthas. However, for the most part, catalytic reforming is mainly used on the straight-run heavy naphthas, such as those in the above table, derived from the distillation of crude oils.