Heavy naphtha upgrading by catalytic reforming over novel bi-functional zeolite catalyst

Abstract

Naphtha catalytic reforming process using bimetallic platinum and titanium loaded on nano synthesized HY zeolite was investigated for the product octane number enhancement. The activity of five samples of the prepared catalyst with different bimetallic loading of 0.13, 0.25 wt% Pt and 0.75, 1, 2.2 wt% Ti were investigated for Iraqi heavy naphtha catalytic reforming at the temperature range of 490, 500 and 510 degrees C and pressure of 10 bar in a packed bed pilot plant reactor. The best result of the research octane number was 84 for reformate product using the sample of 0.13% Pt-0.75% Ti%/HY zeolite at temperature 510 degrees C and 10 bar achieving 47% increase. All samples of the prepared catalyst showed a good stability during the operation at severe conditions and the maximum carbon content was about 9% due to the deposition of coke precursor on the catalyst surface. The reformate yield was investigated for all catalyst samples under 10 and 20 bars and the same range of temperature and ranged from 89 to 94%. These results are encouraging for future possible replacement of the conventional catalyst by the local synthetic zeolite. Octane number was correlated on the basis of constituent's boiling points. The maximum absolute error between the experimental and predicted octane number was about 3 and 5% using 10 and 20 bar respectively.