Reformer Gas Treatment

Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas distilled from crude oil (typically having low octane ratings) into high-octane 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. A side reaction is hydrogenolysis which produces light hydrocarbons of lower value, such as methane, ethane, propane and butanes. Often these processes will utilise some form of metal catalyst that can be susceptible to fouling from other constituents of the reformer gas.

Activated carbon is used in protection of the catalyst, therefore extending its operational service life. Jacobi’s PetroSorb™ GXK offers a good protection for this application against organic contaminants. Where inorganic sulphur compounds are present, Jacobi’s AddSorb BCC-Plus product provides effective and high capacity sulphur stripping.