(95g) Investigation of the Naphtha Reforming Process and Hydrodealkylation of Toluene In a Novel Optimized Membrane Coupled Reactor

In the current research, the conventional naphtha reforming reactors have been replaced by the thermally coupled reactors. The tube wall and the shell wall of a thermally-coupled reactor containing hydrodealkylation (HDA) of toluene in the exothermic side and naphtha reforming process in the endothermic side have been substituted by hydrogen-permselective membrane layers. A part of the produced hydrogen in the shell side enters the exothermic side to provide the necessary hydrogen supply for the HDA process. Permeated hydrogen through the shell wall enters another section called permeation side to be collected by sweep gas. This three-sided reactor has been optimized using differential evolution (DE) method to predict the operating conditions at which the conversion of the toluene and aromatics and also the hydrogen recovery yield would be maximized. The initial molar flow rates of the exothermic and permeation sides, as well as the inlet pressure and the composition of the sweep gas, plus the inlet temperature of the exothermic side are among the main decision variables in this research. The conversion of toluene and aromatics in the mentioned membrane reactor has been boosted significantly in comparison with the conventional reactors.