Kinetic model for hydroisomerization reaction of C8-aromatics

Based on the reported reaction networks, a novel six-component hydroisomerization reaction network with a new lumped species including C8-naphthenes and C8-paraffins is proposed and a kinetic model for a commercial unit is also developed. An empirical catalyst deactivation function is incorporated into the model accounting for the loss in activity because of coke formation on the catalyst surface during the long-term operation. The Runge-Kutta method is used to solve the ordinary differential equations of the model. The reaction kinetic parameters are benchmarked with several sets of balanced plant data and estimated by the differential variable metric optimization method (BFGS). The kinetic model is validated by an industrial unit with sets of plant data under different operating conditions and simulation results show a good agreement between the model predictions and the plant observations.