Petroleum Refinery: Soran University Petroleum Engineering Department

SORAN UNIVERSITY
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Petroleum Refinery
NAZIR MAFAKHERI
OCTOBER 2018
Lecture 7
ISOMERIZATION
• Introduction
Isom plants are molecule rearrangers somewhat like the cat reformer
 except that they only convert normal paraffins to isoparaffins.
C4 isomerization unit is built for very different reasons than the C5/C6
isomerization unit.
ISOMERIZATION
• Butane Isomerization
A refinery that has an alkylation plant is not likely to have exactly
enough isobutane to match the propylene and butylene feeds
If the refinery has a hydrocracker, there is likely to be surplus isobutane
that is probably blended off to gasoline.
Without a hydrocracker, but with a cat cracker and alky plant, a refiner
may have to supplement the iC4 supply
Refiners usually have two choices—buy it or make it in a butane
isomerization (BI) plant
ISOMERIZATION
A refinery that has an alkylation plant is not likely to have exactly
enough isobutane to match the propylene and butylene feeds
If the refinery has a hydrocracker, there is likely to be surplus isobutane
that is probably blended off to gasoline.
Without a hydrocracker, but with a cat cracker and alky plant, a refiner
may have to supplement the iC4 supply
Refiners usually have two choices—buy it or make it in a butane
isomerization (BI) plant
ISOMERIZATION
The process
 The feed to the BI plant is normal butane or mixed butanes (normal
and isobutane)
sometimes called field grade butanes if they come from a gas
processing plant.
 If they come from refinery operations, the butanes are processed to
remove any trace of olefins because they tend to deactivate the catalyst.
ISOMERIZATION
The process
1- The butanes are fed to a feed
preparation column where
isobutane is separated, which
is marginally cheaper than
pumping it around and taking
up space in the BI plant.
ISOMERIZATION
The process
2- The high purity normal
butane is then mixed with a
small amount of hydrogen and
charged at 220ºF to a reactor
containing a platinum catalyst
Note: At this temperature
some of the nC4 would convert
to iC4, even without the
catalyst.
ISOMERIZATION
The process
2- cont.
 But add the presence of
platinum and the conversion
jumps to a commercial rate.
The hydrogen does not really
enter into the isomerization
reaction. It is there just to
minimize coke formation,
reacting with any freed carbon
to form methane, ethane, or
propane.
ISOMERIZATION
The process
• 3- The stream coming from
the reactor contains about
60% isobutane, 40% normal
butane, and a minor amount
of propane and lighter gases.
ISOMERIZATION
The process
• 4- In a fractionator, the latter
are split out and sent to the
fuel system; the butanes are
recycled to the feed
fractionator so that the
normal butane can be
separated from the isobutane
and rerun.
ISOMERIZATION
Yields
After accounting for the once-through 60% conversion, the normal
butane will be recycled
 due to the fact that isobutane is less dense than normal butane, the
yield of isobutane on a volume basis is slightly more than 100%. In
essence, it’s normal butane in, isobutane out, and that’s it.
ISOMERIZATION
• C5/C6 Isomerization
For a refinery that has problems meeting the gasoline octane targets
and has a lot of straight run gasoline around, C5/C6 isomerization has
appeal.
Normal pentane, which has an octane number of 62, can be converted
to isopentane with an octane number of 92.
Normal hexane goes from an untenably low 25 octane to about 75.
ISOMERIZATION
The process.
The boiling points of the four compounds involved, the two normal
paraffins and their isomers, are annoying:
Isopentane 50ºF–82ºF
Normal pentane 97ºF
Isohexane 129ºF–142ºF
Normal hexane 156ºF
ISOMERIZATION
The process.
 Isopentane and its variation, neopentane, boil at the lowest
temperatures.
in the BI plant, the C5/C6 isom plant probably has a feed fractionator
that separates the isopentane from the feed
There is no sense in carrying the extra baggage that will not be involved
in the reaction.
ISOMERIZATION
The process.
 But because the isohexane
boils between normal
pentane and normal
hexane (there are several
isomers, which boil from
129ºF to 142ºF), it is often
left in the feed. It would
take two columns or a very
tall single column with
lots of reflux and reboil to
get it out.
ISOMERIZATION
The process.
 Like the BI plant, a small
amount of hydrogen is
mixed with the feed,
which is then charged to a
reactor at about 250ºF. At
this temperature, the
catalyst will promote
conversion of about half
the normal paraffins feed
to the corresponding
isomers, creating an
isomerate stream.
ISOMERIZATION
The process.
The reactor product can be
fractionated to recycle the
normal pentanes to
extinction. The C5s are
split from the C6s and fed
back to the feed prep
column, where the
isopentane is split out and
the normal pentane is left
in the feed.
ISOMERIZATION
The process.
Again the boiling points of
the iso- and normal mix
present themselves as a
pain in the column
bottoms. Some refiners put
in another finishing
column to recycle the
normal hexanes also.
ISOMERIZATION
The process.
Some just let the normal
hexanes stay with the
isohexane and remain
content passing the normal
hexanes through the
process only one time
ISOMERIZATION
Yields
C5/C6 isomerization is a little more chemically complex than C4
isomerization, so about 2% to 3% light ends (C4 and lighter) get
created in the process.
But again, with the iso versus normal density trick, the C5/C6 outturn
is about 100% on a volume basis.
ISOMERIZATION
Yields
Depending on the extent of recycle, the octane number of the
isomerate can vary from 80 to 91 octane, with the cost of energy
(fractionation, pumping) increasing with the octane number
 The conversion of the normal paraffins to their isomers on a once-
through basis with no recycle runs 70% to 90%.
ISOMERIZATION
Yields
Octane improvement in a C5/C6 isomerization plant

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