Development of a detailed reaction network for industrial upgrading of heavy reformates to xylenes using differential evolution technique

In the present study, an accomplished reaction network is developed for commercial conversion of heavy reformates to more valuable xylenes. The proposed kinetic model is based on 18 pseudo-components and 39 related reactions in which 7 different types of reactions are included. Thermodynamic principles are also applied to predict the reversibility of the reactions. To estimate the reaction rate constants, the absolute deviation between the model results and observed data are minimized applying differential evolution (DE) optimization method. To prove the accuracy of the proposed model, simulation results are compared with the plant data and an acceptable agreement is achieved. Then, the effect of operating conditions on the reactor performance is verified. The results of this work show that increasing the inlet temperature and molar flow rate up to certain values would improve the xylenes production. (C) 2014 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.