Environmental concerns on aromatics, mainly benzene in gasoline might question the future of catalytic reforming as a major process for the production of high octane gasoline, whereas the demand of hydrogen for desulfurization is growing.Over the years, catalytic reforming has been adapting to this situation. Revamps of existing reformers, implementation of continuous regeneration units, development of new catalysts, with lower metal loading and increased life are possible solutions.Without a ban of aromatics this evolution will continue.Several optimized schemes have been proposed by different licensors to cope with benzene: increasing IBP of feed, distillation of reformate, benzene saturation and further isomerization of light reformate or alkylation with light olefins.Recent trends in paraffin isomerization show a preference for one-thru operations based on offsite chlorinated platinum catalysts, now offered by several suppliers. Iso-normal paraffins separation and even recycling of mono branched paraffins are implemented to increased octane numbers. The use of more active catalysts like mixed oxides, Ti, Zr, based, sulfated or not, seems promising.The C_7's are mainly cracked on existing isomerization catalysts. There is an interest in isomerizing part of them. New catalysts like WO_3/ZrO_2, SAPO or oxycarbide materials might allow this in the future.
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