Abstract

Research Octane Number (RON) of the Light Naphtha Isomerization (LNI) process affected the quality of gasoline and RON, that one of the most important issues in the refinery. In this research, the isomerization unit in an existing 480,000 bbl/day gas condensate refinery has been studied to increase the RON and decrease the total cost. The study involved selecting the equipment to replace them in an isomerization unit used to improve RON and decrease total costs for specific feed. The DIP-DIH isomerization unit was selected as a base case. Three scenarios were studied and simulated to predict the product specification. These scenarios included DIP-DP, DIP-DH, and DIP-DP-DH isomerization units. To increase RON, we designed and simulated these scenarios by Aspen HYSYS V9, and to study the energy consumption of the Heat Exchanger Network (HEN) used Aspen Energy Analyzer. The results show that by adding and replacing new equipment the RON and total cost were changed. The DIP-DP isomerization unit has a higher multiply flow rate by RON, rather than the base case (DIP-DIH) and other scenarios. The result indicated that DIP-DP isomerization improves RON and total cost by 6.6% and 7.9 %.