Optimization of a novel multifunctional reactor containing m-xylene hydrodealkylation and naphtha reforming Mahdi Shakeri, Davood Iranshahi * , Abbas Naderifar Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), No. 424, Hafez Avenue, Tehran, 15914, Iran article info Article history: Received 5 January 2019 Received in revised form 27 April 2019 Accepted 30 April 2019 Available online xxx Keywords: Naphtha reforming process Hydrogen and aromatics production Multifunctional reactor Hydrodealkylation of m-xylene Hydrogen permeation Genetic algorithm optimization abstract In the present study, efforts have been made to improve the performance of the naphtha reforming process. To this end, the conventional reactors in the naphtha reforming process have been replaced with the new multifunctional reactors. These proposed reactors consist of hydrodealkylation and reforming sides separated by a solid wall and also permeation side that is separated from the reforming side by a palladium membrane wall. The naphtha reforming exchanges the heat with the hydrodealkylation of m-xylene, while this process exchanges the hydrogen gas with the permeation side. This new configuration will lead to an improvement in the production yield of aromatic in the catalytic reforming. According to the simulation results, the production rate of aromatic in this new suggestion increases by about 11% in comparison to the conventional process. The effects of design parameters such as the inlet temperatures of naphtha and hydrodealkylation feeds, the inlet molar flow rate of the hydrodealkylation side and, also the membrane thickness on the system performance have been studied. At the end of the work, the genetic algorithm optimization has been used to determine the best values of varies adjustable parameters in this system. © 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Naphtha reforming is a catalytic reforming in which the non- significant hydrocarbons convert to the valuable aromatics on the Pt/Al 2 O 3 catalyst [1e4]. These non-significant hydrocar- bons, called naphtha, are achieved from middle sections of the distillation column in the refineries [5,6]. Due to the presence of hundreds of different components in naphtha feed, the lumped kinetic models are used for describing the catalytic reforming [7e10]. Researchers have studied the mathematical modeling of naphtha reactor as the heart of the reforming unit to predict its behavior [11]. Ancheyta et al. [12] developed a mathematical model for the commercial semi- regenerative naphtha reformers. Their simulation results were in good agreement with the plant data. Elizalde and Ancheyta [13] simulated a naphtha catalytic reformer under unsteady state conditions. The nonlinear optimization has been conducted for a commercial naphtha reforming process by Hu et al. [14]. Coupling of endothermic and exothermic reactions has been recognized as an effective method to increase the ther- mal efficiency of processes. Thus, this idea has found a lot of interest among the researchers [15e18]. Sint Annaland and * Corresponding author. E-mail address: iranshahi@aut.ac.ir (D. Iranshahi). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.04.283 0360-3199/© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Shakeri M et al., Optimization of a novel multifunctional reactor containing m-xylene hydrodealkylation and naphtha reforming, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.04.283