Abstract
•Existing industrial isomerization processes are compared with the new process (AJAM).•Process performance is evaluated in terms of RON, yield and cost.•The AJAM process gives the highest RON and yield, and the lowest cost among all existing processes.•25% Energy saving opportunity in AJAM process using Hex network.
Increasing the yield and research octane number (RON) of naphtha isomerization process are the most important issues in industries. There are many alternative industrial naphtha isomerization processes practiced around the world. In addition, AJAM is a new naphtha isomerization process proposed by the authors recently (Ahmed et al., 2018) where the isomerization reactor model was validated using real data of Baiji North Refinery (BNR) of Iraq. In this work, first, the performance of the AJAM Process is evaluated against 8 existing industrial isomerization processes in terms of RON, yield and the cost using model based optimisation techniques. To be consistent, we have used the same isomerization reactor model in all the industrial processes we evaluated here. Secondly, energy saving opportunity in the new AJAM process is studied using pinch technology.