Isomerization Units for Sale

The purpose of isomerization is to increase the refinery's production of high octane, low
aromatic gasoline. Principal applications of isomerization at refineries are naphtha isomerization, which produces a gasoline blending component, and butane isomerization, which produces isobutane feed for the alkylation unit. Gasoline, or naphtha, is generated throughout the refinery and consists of a mix of C and 5 higher hydrocarbons in straight, branched, or ring configuration. Naphtha isomerization converts the straight chains to branched, significantly raising their octane number. A common source of such “low grade” naphtha is light straight run, which consists of the lighter fraction (C /C ) of naphtha from atmospheric crude distillation.

The purpose of butane isomerization is to generate feed material for a facility's alkylation
or MTBE production unit; alkylation unit feed includes isobutane and olefins, while the raw
materials used in making MTBE are isobutylene and methanol. Presently, the most prevalent method of producing isobutane from n-butane is the UOP Butamer process, similar in many ways to the isomerization of naphtha over platinum chloride catalyst. In the Butamer process, normal butane, generated from throughout the refinery and separated from other butanes by distillation, is combined with hydrogen and a chlorinated organic compound. The hydrogen is used to suppress the polymerization of olefin intermediates, while the chlorine source is used to maintain catalyst activity. The feed flows through one or two fixed bed reactors in series, containing platinum chloride on alumina catalyst. The isobutane product is recovered and used as alkylation unit feed. Butane isomerization takes place at lower temperatures than naphtha isomerization.