Interesting news from the refining industry

Came across this tidbit from the University of Deleware and thought you might find it interesting....

Boosting the octane number of gasoline just got easier, thanks to new software that lets engineers and scientists build a model of the naphtha reforming process in hours, rather than months, University of Delaware researchers reported today during the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) meeting.
Refineries depend on the complex process of catalytic reforming to increase the octane number of gasoline, which determines how well the fuel resists "knocking" during combustion, explained Michael T. Klein, UD's Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor of Chemical Engineering.
Modeling the catalytic reforming process--and predicting the effect of changes such as using a new feedstock--has traditionally been a tedious, time-consuming task involving intricate reaction models optimized only for a limited set of circumstances, according to Klein and graduate student Prasanna V. Joshi.
The new model-building software, developed with support from the refinery technology company UOP Inc. of Des Plaines, Ill., now makes it possible to generate a simulated version of reforming scenarios, given basic data inputs, in as few as 100 CPU seconds--"roughly the time it takes to grab a cup of coffee," Klein said.
"This software will let a research engineer or scientist sit down and describe a particular reforming situation by entering data into a computer, then let the computer do the work while he or she works on another task," he added. "We can build a model in a day, instead of six months."
Senior Process Specialist Aronson "Ron" L. Huebner of UOP said UD's NetGen reforming software should improve the accuracy of reforming models, too. "This is a valuable tool for scientists and engineers," he said. "Building a model of such highly complex chemical systems can become an overwhelming task when you're doing it manually. It takes too long, and a large margin of error is inevitable."
During the AIChE meeting, Joshi reported on NetGen software for building models of UOP's Continuous Catalytic Regeneration, or CCR catalytic reforming process. But, Klein's research team is also developing software to help engineers and scientists build models of various industrial processes, including: ethane pyrolysis; hydrocracking (breaking large hydrocarbon molecules to generate useful fuels); naptha pyrolysis and gas-oil pyrolysis.
Ultimately, Klein said, the group hopes to develop "a generic model-building software, similar to popular spreadsheet software used for accounting tasks, in terms of its usefulness for tackling a broad range of problems."