Aromatization of Petroleum Products

the chemical processing of petroleum products in order to increase their content of aromatic hydrocarbons by means of converting the hydrocarbons with open-chain structures into cyclic hydrocarbons. The aromatization of petroleum products is conducted according to the reactions discovered by Soviet chemists in 1936 (B. A. Kazanskii, A. F. Plate, B. L. Moldavskii, and others). The aromatization of petroleum products takes place in the different processes of the processing of petroleum and its fractions—cracking, catalytic reforming, destructive hydrogenation, and pyrolysis. The most widely used process for the industrial preparation of aromatic hydrocarbons is the catalytic reforming of the gasoline-ligroin fractions of petroleum. The product obtained, containing up to 60 percent aromatic hydrocarbons (2.4–2.6 percent of the unprocessed petroleum), is used as a high-octane component of motor fuels or to obtain pure aromatic hydrocarbons.

The aromatization of petroleum products has great significance in the petrochemical industry. The world production of aromatic hydrocarbons by means of the aromatization of petroleum products attains millions of tons. Eighty to 90 percent of the light aromatic hydrocarbons are obtained in this way; they are used for the production of explosives, paints, detergents, plastics, and so on.