<unk>  is a chemical process used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas, typically having low octane ratings, into high-octane liquid products called reformates which are components of high-octane gasoline (also known as petrol). Basically, the process re-arranges or re-structures the hydrocarbon molecules in the naphtha feedstocks as well as breaking some of the molecules into smaller molecules. The overall effect is that the product reformate contains hydrocarbons with more complex molecular shapes having higher octane values than the hydrocarbons in the naphtha feedstock. In so doing, the process separates hydrogen atoms from the hydrocarbon molecules and produces very significant amounts of byproduct hydrogen gas for use in a number of the other processes involved in a modern petroleum refinery. Other byproducts are small amounts of methane, ethane, propane and butanes.
This process is quite different from and not to be confused with the<unk>  steam<unk>  process used industrially to produce various products such as hydrogen, ammonia and methanol from natural gas, naphtha or other petroleum-derived feedstocks. Nor is this process to be confused with various other<unk>  processes that use methanol or biomass-derived feedstocks to produce hydrogen for fuel cells or other uses.
Catalytic reforming
Isothermal process
Autoxidation
Thermal depolymerization
Carboxylation
Glucuronidation
Ethanol fermentation
Hydrolysis