Catalytic reforming 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 catalytic steam reforming 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 catalytic reforming processes that use methanol or biomass-derived feedstocks to produce hydrogen for fuel cells or other uses.

UOP is a multi-national company developing and delivering technology to the petroleum refining, natural gas processing, petrochemical production and other manufacturing industries. In the 1940s, an eminent research chemist named Vladimir Haensel[1] working for UOP developed a catalytic reforming process using a catalyst containing platinum. Haensel's process was subsequently commercialized by UOP in 1949 for producing a high octane gasoline from low octane naphthas and the UOP process become known as the Platforming process.[2] The first Platforming unit was built in 1949 at the refinery of the Old Dutch Refining Company in Muskegon, Michigan.

In the years since then, many other versions of the process have been developed by some of the major oil companies and other organizations. Today, the large majority of gasoline produced worldwide is derived from the catalytic reforming process.

To name a few of the other catalytic reforming versions that were developed, all of which utilized a platinum and/or a rhenium catalyst:

Rheniforming: Developed by Chevron Oil Company.

Powerforming: Developed by Esso Oil Company, now known as ExxonMobil.

Magnaforming: Developed by Englehard Catalyst Company and Atlantic Richfield Oil Company.

Ultraforming: Developed by Standard Oil of Indiana, now a part of the British Petroleum Company.

Houdriforming: Developed by the Houdry Process Corporation.

CCR Platforming: A Platforming version, designed for continuous catalyst regeneration, developed by UOP.

Octanizing: A catalytic reforming version developed by Axens, a subsidiary of Institut francais du petrole (IFP), designed for continuous catalyst regeneration.

(Informations taken from Wikipedia)