CH4801

Final Year Design Project Part 2

AY 2014-2015
Kunn Hadinoto Ong
Lau Wai Man Raymond
Mukta Bansal
Suraj Vasudevan
Division of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Nanyang Technological University

Project Overview
Ethyl benzene plant: simulation, design, optimization,
and heat integration
3 phases:
1. Simulation and design improvements (4 weeks)
2. Optimization (4 weeks)
3. Heat integration (3 weeks)

Preliminary PFD details in problem statement

Costing data also provided in the problem statement
2

Project Assessment
Three components (total 60%)
Individual quiz (mid-sem)

15%

Final report (20th April 2015)

30%

Group oral presentation (end-sem)

15%

Key Dates to Note

Week 7: Phase 1 feedback to individual groups
(no assessment)
Week 8: Individual quiz
Week 14: Final report submission (20th April)
Week 14: Group oral presentation
4

Lecture and Consultation

Lectures and industrial talks are scheduled on
Tuesdays 9.30-11.30
Project briefings and weekly Q & A sessions are
generally scheduled on Wednesdays 11.30-12.30
Dr Mukta and Dr Suraj
Each group please send at least 2 representatives

Consultation outside the weekly Q & A:

Email appointment only, please indicate your group
number in the email
Please avoid walk-in

Ethyl Benzene Plant Design

Ethyl Benzene (EB)
Used almost exclusively as feedstock in the
production of styrene monomer via
dehydrogenation
Produced by the alkylation of benzene with ethylene

Goal
Design a plant to manufacture EB with a capacity of
368,000 tonnes/year (based on 340 production
days/year)
Purity of at least 99.97 mol%
6

Process Information
EB
Usually produced by liquid-phase zeolite alkylation of
benzene
2 side reactions: alkylation of EB to form diethyl
benzene (DEB) and trans-alkylation of DEB to produce
more EB
The three main reactions that occur in the reactors:
6 6 + 2 4 8 10
8 10 + 2 4 10 14
10 14 + 6 6 28 10

Main feature: recycle of DEB to extinction

EB Process Flowsheet (Preliminary Design)

Fresh feed streams

Pure benzene
Ethylene with ethane as impurity (0.1 vol%)

Alkylation reaction section

2 plug-flow reactor (PFR) beds with interstage cooling

Fresh ethylene feed split into two

Separation section

Benzene column to separate benzene (for recycle and transalkylation) and lights for purge
EB column to separate EB product

Trans-alkylation reactor

Bottoms from EB column, and part of distillate from benzene

column combined and fed to trans-alkylation reactor to consume all
DEB formed

Two recycles

Benzene recycle (some of benzene column distillate, plus liquid from

flash drum)
8
Trans-alkylation reactor effluent (sent to benzene column)

Phase 1 Tasks
Develop steady-state simulation case of the
preliminary design
Redesign the plant to meet the process constraints
(e.g., alkylation reaction temperature between 170C
and 270C)
Current design has 2 ethylene injection points with 1
heat removal stage
The reactor temperature is 65C; higher T not possible
if we want to maintain liquid phase reactions
Is this the right reaction section design?
The modified flowsheet will be the base case for
optimization and heat integration

Phase 2 Tasks
Develop unit sizing, costing and economics
spreadsheet
Identify and evaluate effect of design variables
on plant economics
Identify dominant design variables
Understand dominant economic design tradeoffs
Demonstrate the dominant tradeoffs quantitatively

Finalize an optimum plant design

10

Phase 3 Tasks
Explore and incorporate heat integration to
improve plant energy efficiency
Current design has basically no heat integration
Propose a MER network for the plant
Systematic pinch analysis or rational coupling of
process streams

11

Report Deliverables
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Process description
Standard PFD (A3 size)
Material balance table
Dominant design variables trade-off analysis (with
plots, etc.)
Summary of operation criteria (e.g., kg feed per kg
product, steam consumption per kg product,
conversion, selectivity, etc.)
Sizing and costing of major equipment
Optimization results of local design variables (e.g.,
column reflux ratio)
Detailed design and HAZOP of 1 selected equipment
PFD with heat integration
12