CHAPTER 3

PROCESS SELECTION
 Chapter 3 Cumene

3.1 IMPORTANT UNIT OPERATIONS INVOLVED

3.1.1 Tanks:
There are two storage tanks. One for benzene and one for propylene. There are two tanks for
benzene: one feeding Stream 1 and one in a filling mode. Each tank is 450 m.
There are two storage tanks for propylene: one feeding Stream 2 and one in a filling mode. Each
tank is 450 m.

3.1.2 Reactor Section:

The reactor is a cooled tubular reactor that generates high-pressure steam from the exothermic
reactions. There are 342 tubes, 0.0763 m in diameter, and 6 m in length. They are filled with a
solid catalyst with a void fraction of 0.5 and a solid density of 2000 kg/m3. The temperature on
the steam side of the reactor is 360 °C.

3.1.3. Flash Tanks

Reactor effluent leaves at 427 °C, is cooled to 322 °C in the feed-effluent heat exchanger and
sent to a condenser in which it is cooled to 90 °C using cooling water. The two phase stream
from the heat exchanger is fed to a flash tank.

3.1.4 Distillation Columns

There are 2 distillation columns.

Benzene Recycle Column C1:

The column has 15 stages and is fed on stage 6, which is the optimum feed stage to minimize
reboiler heat input. The operating pressure is 1.75 bar, which gives a reflux-drum temperature of
60 °C, so cooling water can be used in the condenser. The distillate is mostly benzene and is
recycled back to the reactor.

Cumene Product Column C2:

The column has 20 stages and is fed on stage 12. The operating pressure is 1 bar psia, which
gives a reflux-drum temperature of 152 °C. the column diameter is 1.26 m. The design
specification is to attain high-purity cumene in the distillate and minimize the loss of cumene in

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 Chapter 3 Process Selection

the bottoms. The bottoms composition is set at 0.1 mol % cumene. The distillate composition is
99.9 mol % cumene

3.2 PROCESS DESCRIPTION

● The fresh feed streams of benzene and mixed C3 that is propylene and propane
enters the process. This liquid fresh feeds are combined with a liquid recycle stream
D1 and the distillate from the first column is fed into a vaporizer.
● The saturated gas leaves the vaporizer at 209 °C and 25 bar. It is then preheated in
two heat exchangers. The first recovers heat from the hot reactor effluent at 427 °C.
The second adds additional heat to bring the reactor inlet temperature up to 360 °C
● In the reactor high-pressure steam is generated from the exothermic reactions.
Reactor effluent leaves at 427 °C, is cooled to 322 °C in the feed-effluent heat
exchanger and sent to a condenser in which it is cooled to 90 °C using cooling
water.
● The two-phase stream from the heat exchanger is fed to a flash tank. The gas from
the tank is used as fuel this liquid is then fed into the first distillation column C1
● The distillation column has 15 stages and is fed on stage 8 which is the optimum
feed stage. Benzene is obtained as distillate in the top which is recycled back to the
reactor
● The stream obtained as bottoms is fed to another distillation column. C2. Second
column has 20 stages and feed is sent in the 12th stage. Cumene of higher purity is
obtained as distillate and p-diisopropylbenzene is obtained in the bottoms.

Figure 3.1 Flowsheet of cumene production

 Chapter 3 Cumene

3.3 NOVELTY

1. DIPB isomers are produced as low value by-product during the isopropylation of benzene to
cumene in trans alkylation process. The by-products, DIPB isomers, can be recycled for cumene
production, making this process more economical. But, with the liquid catalysts, there are
inherent problems of product separation, recycling and corrosiveness.

2. All tars mechanically retain a certain quantity of water (or rather gas-liquor), say, 4% on the
average, which is very obnoxious during the process of distillation, as it leads to "bumping,”.
Therefore, production of cumene from coal tar yields a low concentration of intermediate
cumene which requires high purification methods.

3. Due to the above reasons, Friedel–Crafts alkylation from benzene and propylene for the
production of cumene has been chosen. The Turton design has been chosen which consists of a
cooled tubular reactor and two distillation columns.

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Chapter 3 Process Selection
Chapter 3 Cumene
Chapter 3 Process Selection
Chapter 3 Cumene