Process Design and analysis of Cumene production plant

using Aspen Plus

A PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

KARTHIKA MAHADEVAN (312215203020)

SRINIVAS SIVARAMAN (312215203055)

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

SRI SIVASUBRAMANIYA NADAR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,

KALAVAKKAM

ANNA UNIVERSITY:: CHENNAI 600 025

APRIL 2019
 ANNA UNIVERSITY :: CHENNAI 600 025

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this project report titled, “Process Design and analysis of
Cumene production plant using Aspen Plus” is the bonafide work of
SRINIVAS SIVARAMAN (312215203055) and KARTHIKA MAHADEVAN
(312215203020) who carried out the research under my supervision.

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE
Dr. R Parthiban Dr. M. Subramanian
PROFESSOR & SUPERVISOR
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
DEPT OF CHEMICAL ENGG DEPT OF CHEMICAL ENGG
SSN COLLEGE OF ENGG, SSN COLLEGE OF ENGG,
KALAVAKKAM- 603 110 KALAVAKKAM- 603 110.

Submitted for the University Project Viva-voce held at Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar
College of Engineering on, _.

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our gratitude to our principal Dr. S. Salivahanan and the
management of Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering for their
constant encouragement and support in all of our academic pursuits.
We thank the head of the department of chemical engineering, Dr. R. Parthiban,
for his support and encouragement.
We are grateful to our project supervisor Dr. M. Subramanian, associate
professor of the department of chemical engineering, for his guidance throughout
the project and for giving us excellent suggestions and the freedom to explore
different aspects of the project idea.
We would also like to thank our project coordinators Dr. V. Jaikumar and Dr.K.
Satish kumar for providing us the valuable suggestions during the course of our
project.
We are really fortunate that we had the kind association of Dr.R.Anantharaj and
Mr. Kilaru Harsha Vardhan, we are thankful for the help they provided in
learning the concepts involved in Aspen Plus. We would also like to thank Dr.
K.S. Vijay Sekar, associate professor of the department of mechanical engineering
for helping us in the designing part required in our project.
We owe our sincere gratitude to “Padma Bhushan” Dr. Shiv Nadar, Chairman,
SSN Institutions, for being an epitome of encouragement and inspiration for all
students alike. We would also take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Kala
Vijaykumar, President, SSN Institutions for her encouragement to pursue projects
for conceptual learning.

Last, but not the least, we would like to thank our parents and friends who have
supported us throughout the project, we could not have done this without you!!
_
 ABSTRACT
Cumene is a component of higher octane motor fuels and also used in the
manufacture of rubber, iron and steel. Hence, it is evident that Cumene is of high
importance in the industrial stor. The project involves the design and optimization
of production process of cumene from benzene and propylene. The process also
involves an undesirable reaction between cumene and propylene to form p-
diisopropylbenzene (DIPB). With the advent of computers and simulating software
like ASPEN PLUS it is possible to design and optimize a particular process. In this
project, the production capacity of the designed process plant for cumene
manufacture is around 90 thousand tons per year. Proper design can significantly
reduce production cost as well as make the process safe and reduce environmental
hazards. As we know, High temperature favors higher activation energy, in this
process the undesirable reaction has higher activation energy than the first one, and
hence low reactor temperature is favored to improve the selectivity of the reaction
towards cumene. Process needs to be optimized effectively in order to arrive at the
most feasible design both economically and environmentally. Each unit is taken
into consideration and the variables are optimized. The units are sequentially
optimized in the order in which they appear in the flow sheet. We were able to
conclude that our design is profitable based on the economical calculations done,
the Net profit margin was found to be 24.42% and the payback period was
determined to be around 3 years. In this project we have focused only on steady
state simulation.

Keywords: Cumene Manufacture, Benzene, Alkylation Reaction, SPA

Catalyst, Steady State Simulation, Optimization, Equipment Design,
Economic Analysis

i
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter No TITLE Pg. No
i ABSTRACT i
ii LIST OF TABLES iv
iii LIST OF FIGURES v
iv LIST OF SYMBOLS vii
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Process Considered 2
1.2. Relevance 3
1.3. Objective Of Project 4
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1. Properties Of Cumene 5
2.2. Process Design Basics 5
2.3. Various Methods Of Cumene 7
Manufacture
2.4. Reaction Mechanism And Kinetics 9
2.5. Outline Of Operations Involved 10
2.6. Process Description 11
3. DESIGN OF EQUIPMENTS 13
3.1. Reactor Design 14
3.2. Distillation Column Design 21
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 37
4.1. Procedure 37
4.2. VLE Characteristics 39
4.3. Reactor Optimization 42
4.4. Flash Tank Optimization 46
4.5. Benzene Column Design 49

ii
 4.5.1. Design Procedure 49
4.5.2. Reflux Ratio Optimization 49
4.5.3. Feed Tray Location
Optimization 50
4.5.4. Number Of Trays Optimization 52
4.6. Cumene Column Design 55
4.6.1. Design Procedure 55
4.6.2. Reflux Ratio Optimization 55
4.6.3. Feed Tray Location
Optimization 56
4.6.4. Number Of Trays Optimization 58
4.7. Economic Analysis 61
4.7.1.Direct And Indirect Cost 62
4.7.2. Utility Cost 64
4.7.3. Other Costs 65
4.7.4. Economic Evaluation Of The
Process 67
5. CONCLUSION 72
6. REFERENCES 75

iii
 LIST OF TABLES
TABLE NO. TABLE CAPTION Pg. No
2.4.1 Kinetic Data For Power Law Reactions. 10

4.2.1 Boiling Point Data Of Three Major Components Of 41

The Process
4.3.1 Influence Of Reactor Volume On Cumene In 44
Product And Byproduct
4.4.1 Influence Of Flash Tank Temperature On Product 47
Purity
4.5.4.1 Influence Of Number Of Trays On Reboiler Duty 53
And Product Purity
4.5.4.2 Optimized Values Of Benzene Distillation Column 55
4.6.4.1 Influence Of Number Of Trays Of Cumene Column 59
On Product Purity And Reboiler Duty
4.6.4.2 Optimized Values Of Cumene Distillation Column 61
4.7.1 Cost Data For Major Equipments Involved From 62
Aspen Plus
4.7.1.1 Detailed Look-Up Into Direct And Indirect Costs For 64
The Design
4.7.2.1 Utility Cost Estimation Based On Ulrich And 65
Vasudevan’s Literature Work
4.7.3.1 Number Of Other Processing Steps In the Process 67
Design
4.7.4.1 Economic evaluation of the design process in detail 69

iv
 LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE NO. FIGURE CAPTION PG.NO.

1.1 Fixed and variable cost graph. 2

2.2.1 Hierarchical description of a process design by 6
onion diagram
2.2.2 Cost reduction during project implementation 7
2.5.1 Operations involved in the Cumene production plant 10
3.2.1 MCabe Thiele plot for distillation column 24
3.2.2 Diagram for distillation column 36
4.1.1 Flow sheet of Cumene production design 38
4.1.2 Stream results of the Cumene production design 39
4.1.3 Mass and energy balance for the designed process 40
4.2.1 T-xy diagram for Benzene-Cumene system 42
4.2.2 T-xy diagram for Cumene-DIPB system 42
4.3.1 Cumene in product vs Reactor volume 45
4.3.2 Cumene in byproduct vs Reactor volume 45
4.4.1 % Cumene in product vs Flashing temperature 48
4.4.2 % Cumene in byproduct vs Flashing temperature 48
4.5.2.1 Influence of reflux ratio on product purity 51
4.5.3.1 Influence of feed tray location on product purity 52
4.5.3.2 Influence of feed tray location on Reboiler duty 52
4.5.4.1 Influence of number of trays in Benzene column on 54
product purity
4.5.4.2 Influence of number of trays on Reboiler duty 54
4.6.2.1 Influence of Reflux ratio on product purity 57
4.6.3.1 Influence of feed tray location on Reboiler duty 58
4.6.3.2 Influence of feed tray location on product purity 58

v
4.6.4.1 Influence of number of trays on Reboiler duty 60
4.6.4.2 Influence of number of trays on product purity 60

vi
 LIST OF SYMBOLS
REACTOR DESIGN
Ε Bed voidage
ρc Catalyst density
R Universal Gas constant
FBo Initial flow rate of reactant
ρf Fluid density
Mf Molar mass of fluid
k1,k2 Reaction rate constants for main and side
reactions
E1,E2 Activation energy for main and side
reactions
Tavg Average temperature maintained in the
reactor
Pavg Average pressure maintained in the reactor
XA Required conversion for our process
F Molar flow rate of fluid
F’ Mass flow rate of fluid
vo Volumetric flow rate of fluid
CAo Initial concentration of the reactant
Τ Residence time
Ex Extent of reaction
Vc Volume of catalyst
Wc Weight of catalyst
Vr Reactor volume
CPmix Heat capacity of mixture
Q Heat duty in reactor

vii
Nt Number of tubes in the tubular reactor
dr Diameter of reactor
Lr Length of reactor
Ar Area of reactor
Uf Superficial fluid velocity
µf Fluid viscosity
Dp Catalyst pellet diameter
ΔP Pressure drop in the reactor
tr Thickness of the reactor vessel
DISTILLATION COLUMN DESIGN
MA Molecular weight of Benzene
MB Molecular weight of Cumene
F Molar flow rate of feed
F’ Mass flow rate of feed
XF, XD, XW Mass fractions of respective components
xF, xD, xW Mole fractions of respective components
Q Feed condition
CPL Heat capacity of mixture
N theoretical number of trays in the column
Nact Actual number of trays in the column
Rmin Minimum reflux ratio
R Actual reflux ratio
Eo Overall tray efficiency
Vnf Flooding velocity
Vn Actual linear velocity

viii
Qmax Maximum vapor flow rate
An Net area
Ac Cross stional area
Ad Down comer area
Dc Column diameter
Aa Active area
Ah Hole area
Lw Weir length
(* weir is used to maintain a desired level
of liquid on the tray)
hw Height of weir
dh Hole diameter
tp Plate thickness
Umin Vapor velocity at weeping
how Depth of crest of liquid over the weir
Lmax and Lmin Maximum and minimum liquid flow rate
Uh Maximum vapor velocity through holes
Ap Perforated area
hb Down comer liquid backup
Aap Clearance area
tr Residence time
FLV Liquid flow factor
Ψ Fractional entrainment
Nh Number of holes
Hc Height of column

ix
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Finding the configurations and operational conditions in which a chemical is

produced in a reliable, safe, and economical manner with low energy consumption,
and negligible waste and byproducts is the goal of design engineers in the synthesis
and construction of chemical plants. In this report the process considered for
studying is the production of isopropyl benzene, popularly known as cumene from
benzene in a cumene production plant. This process is a classic example to study
trade-off in engineering design and simulation as it has a lot of scope for
optimization in the reaction section of the plant and the cost in the separation
section.
Cumene is produced by the reaction of propylene and benzene and it also involves
an undesirable reaction between Cumene and propylene to produce p-
diisopropylbenzene(p- DIPB). The raw materials fed to the plant are benzene and
propylene with a small amount of propane as impurity in propylene. The process
description of Turton et al. (2003) has been utilized which provides relevant and
valuable data required for the simulation of the process.

The idea behind process industries is to arrive at yield with the highest purity
possible at a comparatively lower cost of production. Hence parameters of the
industry have to be varied accordingly in order to produce the best results.
However, all the variations in the design either increase the fixed capital cost or the
variable costs as we have studied in process economics . This variation is clearly
depicted in the following graphical image.

1
 Figure 1.1: fixed and variable cost graph
X axis: parameter of interest to be optimized

Y axis: cost values

1.1. PROCESS CONSIDERED

The system considered for study, simulation and optimization is a cumene
production plant. The process described by Richard Turton is taken as base for
simulating the system. The process description of Turton Et al (2003) provides
relevant and valuable data required for the simulation of the process.

Raw materials fed to the plant are benzene and propylene (may contain propane as
an impurity) in which benzene is in excess. Various unit operations and processes
are required to be taken care of, which are described in detail below. The major
units in the process plant are the reactor section and the separator section.

2
1.2. RELEVANCE

Isopropyl benzene popularly known as cumene is the principal chemical used in

the production of phenol and its co-product acetone on an industrial scale. It is also
the starting material in the production of acetophenone, methyl styrene, diisopropyl
benzene and dicumyl peroxide. Minor uses of cumene include as a thinner for
paints, enamels, and lacquers; as a constituent of some petroleum-based solvents,
such as naphtha; in gasoline blending diesel fuel, and high-octane aviation fuel. It
is also a good solvent for fats and resins and has been suggested as a replacement
for benzene in many of its industrial applications. Around 98% of cumene is used
to produce phenol and its co-product acetone. However, the requirement of cumene
is largely dependent on the use of phenol’s derivatives which have resulted in
increasing requirement rates for cumene. The largest phenol derivative is
bisphenol-A (BPA) which supplies the polycarbonate (PC) stor. PC resins are
consumed in automotive applications in place of traditional materials such as glass
and metals. Glazing and sheet uses, such as architectural, surity and glazing
outlets, are also important PC applications. The third largest use for PC is optical
media such as compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs). Another
phenol derivative is caprolactam which is used mainly to make nylon 6. It is
mainly the resin stor of the nylon market that is seeing growth.

Cumene is produced by the alkylation of benzene with propylene over an acid

catalyst like aluminium chloride, boron trifluoride, phosphoric acid, hydrogen
fluoride, supported phosphoric acid (SPA) etc. The usage of the above catalysts
poses a lot of problems like product quality, lower catalyst activity, environmental
hazard, catalyst non-regenerabilityetc and has been replaced by zeolites in most of
the processes. In the present work the cumene production plant is simulated using

3
ASPEN PLUS ® and the sizes, the temperature and other relevant parameters are
obtained by optimization. MS Excel was used to plot graphs in the following
simulation from which an optimum value is estimated. The optimized values
obtained can provide a lot of insight before actual plant commissioning is done.

1.3. OBJECTIVE OF PROJECT

Considering the amount of designing possible in this process, work was undertaken
to develop the economically optimum design taking into account the production
rate, reactor design and distillation design. The objectives of the current project are
as following:

 To use the cumene process to illustrate the process design optimization

features using the optimization variables reactor size and benzene recycle
ratio.
 To develop an optimum design to achieve a low capital cost, low operating
cost and an appreciable conversion rate of reactant to products.

4
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Properties Of Cumene

 Description: Colorless liquid with a sharp, penetrating aromatic or gas-
like odour
 Boiling Point: 152.4°C
 Melting Point: -96.0°C
 Density: 0.8618 g/cm3 at 20°C
 Refractive Index: 1.4915 at 20°C; 1.489 at 25°C
 Solubility: Insoluble in water; miscible in acetone, benzene, and ethanol
 Flash Point: 39°C, closed cup
 Reactivity: Combustible, not compatible with oxidizers, nitric acid and
sulphuric acid.

2.2. Process Design Basics

In a chemical process design, the transformation of raw material into desired
products usually cannot be achieved in a single step. Instead, the overall
transformation is broken down into a series of steps that provide progressive
transformations in each step. These are carried out through reaction, separation,
mixing, heating, cooling, pressure modification, particle size reduction/
enlargement etc. The hierarchical description of a process design in general is as
shown in the following figure.

5
Figure 2.2.1: Hierarchical description of a process design by the onion diagram [Linnhoff,
1994]

Once the flow sheet structure has been defined, a simulation of the process can be
carried out. A simulation is a mathematical model which would predict how the
process would behave if it was constructed. A process simulation diagram is drawn
from the process flow diagram. The chemical components are specified. The
chemical component properties are generally available in a standard data base. The
input streams are specified. Thermodynamic modeling is done. Series of
simulations are run for convergence of a particular variable. Sensitivity analysis
which consists of varying the sampled variables as a function of the manipulated
variables is normally done. The major parts of a cumene production plant are
reactor system, separation system and they are optimized.

Process design is a very important aspect before any project implementation as a

proper design during the initial stages can save costs to a great extent. The cost
involved in designing a project is very less compared to the construction cost and it
can be greatly helpful in maximizing profits of the plant as well as providing a safe
environment. The plot shown in the following figure gives a brief idea of how a
proper plant design can cut costs to a great extent.

6
Figure 2.2.2: cost reduction during project implementation

2.3. Various Methods of Cumene Manufacture

Currently almost all cumene is produced commercially by two processes. The first
type is a fixed bed, Kieselguhr supported solid phosphoric acid catalyst system
developed by UOP (Universal Oil Products Platforming Process). The sond type is
a homogeneous AlCl3 and hydrogen chloride catalyst system developed by
Monsanto.

 Monsanto – Lummus Crest Cumene Process:

Dry benzene, fresh and recycle and propylene are mixed in the alkylation reaction
zone with AlCl3 and hydrogen chloride catalyst at a temperature of less than
135°C and a pressure of less than 0.4 Mpa. The effluent from the alkylation zone is
combined with recycle polyisopropyl benzene and fed to the transalkylation zone,
where polyisopropyl benzenes are transalkylated to cumene. The strongly acidic
catalyst is separated from the organic phase by washing the reactor effluent with
water and caustic.

7
  UOP QMAX

Propylene feed fresh benzene feed and recycle benzene are charged to the upflow
reactor, which operates at 3-4 Mpa and at 200-260°C. The solid phosphoric acid
(SPA) catalyst provides an essentially complete conversion of propylene on a one-
pass basis

Although SPA is a highly efficient and economical catalyst for cumene synthesis,
it has two important limitations:

Cumene yield is limited to about 95 percent, because of the oligomerization of

propylene and the formation of heavy alkylate by-products

The catalyst is not regenerable and must be disposed of at the end of each catalyst
cycle.

The Q-Max processconverts a mixture of benzene and propylene to high quality

cumene using a regenerable zeolite catalyst. During World War II, this process was
adapted to produce cumene from benzene and propylene to make a high-octane
blending component for military aviation gasoline.

It is the most preferable method as it contains advantages such as:

 Exceptionally high yield

 Better product quality
 Less solid waste
 Decrease in investment and operating costs
 Corrosion free environment

8
2.4. Reaction Mechanism and Kinetics

Reaction 1

Reaction 2

Production of cumene involves the reaction of benzene and propylene in a high

pressure gas phase reactor. This is represented by the reaction 1 which is the
desirable reaction, the process also involves an undesirable reaction (reaction 2)
between the formed cumene and the available propylene to form p-
diisopropylbenzene (PDIB). The activation energy for reaction 2 is greater than
that of reaction 1; hence low reactor temperature is favored to improve the
selectivity of reaction towards cumene. The reaction occurs in vapor phase in the
presence of a solid catalyst of particle density 2000 kg/m3 and void fraction of 0.5.

9
 Kinetic data for the reactions are given as follows:

Table 2.4.1: kinetic data for the power law reactions [Turton et. al, 2003]

2.5. Outline Of Operations Involved

Figure 2.5.1: operations involved in the Cumene production process

10
2.6. Process Description

 Raw materials used for the process are propylene and benzene. In this
process, propane is also present in the feed as the inert substance which is
used as the heating medium only.
 Benzene (mixed with the recycled benzene) and fresh C3 mixture
(propylene and propane) are pumped through a vaporizer, vaporized at
pressure of 31.5 bar and temperature=209°C, mixed and finally sent into
the feed vessel.
 This reaction mixture is passed through a fired heater where reaction
temperature of 350°C is obtained.
 The vapor mixture is sent to the reactor tube side which is packed with
the solid phosphoric acid catalyst supported on the kieselguhr
 The solid phosphoric acid catalyst (SPA) packed in the reactor is of
density 2000 kg/m3 and the bed voidage is 0.5.
 The effluent from the reactor i.e., cumene, p-DIPB, unreacted benzene,
propylene and propane with temperature of 350°C is used as the heating
media in the vaporizer which used for the benzene vaporizing and cooled
to 90°C in a water cooler, propylene and propane are separated from the
liquid mixture of cumene, p-DIPB, benzene in a flash tank operating at a
lower pressure of around 3-5 bar and temperature of 40 .C. The pressure
is controlled by the vapor control value of the separator; the fuel gas is
used as fuel for the furnace also.
 The liquid mixture is sent to the benzene distillation column which
operates at 1.75 bar pressure, benzene is obtained as the distillate and
used as recycle and the bottom liquid mixture is pumped at bubble point

11
 to the cumene distillation column where distillate cumene and bottom
pure p-DIPB is obtained.
 The heat of bottom product p-DIPB is used for preheating the benzene
column feed, All the utility as cooling water, electricity, steam from the
boiler, pneumatic air are supplied from the utility stion.

12
 CHAPTER 3

DESIGN OF EQUIPMENTS
Equipment is the basic requirement behind a chemical process industry. Process
industries generally include a large set of equipment for the production of a
particular product or even for the purification process. The importance of
equipment design and sizing are significant, Installation of industrial equipment in
process industries depends on the size and overall equipment design. If the
equipment is too large, it will lead to a large footprint while smaller equipment will
lead to early failure as it must produce more work. The productivity, efficiency and
safety of process plants hinge on proper equipment functionality. The optimal
placement of the equipment is important to maintain efficiency.For example, in a
food processing plant, placing the final packaging zone near the processing station
is dangerous, because the chance of airborne contaminants or microorganisms
entering the final products and contaminating the packaging is high. Therefore,
ensuring an optimal layout is critical in all processing facilities along with proper
equipment design that ensures maintenance is easy and reduces safety issues.

The cumene production process has four major stions as described in the following
stions. Out of these major stions, the reactor and the separator stion is the heart of
this particular chemical production process. Hence, in this stion, we have focused
on the manual designing and sizing of the reactor and the first distillation column
(benzene column) to understand the details of the equipment briefly.

13
3.1. REACTOR DESIGN
The reactor is the heart of a chemical process. It is the only place in the process
where raw materials are converted into products, and reactor design is a vital step
in the overall design of the process. In our design, the particular reactor used is a
tubular packed bed catalytic reactor. Industrial packed-bed catalytic reactors range
in size from small tubes, a few centimeters diameter, to large diameter packed
beds. Packed-bed reactors are used for gas and gas-liquid reactions. Heat-transfer
rates in large diameter packed beds are poor and where high heat-transfer rates are
required fluidized beds should be considered.Although catalytic reactors are often
implemented as plug flow reactors, their analysis requires more complicated
treatment. The rate of a catalytic reaction is proportional to the amount of catalyst
the reagents contact. In case of solid phase catalyst and fluid phase reagents, the
rate of reaction is proportional to the exposed area, efficiency of diffusion of
reagents in and products out, and turbulent mixing or lack thereof .

The design of a chemical reactor deals with multiple aspects of chemical

engineering. Chemical reactions, chemical energetics and equations/laws of
thermodynamics play an important role in the selection and design of chemical
reactors.Most commonly, reactors are run at a steady-state, but can also be
operated in a transient state. Transient state is a state in which the key process
variables like residence time, volume, temperature, pressure or concentration of
chemical species, etc., change with time. Such a situation generally arises when
either the reactor is purchased new or is brought back in operation after
maintenance or in operation. Chemical reactors may be designed keeping in view
the various process variables. The key process variables of a catalytic reactor
includes residence time, weight of catalyst, volume of catalyst, volume of reactor,

14
temperature, pressure and thickness of the reactor vessel. This stion involves the
calculations for determining each of the key process variables.

The following calculations are carried out step wise in an orderly manner to arrive
at the final results for the sizing of the reactor in this project. Steps of designing are
numbered alphabetically in this stion for easy understanding. The basic data for
designing was obtained from the flow sheet designed in Aspen Plus as shown in
stion 4.

a. Volumetric flow rate

𝐹 = 255.4368 kmol/hr (1)

Tavg=623 K; Pavg = 3150 kPa

𝐹𝑅𝑇𝑎𝑣𝑔
𝑣𝑜 = = 420.09 m3 ⁄min (2)
𝑃𝑎𝑣𝑔

b. Initial concentration of reactant

FBo= 120.3547 kmol/hr (3)

𝐹𝐵𝑜
𝐶𝐴𝑜 = = 0.0048 kmol/m3 (4)
𝑣𝑜

c. Residence time calculation

The residence time calculation is very important for designing of a reactor. The
formula for residence time in a tubular reactor is as shown in the following
equation. The required conversion for this process is considered to be 95 % (X A =
0.95)
𝜏=𝐶 0.95 𝑑𝑋𝐴 (5)
𝐴𝑜 ∫0 (−𝑟𝐴)

15
The extent of reaction has to be found for calculating this integral, from the
reaction mechanism shown in the literature review we are able to determine that
extent of reaction was found to be equal to -0.5 (Ex= -0.5).

𝐴 𝑘1𝐶 𝑅𝑇
−𝑟𝐴 = 1+𝑘2𝐶 (6)
𝐴𝑅𝑇

𝐶𝐴𝑜(1−𝑋𝐴)
𝐶𝐴 = (1+𝜀 𝑋𝐴)
(7)

Substituting equation 6 and 7 in equation 5 and following the appropriate

integration principles, we can calculate the value of residence time

𝜏 = 0.381 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 = 22.86 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠 (8)

d. Weight of catalyst
𝑊𝑐𝐶𝐴𝑜
𝜏= ∴ 𝑊𝑐 = 9553.575 kg (9)
𝐹 𝐵𝑜

e. Volume of catalyst
𝑊𝑐
𝑉𝑐 = = 4.777 m3 (10)
𝜌𝑐

f. Volume of reactor
𝑉𝑟−𝑉𝑐
𝜀 = 0.5 = ∴ 𝑉𝑟 = 9.55 m3 (11)
𝑉𝑟

g. Heat duty in the reactor

𝐶𝑃𝑚𝑖𝑥 = 210.575 kJ⁄kmol ℃ = 2269.934 J⁄KgK (12)

F’ = 23696.63 kg/hr (13)

𝑄 = 𝐹′𝐶𝑃𝑚𝑖𝑥∆𝑇 (14)

Here, the temperature difference is taken between the exit of the reactor and the
entrance and thus was found to be equal to 141 K.

16
Hence; equation 14 is derived as follows;

𝑄 = 23696.63 𝑋 2269.934 𝑋 141 = 2106762.91 W ≈ 2106.76 KW (15)

h. Number of tubes in the reactor

For determining the number of tubes in the tubular reactor, we need to first assume
the dimensions of a single tube. The length and diameter of the tube was assumed
with values similar to the usage in industrial applications.

Let; diameter of tube (dt) = 3 inches=0.0762 m

Length of tube (Lt) =6 m

Using the assumed data we can determine the volume of a single tube (V t) as
follows;
2
𝑉𝑡 = 𝜋 (𝑑𝑡4) 𝐿 𝑡 ≈ 0.027 m3 (16)

Number of tubes in the tubular reactor can be determined using equations 11 and
16 as follows,

𝑁𝑡 𝑉𝑡 = 𝑉𝑟 ∴ 𝑁𝑡 = 353.7 ≈ 354 tubes (17)

i. Density of the mixture

Now, molar mass of the mixture (M f) was found out to be equal to 92.767 kg/kmol.
Using this data and the temperature and pressure data, we can determine the
density of the mixture in the reactor as follows;
𝑃𝑎𝑣𝑔𝑀𝑓 3150 𝑋 92.767
𝜌 = = = 56.4 kg/m3 (18)
𝑚𝑖𝑥 𝑅𝑇𝑎𝑣𝑔 8.314 𝑋 623

17
 j. Length, diameter and area of the reactor

Using the reactor volume (equation 11) we can determine the length and diameter
of reactor with which we can determine the area required for the reactor to be set
up. The following calculation is carried out to arrive at the required results.

Firstly, assume the length to diameter ratio of the reactor used. Industrially, we can
assume the L/D ratio in the range of 3 to 5. In our design, we have assumed L/D as
3.
𝜋 2
𝑉𝑟 = (4 ) 𝑑𝑟 𝐿𝑟 (19)

Now, using the values of Vr from equation 11 and the assumed L/D ratio, we can
determine the dr as follows;

9.55∗4 0.33
𝑑𝑟 = [ ] = 1.595 m (20)
3.14∗3

∴ 𝐿𝑟 = 3 ∗ 𝑑𝑟 = 4.785 m (21)
𝜋
𝐴𝑟 =
4
𝑑𝑟 2 = 1.997 m2 (22)

k. Superficial fluid velocity

In order to find the pressure drop in the reactor we need to find out the superficial
velocity. The following calculations are briefly described.

F’= 23696.63 kg/ hr = 6.582 kg/s (23)

Using equations 18, 22 and 23,we can determine the superficial velocity as
follows

6.582
𝑈𝑓 = 56.4 𝑋 1.997 = 0.058 m/s (24)

18
 l. Pressure drop in the reactor

The pressure drop in the reactor can be found out using the Ergun’s equation by
employing the already derived values. The Ergun equation is given as
∆𝑃 150µ𝑈𝑓(1−𝜀)2 1.75𝜌𝑈𝑓2(1−𝜀)
= 2 + (25)
𝐿𝑟 (𝛷𝑠𝑑𝑝 ) 𝜀3 𝛷𝑠𝑑𝑝 𝜀3

Here, in this equation dp is given as the particle diameter of the catalyst pellet,
which can be found out from the volume of catalyst. Using equation 10, we can
find out the particle diameter as follows
4
𝜋𝑟 3 = 4.777 ∴ 𝑑 =2
𝑟 = 2.09 𝑚 (26)
3 𝑝 𝑝 𝑝

In this equation 25, the spherecity factor (𝛷𝑠) is equal to 1 as the catalyst pellet is
assumed to be a perfect sphere. Using equations 18, 21, 24 and the viscosity of
mixture (µ), we can determine the pressure drop in the reactor [Coulson and
Richardson, 2005]
150µ𝑈𝑓(1−𝜀)2 1.75𝜌𝑈𝑓2(1−𝜀)
∆𝑃 = 4.785 𝑋 [ 2 + ] = 4.785 𝑋 0.6355 = 3.041 kPa (27)
(𝛷𝑠𝑑𝑝 ) 𝜀3 𝛷𝑠𝑑𝑝 𝜀3

m. Thickness of the reactor vessel

The last step of designing the reactor is to find out the total thickness of the vessel
using the following calculations.

The design pressure is:

𝑃 = 3150 KPa = 31.5 bar = 3.15 N/mm2 (28)

With an assumption of 15% above the operating pressure; we can write the total
design pressure as follows

𝑃 = 3.15 + (1.15 𝑋 3.15) = 6.7725 N/mm2 (29)

19
The material of construction for the reactor vessel in this project is carbon steel;
for carbon steel the allowable stress is around 70 N/mm2

While designing a reactor, we should also account for corrosion allowances.

Hence; assuming an average of 30 % of corrosion allowance for 10 years of
operation, we can write the total thickness of the reactor vessel as follows,

𝑃𝑑𝑟 6.7725 𝑋 1595

𝑡𝑟 = + (0.3 𝑋 10) = + (0.3 𝑋 10) = 81 𝑚𝑚 + 3 =
(2 𝑋 70)−𝑃 (2 𝑋 70)−6.7725

84 mm (30)

20
3.2. DISTILLATION COLUMN DESIGN AND SIZING
Distillation is by far the most important separation process in the petroleum and
chemical industries. It is the separation of key components in a mixture by the
difference in their relative volatility, or boiling points. It is also known as fractional
distillation or fractionation.

There are alternatives to distillation process such as solvent extraction, membrane

separation or adsorption process. On the other hand, these processes often have
higher investment costs. Therefore, distillation remains the main choice in the
industry, especially in large-scale applications.

In the designing process of a distillation column, the thermodynamics of the vapor

and liquid phases must be understood. The vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE)
determines the minimum number of stages required to achieve the degree of
separation needed. The minimum reflux ratio also depends on the VLE data of the
mixture. This stion of the project thesis covers the basic elements in designing a
typical distillation column system, which includes column internals selection and
sizing.

A few equations that are commonly used in the industry are illustrated in this
guideline to estimate the minimum number of stages and the minimum reflux ratio
of a column based on the VLE data, such as the Fenske-Underwood equation.
Some design heuristics are also highlighted. These rules are based on design
experiences and in this process, both the safety and economic factors are taken into
account. The selection of column internals is very critical in distillation column
design. There is a wide variety of trays and packing in the market. Each design has
its strengths and weaknesses.

21
The first step in designing a distillation column involves the selection of type of
column for the operation. The choice between the usage of tray towers and packed
towers for the particular operation should be based on detailed cost analysis.
However, we can decide between the two on a qualitative basis. As the system in
this project is non-foaming and the calculated column diameter is sufficiently
large, tray tower can be used for the purpose. And in this case, sieve plates are
preferred over valve plates and bubble cap plates as pressure drop is lowest in
sieve plates and they are relatively very cheap and easily available.

Factors affecting distillation column operation

The following parameters adversely affect the operation of a distillation column:

 Blowing
 Coning
 Dumping
 Weeping
 Flooding

The distillation column designing includes various steps which are briefly derived
in the following step wise procedure. The critical data required for calculation are
obtained from the flow sheet designed in the following section. The step wise
calculations for the distillation column are calculated as follows.

1) Mole fraction and feed condition determination

Values required for calculation of mole fraction (xF, xD and xW) and feed condition
(q) are mentioned below:

22
MA = 78.11 g/mol (Benzene)

MB = 120.19 g/mol (Cumene)

F = 214.741 kmol/hr

F’= 21203.4 kg/hr

Feed temperature (Tf) = 120 degree Celsius

The mole fraction of the more volatile component in the feed, distillate and the
residue are found out using their respective mass fractions in the prior stream.

Using those values and the formulae described below, the mole fractions were
found out as follows
𝒙𝑭𝑭′
𝒙𝑭 = = 0.481 (1)
𝑴𝑨𝑭
𝑿𝑫
𝒙 = = 0.816 (2)
𝑫
𝑿𝑫 +(𝟏−𝑿 𝑫) 𝑨
𝑴
𝑴𝑩

𝒙
𝑿𝑾 = = 0.0203 (3)
𝑾
𝑿𝑾+(𝟏−𝑿 𝑾 )
𝑴𝑨
𝑴𝑩

We have noted that our feed temperature is 120 C, with this data and our T-xy
diagram we can see that our feed is partially vapor, i.e. 0 < 𝑞 < 1, with a value
same as our feed stream , hence q=0.481.

With these data and the VLE cahracterestics, we can draw the Mcabe Thiele
diagram from which we can determine properties of distillation like minimum
reflux ratio (Rmin), actual reflux ratio (R) and theoretical number of stages. The
Mcabe Thiele plot for our column is as shown in the following figure.

23
 X axis: Liquid mole
fraction of
component

Y axis: Vapor mole

fraction of
component

Figure 3.2.1: MCabe Thiele plot for distillation design

2) DETERMINATION OF Rmin, R, THEORETICAL AND ACTUAL NUMBER OF TRAYS

From the above figure, we can determine several important properties of

distillation column like minimum reflux ratio, actual reflux ratio, theoretical
number of stages and actual number of stages which are all very important for
further calculations in the designing of distillation column.
𝑥𝐷
= 0.62; ∴ 𝑅𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 0.316 (4)
𝑅𝑚𝑖𝑛+1

Now; from theory of continuous distillation we know that actual reflux ratio is
always in the ragne of 1.2 to 1.5 times that of minimum reflux ratio. Hence, in this
design with an assumption of 1.5 times minimum reflux ratio we can write the
following

24
𝑅 = 1.5𝑅𝑚𝑖𝑛; ∴ 𝑅 = 0.474 (5)

The Mcabe Thiele diagram clearly depicts the number of theoretical trays (N) as 6.

To find out the actual number of trays, we need to first assume the overall tray
efficiency (Eo)

Let us assume Eoas 60% with respect to industrial purposes in mind.

Now;
𝑁
E𝑜 = 𝑁 = 0.6; ∴ 𝑁𝑎𝑐𝑡 = 10 trays (6)
𝑎𝑐𝑡

3) Location of feed plate

After determination of number of actual stages in the column, our next aim is to
find out the location of feed plate. In this stion, heavy key component (HK) is
benzene while the light key component (LK) is cumene. There is a correlation
derived by Kirke-Bride, whose formula is as follows;

𝑵𝑫 𝑾 𝒙𝑯𝑲𝒇 𝟐
𝐥𝐨𝐠 = 𝟎. 𝟐𝟎𝟔 {𝐥𝐨𝐠 [( ) ( ) ( 𝒙𝑳𝑲𝒘 ) ]} (7)
𝑵𝑾 𝑫 𝒙𝑳𝑲𝒇 𝒙𝑯𝑲𝑫

𝑭=𝑫 +𝑾 (8)

𝑭𝒙𝑭 = 𝑫𝒙𝑫 + 𝑾𝒙𝑾 (9)

Solving the above two equations, we get; D=124.332 kmol/hr and W= 90.409
kmol/hr.

Using the above equations and solving the equation 7, we get,

Nw = 8 stages (Number of plates below feed tray)

ND = 2 stages (Number of plates above feed tray)

25
 4) Flooding velocity and actual velocity

In order to determine the column diameter, we need to calculate a specific relation

called capacity parameter. This relation determines the column diameter based on
any one stion of the column with respect to our conditions. Here, we are finding
out the diameter based on the top stion conditions. The capacity parameter
relationship is given as follows;

𝝈 𝟎.𝟐 𝝆𝒍−𝝆𝒗 𝟎.𝟓

𝑽𝒏𝒇 = 𝑪𝒔𝒃 ( ) ( ) (10)
𝟐𝟎 𝝆𝒗

Assuming tray spacing between each tray to be equal to 18 inches (or 0.5 m) ; the
sieve tray flooding capacity was found to Csb= 0.076 m/s

Now; the values of requirement, ρl = ρmixture = 777.487 kg/m3

The top pressure in the column (P) = 1.75 bar= 175000 pa

Temperature (T) = 120 .C = 393 K

Gas constant ( R ) = 8.314 J/ kmol

𝑷∗𝑴𝑨
𝝆𝒗 = = 𝟒. 𝟒𝟔𝟏 kg/m3 (11)
𝑹∗𝑻

After finding out the vapor density, we need to find out the surface tension of the
dominant component in the top stion which is benzene.

From Dortmund Data Bank , the surface tension data was obtained as
σBenzene = 0.016198 N/m

𝟎.𝟎𝟏𝟔𝟏𝟗𝟖 𝟎.𝟐 𝟕𝟕𝟕.𝟒𝟖𝟕−𝟒.𝟒𝟔𝟏 𝟎.𝟓

𝑽 ) (
𝒏𝒇 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟕𝟔 ( 𝟐𝟎 𝟒.𝟒𝟔𝟏
) = 0.241 m/sec (12)

Now; assuming 80 % flooding in the column, the actual linear velocity can be
determined as follows;

26
𝑽𝒏 = 𝟎. 𝟖𝑽𝒏𝒇 ≈ 0.1928 m/sec (13)

5) Maximum volumetric flow rate of vapor

The maximum flow rate of vapor can be determined by the following calculations,
this value is useful in calculation of net area required for the column.
𝑽𝑀
𝑸𝒎𝒂𝒙 = (14)
𝝆𝒗

𝑽 = 𝑫(𝑹 + 𝟏) = 𝟏𝟖𝟑. 𝟐𝟔𝟓 𝒌𝒎𝒐𝒍/𝒉𝒓 (15)

183.265 𝑋 83.326 m3
∴ 𝑸 = = 3423.165 = 0.951 m3/sec (16)
𝒎𝒂𝒙 4.461 hr

6) Calculation of Net area, cross stional area and down comer area

The net area calculation can be carried out using the equations 16 and 13 as
follows;
𝑸𝒎𝒂𝒙
𝑨𝒏 = = 4.933 m2 (17)
𝑽𝒏

Cross stional area can be determined from the net area and the down comer area
with an assumption that down comer area is equal to 15% of cross stional area.

𝑨𝒄 = 𝑨𝒏 + 𝑨𝒅; where Ad is given by 15% of Ac (18)

Solving the above equations we get Ac = 5.155 m2 and Ad =0.773 m2

Hence; the column diameter based on the top stion conditions can be determined
by using Ac value, we obtain the column diameter as D c=2.563 m.

27
 7) Provisional plate design

After the determination of column diameter, we need to calculate the parameters

for plate design like active area, hole area, weir length. The following set of
calculations is necessary for plate design.

𝑨𝒂 = 𝑨𝒄 − 𝟐 ∗ 𝑨𝒅 = 3.609 m2 (19)

𝑨𝒉 = 𝟏𝟎% 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒂 = 0.3609 m2 (20)

𝑨𝒅
≈ 15 (21)
𝑨𝒄

Based on equation 21; from figure 11.31 in Coulson and Richardson 6th volume;
𝑳𝒘
= 𝟎. 𝟖; ∴ 𝑳 𝒘 = 2.0504 m (22)
𝑫𝒄

Some values that have to be assumed for further calculations are:

hw = 50 mm = 2 inch (industrially acceptable values)

dh = 5 mm

tp = 5 mm

8) Weeping point calculation

Weeping is the phenomenon is caused by low vapor flow. The pressure exerted by
the vapor is insufficient to hold up the liquid on the tray. Therefore, liquid starts to
leak through perforations. Excessive weeping will lead to dumping. That is the
liquid on all trays will crash (dump) through to the base of the column (via a
domino effect) and the column will have to be re-started. Weeping is indicated by a
sharp pressure drop in the column and reduced separation efficiency.

28
The below calculations are aimed at checking for weeping in the distillation
column

𝑲𝟐−𝟎.𝟗(𝟐𝟓.𝟒−𝒅𝒉)
𝑼𝒎𝒊𝒏 = (𝝆𝒗)𝟎.𝟓
(23)

For K2 calculation, we need to carry out the following sub calculations

𝐋∗𝐌𝐥 𝐤𝐠
𝐋 = = 𝟏. 𝟔𝟔𝟒 ; 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐋 = 𝐕 − 𝐃 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌 (𝐌𝐖𝐓 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞) = 101.68 (24)
𝐦𝐚𝐱 𝟑𝟔𝟎𝟎 𝐬𝐞𝐜 𝐥

𝑳𝒎𝒊𝒏 = 𝟕𝟎% 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒎𝒂𝒙 = 𝟎. 𝟔𝟏𝟒 kg/s (25)

Now; there is a relation how to find out K2

𝑳
𝒉 = 𝟕𝟓𝟎 [ 𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝟎.𝟔𝟕 = 7.699 mm liquid (26)
𝒐𝒘𝟏 ]
𝑳𝒘 𝝆𝒍
𝑳
𝒉 = 𝟕𝟓𝟎 [ 𝒎𝒊𝒏 𝟎.𝟔𝟕 = 6.07 mm liquid (27)
𝒐𝒘𝟐 ]
𝑳𝒘𝝆𝒗

Now; we need to find out a particular relation to be found out which has to be used
to find out K2

𝒉𝒘 + 𝒉𝒐𝒘𝟏 = 57.699 mm liquid (28)

Now, using equation 32 in Coulson and Richardson 6th volume figure 11.30; we
get K2=30

Substituting these values in equation 23, we can determine the minimum vapor
velocity (Umin) at weeping which is the minimum velocity for stable operation.

30.2−0.9(25.4−5)
𝑼𝒎𝒊𝒏 = = 5.605 m/s (29)
(4.461)0.5

Inference: this particular stion of distillation column design lets us find out what is
the minimum velocity of vapor should be provided in the column so that weeping
condition does not occur during the operation of distillation column.

29
 9) Plate pressure drop calculation

The pressure drop in a distillation column consists of the following:

a. Dry plate pressure drop (due to orifice loss)

b. Pressure drop due to static head of liquid

c. Residual pressure drop (due to bubble formation)

The calculations below are carried out in order to find out the overall pressure drop
of the column
𝑸𝒎𝒂𝒙
𝑼𝒉 = = 2.635 m/sec (30)
𝑨𝒉

The perforated area is also very much necessary to be found out in order to
calculate the pressure drop throughout the reactor

𝑨𝒑 = 𝑨𝒂 = 3.609 m2 (31)

(𝑨𝒉⁄𝑨𝒑) ∗ 𝟏𝟎𝟎 = 10 (32)

(𝒕𝒑⁄𝒅𝒉) = 1.0 (33)

Using equations in 32 and 33 in Coulson and Richardson 6th volume, figure 11.34,
we get Co=0.84 (approx.)

The dry pressure head is found out as follows

𝑼 𝟐 𝝆
𝒉 𝒗
𝒉𝒅 = 𝟓𝟏 [𝑪 ] [ ] = 2.879 mm liquid (34)
𝒐 𝝆𝒍

Residual pressure head is found as follows

𝟏𝟐.𝟓∗𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎
𝒉𝒓 = = 16.077 mm liquid (35)
𝝆𝒍

30
Total head can be found out as follows;

𝒉𝒕 = 𝒉𝒅 + (𝒉𝒘 + 𝒉𝒐𝒘𝟏) + 𝒉𝒓 = 76.655 mm liquid (36)

The total pressure drop in the column can be found out as follows

𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑 = 𝟗. 𝟖𝟏 ∗ 𝟏𝟎−𝟑 ∗ 𝒉𝒕 ∗ 𝝆𝒍 ∗ 𝑵 = 3.508 kPa (37)

10) Down comer liquid backup

When the back-up liquid in the down comer exceeds the tray spacing, liquid
accumulates on the tray above. Down comer choke flooding occurs when the liquid
flow rate increases until such a point that the velocity of the aerated liquid in the
down comer exceeds a certain limit.

The main resistance to flow in down comer will be caused by constriction in the
down comer outlet, and head loss in the down comer can be estimated using the
following equation
𝑳𝒎𝒂𝒙
𝒉 = 𝟏𝟔𝟔 [ ] = 𝟎. 𝟏𝟏𝟑 𝒎𝒎, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆; 𝑨 =𝒉 ∗ 𝑳 = 0.082 m2 (38)
𝒅𝒄 𝝆𝒍∗𝑨𝒂𝒑 𝒂𝒑 𝒂𝒑 𝒘

Where; 𝒉𝒂𝒑 = 𝒉𝒘 − 𝟏𝟎 = 40 mm (39)

𝒉𝒃 = (𝒉𝒘 + 𝒉𝒐𝒘𝟏) + 𝒉𝒕 + 𝒉𝒅𝒄 = 134.436 mm ≈ 0.134 m (40)

Here; we were able to determine that,

𝒉𝒃 < 0.5(𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 + 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡) (41)

Hence; the tray spacing that we considered is acceptable in this distillation column
and the results till now are satisfactory.

31
 11) Residence time

Sufficient residence time must be provided in the down comer for the entrained
vapors to disengage from liquid stream to prevent aerated liquid being carried
under the down comer.

𝑨𝒅𝒉𝒃𝝆𝒍
𝒕𝒓 = 𝑳𝒎𝒂𝒙
(42)

Now; substituting all the required values from equations 18, 24 and 40, we can get
the following results

0.773 𝑿 0.134 𝑿 777.487

𝒕𝒓 = 101.681.664
= 48.39 s (43)

For a better design of distillation column, the residence time should be sufficiently
higher, here tr is greater than 3 s, hence, the results obtained in our design are
satisfactory.

12) Checking for entrainment

Our aim in this stion is to find out whether our assumption of 90% flooding has a
desirable effect or an undesirable effect on the entrainment which in turn has an
influence on operational efficiency.

In our design, the assumed flooding (%) = 80%

Here, we have to find a parameter called liquid flow factor (FLV) to determine the
fractional entrainment

𝑳 𝝆𝒗 𝟎.𝟓
𝑭𝑳𝑽 = ( ) ( ) = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟐𝟒 (44)
𝑽 𝝆𝒍

32
From Coulson & Richardson 6th volume, figure 11.29; we have the following
values for fractional entrainment

𝜳 = 𝟎. 𝟐 (45)

In this design, the fractional entrainment is above the upper limit of the usual
fractional entrainment which is around 0.1; hence it is clear that effect of
entrainment on efficiency is significant. In our design, for negligible effect of
entrainment on efficiency of the distillation column, we need to consider flooding
around 60 % or even lesser.[ Peters ,Timmerhaus and West ,2003]

13) Determination of number of holes

According to the above calculations and assumptions made about hole diameter,
we can carry out the following calculations to find number of holes in the
distillation column over the total number of trays.

𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝒐𝒇 𝟏 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 = 𝟎. 𝟕𝟖𝟓 ∗ 𝒅𝒉𝟐 = 0.00002 m2 (46)

From equation 20; we have the following

𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝒐𝒇 𝑵 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔 = 𝑨𝒉 = 0.3609 m2 (47)

Using the above two equations, we can determine the number of holes in the trays
over the entire distillation column

∴ 𝑵 ( 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒔) = 18020 holes (48)

14) Height of distillation column

The final step of distillation column design is to determine the overall height of
distillation column, which is a major parameter that you have to consider during

33
the construction of the column in an industrial scale. The following steps allow us
to calculate the height of distillation column.

𝐇𝐜 = (𝐍𝐚𝐜𝐭 − 𝟏) ∗ 𝐇𝐬 + ∆𝐇 + 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 (49)

𝑵𝒂𝒄𝒕 = 𝟏𝟎 (𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟏𝟎)

Hs = tray spacing = 0.5 m

𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟎𝟓 ∗ 𝟏𝟎 = 0.05 m (50)

𝑯𝒄 = (𝟏𝟎 − 𝟏) ∗ 𝟎. 𝟓 + 𝟏 + 𝟎. 𝟏 = 5.55 m (51)

Thus this concludes the design of the benzene distillation column in this project.
All the parameters required for design and sizing of distillation column has been
determined in the step wise procedure carefully.

The manually designed distillation column has been drawn in AutoCAD and the
diagram is given in the following figure. Simple CAD diagram of a distillation
column can explain how to draw the column for a basic calculation of mechanical
designing of the structure it is a rough diagram to have a view of the plates,
manhole, condenser, heat exchanger to the column. The fee operating temperature
is about 125 ℃, with an operating pressure of 1.5 bar. A basic diagram of
distillation column should represent the number of trays, types of trays, the
location of plates and it weir and down comers diameter and plate diameter,
manholes locations, basement and its dimensions, inlet feed locations and distillate,
reflux locations, reboiler types and vapor input. Distillation column diagrams differ
from each mode of operation like continuous and batch. A suitable insulation is
considered for the distillation column whose thickness is assumed to be
approximately equal to 75 millimeters.

34
All the measurements in this diagram are given in SI units (meters). The calculated
number of actual trays, the length of rectifying and stripping section and the
reboiler and reflux liquid return has been clearly specified in the diagram. The top
view of the sieve plate is given beside to the distillation column diagram. The
major objective of this particular equipment design is to arrive at an efficient
design for the distillation operation in the industrial scale for this process in order
to have effective and increased yield and productivity in the plant.

35
Figure 3.2.2: Diagram for distillation column

36
 CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1. Procedure
The process described above was simulated in the ASPEN PLUS ® simulation
software and the results obtained were studied. The design proposed by Turton et.
al. was used for reference and the required data like inlet feed rate, inlet
temperature, pressure, size of the reactor, reflux ratio, number of stages in the
distillation columns and properties of the catalyst etc were input. The Turton
design was taken as the base run and all the parameters optimized were compared
to the result obtained from the base run.

The whole design is divided into four sections namely:

 Storage and pumping section

 Preheating section
 Reactor section
 Separator section
The parameters required for major equipment like distillation column and reactor
were taken from the calculations carried out in the previous chapter. The design of
the entire process is carried out in Aspen Plus as shown in the following figure, the
process was run accordingly in an orderly manner through each section as
mentioned above..

37
Figure 4.1.1: Flow sheet of cumene production process designed in Aspen Plus

38
Figure 4.1.2: Stream Results Of Cumene Production Design

39
The parameters of this design are considered for optimization with the objective of
finding out the best conditions to operate the cumene production process in order
to enhance the product yield and purity.

The process designed for cumene production (figure 4.1.1) using the necessary
design concepts and equipments from Aspen Plus is considered in a sequential
manner for optimization of individual stions of the plant. The stream results
throughout the entire production process is shown in figure 4.1.2 and the mass and
energy balance of the designed plant is as shown in the figure 4.1.3.

The process is also considered for economic calculations in the future stions in
order to prove the economic feasibility of the project.

Figure 4.1.3: Mass and energy balance for the designed process

4.2. VLE Characteristics

Reactors and separators can be considered as the back bone of any chemical
process plant. The cost optimization of any plant depends largely on the reactors
and the distillation columns. The basis of distillation is phase equilibrium that may
be VLE (Vapour liquid equilibrium) and LLE (Liquid liquid equilibrium). Before
designing any distillation equipment the VLE characteristics need to be studied as
they give a fair amount of idea about the ease of distillation. The Txy diagram or

40
temperature versus liquid composition (x) and vapour composition (y) are plotted.
A fat curve generally shows that the liquids in a mixture can be easily separated.
The boiling point data of three major components in distillation column is shown
in the following table.

Component Boiling point in degree Celsius

Benzene 80.2

Cumene 152.4
P-DIPB 209.8

Table 4.2.1 : Boiling point data of three major components of the process

The product stream from a condenser tank is sent to a distillation column. DISTL
equpiment in Aspen Plus is used. In the industrial process two distillation columns
are used i.e benzene column, followed by cumene column in order to have
effective seperation of benzene and cumene in the respective stages. The benzene
from the benzene column is recycled continously back to the feed stage to the
mixer where it is mixed with fresh benzene stream, the recycling is done in order
to maintain isothermal conditions throught the process and to increase the product
purity.
Before going in for the design of the distillation column the VLE diagrams need to
be considered. The industrial processes currently followed show that in the 1st
column benzene and cumene need to be primarily separated and in the 2 nd column
cumene and DIPB need to be separated. The NRTL (non random two liquid)
physical property package is used to plot the vapour liquid equilibrium T-XY for
Benzene-cumene and Cumene-DIPB systems. The VLE plot for the two systems
are as shown below

41
 Figure 4.2.1: T-xy diagram for Benzene-Cumene system

Figure 4.2.2: T-xy diagram for Cumene-DIPB system

From the VLE plots it can be inferred that the seperation would be easy and
distillation columns with few number of trays and low reflux ratio can be used.
Here, Azeotropes is not formed for the system considered and flash distillation can
be carried as seperation is easier

42
4.3. Reactor Optimization
Reactor is the heart of a chemical process plant. Design of a reactor requires data
from thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, mass
transfer and economics. A properly designed reactor can minimize the production
of unwanted products and hence reduce the purification costs.

In all the optimization work done, the costs of raw materials and products are
usually much larger than the costs of energy or capital in a typical chemical
process. Therefore the process must be designed (investing capital and paying for
energy) so as to not waste feed stocks or lose products (particularly in the form of
undesirable products).

Kinetics based rate data was obtained from the work of various researches and is
mentioned in the lietrature review. In this work, RPLUG model is used in ASPEN
PLUS to model the reactor. The reactions occur in the vapour phase in the presence
of a solid phosphoric acid catalyst (assumed to have 0.5 void fraction and a 2000
kg/m3 solid density). The reactor is run at high pressure (31.5 bar) since the moles
of reactants are more than the moles of product (according to Le Chatelier’s
principle) and a temperature of 350 degree Celsius is maintained in the reactor in
order to improve the selectivity of the process towards the desired product
formation.

To study the changes in the production process by variation of reactor size, the
reactor volume was continuously varied and its influence on the cumene ( tonnes)
in product and by-product was obtained in a graphical manner. A larger reactor has
both advantages and disadvantages. On one hand it increases the capital and/or
energy costs and on the other hand it maintains low reactor temperature which
improves the selectivity and improves the selectivity of the process towards
cumene production. This in turn, saves raw material used which is given more

43
preference in our design process. The results obtained from varying the reactor
volume is given below

Vreactor(m3) Cumene-prod(tonnes) Cumene-byprod(tonnes)

0.934 57210.22 322.79

0.983 59443.65 328.01
1.092 64110.03 338.13
1.174 67364.26 343.02
1.283 71387.15 347.69
1.365 74188.78 349.29
1.447 76817.06 349.80
1.556 80069.94 349.36
1.638 82334.56 346.91
1.775 85800.47 340.82
1.884 88317.46 333.87
1.966 90067.20 327.69
2.048 91707.55 320.80
2.184 94213.64 306.96
2.239 95143.71 300.94
2.348 96883.13 287.49
2.457 98477.06 272.92
2.539 99583.89 261.35
2.648 100950.66 245.16
2.730 101899.32 231.31
Table 4.3.1: Influence of reactor volume on Cumene in product and byproduct

After the results were obtained, graph of cumene (tonnes per year) present in
product and by-product were plotted against reactor volume in m3 to analyze the
data. The graphs obtained are as following:

44
 cumene-prod(tonnes) vs Vreactor
120000
cumene-product(tonnes)

100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9
Vreactor (m3)

Figure 4.3.1 : cumene in product(tonnes/year) vs reactor volume (m3)

cumene-byprod(tonnes) vs
Vreactor
400
cumene-byprod (tonnes)

300
200
100
0
0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9
Vreactor(m 3)

Figure 4.3.2: Cumene in by-product(tonnes/year) vs reactor volume(m3)

We see that the as the reactor volume were increased, the amount of cumene in
product stream kept on increasing and after a certain point, the rate of increase of
cumene started decreasing. At the same time, the percentage of cumene present in
the byproduct and gases from the flash tank decreased with increase in the size of
the reactor.

Therefore, increase in the reactor size does increase the cumene production in the
process. This saves a lot of raw material required for the production. Although the
increase in reactor size calls for an increase in capital and/or energy investment but

45
the amount of raw material it saves in the process is appreciable. It also reduces the
amount of cumene present in the byproducts and the vent gases which is a great
positive sign for considering this variation for optimizing the process. It might not
even compensate for the extra capital investment but it may also turn out to be
more profitable, considering the shortage of raw materials present in the present
day scenario.

46
4.4. Flash Tank Optimization
In the cumene production process, a by-product called fuel gasis formed which can
also be considered a source of revenue. Fuel gas is composed mainly of
hydrocarbons (such as propane) or such mixtures, Such gases are sources of
potential heat energy or light energy that can be readily transmitted and distributed
through pipes from the point of origin directly to the place of consumption.Fuel
gases have been used in numerous applications, one of the earliest purposes was
gas lighting. In this process, the fuel gas composition is mainly propylene and
propane with little amount of trace substances.

The minimum boiling point in the mixture is that of benzene at 80.2 degree C at 1
atm pressure and hence a temperature of 85 to 97 is considered for flashing. The
flash tank temperature is varied and its influence on the product purity was studied
and the graph was plotted accordingly.

Flash temperature (.C) % Cumene-product % Cumene-byproduct

85 98.31 37.45

86 98.74 35.78

87 99.11 33.56

88 99.39 30.45

89 99.58 26.63

90 99.70 22.40

91 99.77 17.92

92 99.81 13.52

93 99.83 9.67

94 99.83 6.86

95 99.81 5.13

96 99.78 4.10

47
 97 98.78 3.45
Table 4.4.1: Influence of flash tank temperature on product purity

After the results were obtained from the simulation, two graphs were plotted for
product purtity against the flashing temperature. The graphical results are shown
below.

% Cumene(prod) vs Ftemp
100
99.8
% Cumene-product

99.6
99.4
99.2
99
98.8
98.6
98.4
98.2
84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98
Ftemp

Figure 4.4.1: % Cumene in product vs Flashing temperature

% cumene(by-prod) vs Ftemp
100
90
%cumene-Byproduct

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98
Ftemp

Figure 4.4.2: % Cumene in by-product vs Flashing temperature

48
From the above plots, it was observed that as the temperature is increased, the
percentage of cumene in the product stream increased initially until a temperature
of 94°C was reached and then a gradual decrease was observed. Similarly, with
increase in temperature, the percentage of cumene in by-products decreased
initially until the temperature reached around 94°C and then rate of decrease was
found to be negligble. According the above observation, it was found that the
temperature of the flash tank cannot be kept neither very high nor very low.

Thus the optimum temperature of the flash tank was found out to be 91°C.
Although there isn’t a big variation in the flashing temperature from the base
design, this small change could increase the efficiency by a small amount.

The bottom product from the flash tank acts as the feed to the benzene column
where benzene and cumene are separated where benzene is completely recycled
back to the feed and cumene is sent for further separation.

49
4.5. Benzene Column Optimization

4.5.1. Design Procedure

DISTL equipment in Aspen Plus is selected for designing both the distillation
columns. The pressure is kept fixed at 1.75 bar and the temperature is kept fixed at
90 degree Celsius. These two variables are obtained from the experimental data
specified from literature. The variables that can be optimized in a distillation
column are reflux ratio, feed tray location and number of trays. The major aim
of optimizing these parameters in accordance with our design is the objective of
improving the final product purity and decreasing the reboiler duty of each
distillation column. A total condenser is used in the process and an equilibrium
based approach is adopted.

4.5.2. Reflux Ratio Optimization

For reflux ratio optimization, the number of trays including the reboiler and
condenser as a tray is kept fixed at 11 (determined number of actual trays using
DSTW equipment in Aspen Plus) and as per DSTW equipment, the feed is fed to
the column at the 5th stage. After fixing these two parameters, the reflux ratio was
varied from minimum reflux ratio (DSTW) onwards upto 1.5. And the influence
of the reflux ratio on the product purity was studied graphically which is plotted as
shown below.

50
 % cumene (prod) vs Reflux Ratio
100.2
100
% Cumene -product

99.8
99.6
99.4
99.2
99
98.8
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Reflux Ratio

Figure 4.5.2.1:Influence of reflux ratio on product purity

From the above figure, we were able to infer that optimum reflux ratio is around
0.45 precisely, even if we increase the reflux ratio beyond 0.45 there is not much
of a significant difference in the product purity and also if we increase the reflux
ratio to very high values, our pumping cost increases exponentially, hence it is
recommended that we maintain the reflux ratio around our optimum value of 0.45
to have economical production process with high product purity.

4.5.3. Feed Tray Location Optimization

The reflux ratio was maintained at the optimum value of 0.45 and the number of
trays is still maintained at 11. The position of the feed tray was varied and its affect
on the reboiler heat load and product purity was determined and the results were
graphically represented for analysis.

51
 % Cumene(prod) vs Feed tray location
100.5
100
%cumene-prod

99.5
99
98.5
98
97.5
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Feed tray location

Figure 4.5.3.1: Influence of feed tray location on product purity

Reboiler duty(Gcal/hr) vs feed tray

location
1.9875
reboiler duty (Gcal/hr)

1.987

1.9865

1.986
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
feed tray location

Figure 4.5.3.2: Influence of feed tray location on reboiler duty

From figure 4.5.3.1, we can infer that after a certain value of feed tray location,
there is an effective decrease in product purity and there is a very small decrease in
reboiler heat duty with continuous increase in feed tray location. The feed can be
fed at 6th stage, after which the product purity decreases and the rate of reboiler
duty decrease is negligible after 6th stage. So we can fix our optimum feed tray
location as 6.

52
4.5.4. Number Of Trays Optimization
To optimize the number of trays, the reflux ratio was maintained at the determined
optimum value of 0.45 and feed tray location was kept fixed at 6. By maintaining
the above two parameters, the number of trays in the benzene column was varied
from 10 onwards and its influence on reboiler duty and product purity was studied
graphically. The graph obtained was analyzed and the optimum numbers of trays
were inferred from them.

Number of trays Reboiler duty (Gcal/hr) % Cumene in by-product

1.99 99.69
10

1.98 99.91
12

1.97 99.94
15

1.96 99.94
17

1.96 99.94
20

1.96 99.94
21

1.95 99.94
23

1.95 99.94
25
Table 4.5.4.1: Influence of number of trays on reboiler duty and product purity

53
 %cumene (prod) vs Ntrays
100
99.95
99.9
%Cumene

99.85
99.8
99.75
99.7
99.65
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Ntrays

Figure 4.5.4.1: Influence of number of trays in Benzene column on product purity

Reboiler duty (Gcal/hr) vs Ntrays

2
1.99
Reboiler duty

1.98
1.97
1.96
1.95
1.94
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Ntrays

Figure 4.5.4.2: Influence of Number of trays on reboiler duty

As the number of trays was increased from 10 onwards, initially there was a steep
rise in the graph. As the value of number of trays reached around 20, there was not
much of a considerable change above it. Similarly, when the number of stages was
varied with reboiler heat duty, the heat duty decreased suddenly in the beginning.
But after the value crossed 20, the change in the heat duty was negligible.
Therefore, 20 were found as the optimum number of trays for the benzene column.

54
Finally, the optimized values of Benzene column are as follows

Parameter Optimized value

Number of trays 20

Feed tray location 6

Reflux ratio 0.45

Table 4.5.4.2: Optimized values of Benzene distillation column

55
4.6. Cumene column optimization

4.6.1. Design procedure

In the cumene distillation column, the design specification is to obtain maximum
amount of cumene in the distillate and reduce its amount in the bottoms. The
bottom product in this column contains mostly DIPB (1,4 di-isopropyl benzene)
which is a by-product in the process. The optimization process is aimed at
minimizing the production of the by-product and obtaining a balance between the
amount of cumene and its purity.

In the procedure followed, NRTL physical property package was used again to
make the calculations similar to benzene distillation column. The properties
optimized were reflux ratio, feed tray location and the number of stages. When one
variable is being optimized, the other two are kept constant. As the process goes
on, the optimized values are used instead of the basic values. The basic data like
temperature, pressure etc was again referred from the Turton design and used in
the simulation.

4.6.2. Reflux Ratio Optimization

For reflux ratio optimization in a cumene column, the number of trays was kept
fixed at 12 (determined number of actual trays using DSTW equipment in Aspen
Plus) and the feed tray location was set to 6. Trial values of reflux ratios ranging
from 0.1 to 1.5 was varied and the percentage of cumene obtained in the product
stream was obtained. The trend was plotted in the form of graph which is shown
below:

56
 % Cumene vs Reflux Ratio
100
99.95
% Cumene-product

99.9
99.85
99.8
99.75
99.7
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
Reflux Ratio

Figure 4.6.2.1: Influence of reflux ratio on product purity of cumene

The graph above infers that the optimum reflux ratio was found to be around 0.8.
On increasing the reflux ratio further we see that there is no corresponding
significant change in the cumene produced. Further increase of reflux ratio leads to
high pumping costs and hence is refrained taking economic aspects into
consideration.

4.6.3. Feed Tray Location Optimization

For optimizing the feed tray location, the reflux ratio was fixed at the optimized
value found on the previous stion that is 0.8. The feed location was varied and the
trends for the reboiler duty and product purity were plotted as follows:

57
 Reboiler duty vs feed tray location
1.1697
1.1696
1.1695
Reboiler duty

1.1694
1.1693
1.1692
1.1691
1.169
1.1689
1.1688
1.1687
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
feed tray location

Figure 4.6.3.1: Influence of feed tray location on reboiler duty.

% Cumene (prod) vs feed tray location

99.996
99.994
% Cumene (product)

99.992
99.99
99.988
99.986
99.984
99.982
99.98
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
feed tray location

Figure 4.6.3.2: Influence of feed tray location on product purity.

In figure 4.6.3.1 and 4.6.3.2, it is noticed that the product purity as well as the
reboiler duty decreases after certain feed tray location. So, our aim is to find a
certain value for feed location in this trend plotted so that we arrive at maximum
product purity and a corresponding minimum reboiler duty. Hence it was
concluded that the optimized feed tray location is 8 from both the graphs.

58
4.6.4. Number Of Trays Optimization
The last parameter to be optimized in our process design is the number of trays of
cumene distillation column. In order to optimize the number of trays, the reflux
ratio was fixed at an optimum value of 0.8 and the feed tray location was fixed at
the optimized value of 8, as we have derived at the earlier stions. The number of
trays were varied from 10 to 21 and the reboiler duty and product purity trends
were studied.

Ntrays Reboiler duty (Gcal/hr) %cumene-product

1.200 99.825
10
1.196 99.902
11
1.191 99.945
12
1.179 99.982
14
1.174 99.990
15
1.170 99.994
16
1.162 99.997
18
1.155 99.998
20
1.153 99.998
21
Table 4.6.4.1: Influence of Ntrays of cumene column on product purity and reboiler duty

59
 Reboiler duty vs Ntrays
1.21
1.2
Reboiler duty

1.19
1.18
1.17
1.16
1.15
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Ntrays

Figure 4.6.4.1: Influence of number of trays on reboiler duty.

%Cumene(prod) vs Ntrays
100.05
%Cumene-product

100

99.95

99.9

99.85

99.8
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Ntrays

Figure 4.6.4.2: Influence of number of trays on product purity.

As the number of trays was increased from 10 onwards, initially there was a steep
rise in the graph. As the value of number of trays reached around 16, there was not
much of a considerable change above it. Similarly, when the number of stages was
varied with reboiler heat duty, the heat duty decreased suddenly in the beginning.
But after the value crossed 16, the change in the heat duty was negligible.
Therefore, 16 were found as the optimum number of trays for the cumene column.

60
Finally, the optimized values of the cumene distillation column are as follows:

Parameter Optimized value

Reflux Ratio 0.8

Feed tray location 8

Number of trays 16

Table 4.6.4.2: Optimized values of cumene distillation column

61
4.7. Economic Analysis
The major aim of this project is to arriveat an optimized design for cumene
production process with best results; hence, it is a necessity to carry out economic
analysis for this design in order to check whether we are arriving at significant
profit margin.The full economic model requires information about the fixed capital
investment, the yearly utility requirements, the raw material cost, the operating
labor, and the revenue of the process and other miscellaneous costs involved. The
methods of evaluating all these factors will be introduced in this section.

The equipment cost can be approximated from the cost analysis function through
Aspen Plus. The results from Aspen Plus will be based on our capacity of cumene
production and the equipment involved in a particular sequence, these cost results
will not include the installation cost of the equipment. All the cost data in the
project are based on a global reference; hence it is amounted in USD (dollars). The
cost data considered for economic calculations in our project involves the values of
all major technical equipment involved in the production process. The equipment
cost data for our design is as shown in the figure below:

EQUIPMENT NAME COST ($) COST (INR)

HEATER(*2) 28100 28,66,611

MIXER1 11800 7,56,734

MIXER 2 13700 8,78,581

PUMP (P01) 53700 34,43,781
PUMP(P02) 16000 10,26,080

REACTOR (volume- 76400 48,99,532

9.55m3)
FLASH VESSEL 23600 15,13,468

62
BENZENE COLUMN 91200 58,48,656
CUMENE COLUMN 78900 50,59,857

Table 4.7.1: Cost data for major equipment involved from Aspen Plus

4.7.1. Direct And Indirect Costs

There are some methods for estimating the capital cost of the process at the
preliminary design stage such as the Lang factor, the six-tenths rule and so on. The
six-tenths rule scales the cost of the process from known capacity to the new
capacity by the power of 0.6. Although the implementation of this method is
relatively easy and accurate enough for this type of estimation, it is not applicable
here.The cost determined by the Lang factor method is the cost required for major
expansion of an existing chemical plant. The Lang Factor is an estimated ratio of
the total cost of creating a process within a plant, to the cost of all major technical
components. It is widely used in industrial engineering to calculate the capital and
operating costs of a plant. In this design, we use the Lang factor estimation to find
out the total cost of installing the process by multiplying the cost of major
technical components by the Lang factor value. For fluid processing plants like in
this design, the Lang factor value equals 4.8 for estimation[Larry,2001]. This
method is not sensitive to changes in construction materials and operating pressure
of equipment, which may vary the cost of the equipment considerably.

The direct costs involve the purchased equipment cost, the cost of installing the
equipment, land costs and building costs (inclusive of the services). The land cost
was determined by a relation given by 6% of equipment cost. The building costs
inclusive of services are given by a relation of 18% of equipment cost and the
purchased equipment cost is as shown in table 4.7.1. The installation costs are
found out by Lang factor relationship. The Indirect costs involve the construction

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 fees (41 % of equipment costs) and engineering and supervision fees (33 % of
equipment costs).

In industrial engineering, we need to also know the contractor fees and

contingency fees which is respectively given by 5% and 10% of sum of Direct and
Indirect costs. The following table gives the detailed values of direct and indirect
costs. [Chemical Engineering Projects]

COSTS COMPONENT VALUE ($) VALUE(INR)

DIRECT COST
Land cost 22748.4 17,66,909.76
Building cost 68245.2
Equipment cost 459200 2,94,48,496
Installation cost 1819872
INDIRECT COST
Engg and 125116.2
supervision cost
construction fees 155447.4
TOTAL COST(Z) 2570569.2
CONTINGENCY 257056.92
FEES
CONTRACTOR 128528.46
FEES
Fixed Capital 2956154.6 31,35,97,033.9
Investment
Table 4.7.1.1: Detailed look-up into direct and indirect costs for the design

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4.7.2. Utility Cost
The utility requirements such as electricity, steam, cooling water and inert gas have
to be considered for economic calculations in this process design. The costs of
utilities are determined from correlations derived by Ulrich and Vasudevan . The
cost of utilities in the plant is greatly influenced by the price of the fuel and it
constitutes the main portion of utility costs. The fuel price fluctuates more than the
equipment costs, and it does not follow a general trend like Chemical Engineering
Plant Cost Index (CEPCI). Thus, in general, the utility cost is dependent on two
major parameters namely, CEPCI and average fuel pricing. The two parameter
relation for the dual dependence of utility cost is given as follows,

Cu= a (CEPIC) +b (Cf)

Cu stands for utility cost based on respective units and ‘a’ and ‘b’ are utility
coefficients derived based on experimental values . C f refers to the fuel cost in $/
GJ, approximated in the recent times to be 5.0 $/GJ. CEPCI stands for plant cost
index as mentioned earlier, this CEPCI value is released every year for preliminary
stages of the year and the final year end annual value. In our process, we have
taken the annual plant cost index of 2017 which is found to be 567.5. According to
the assumed fuel gas pricing and the plant cost index, the cost of different utilities
are calculated and listed in the following table.

UTILITY TYPE a b Cost of uti1lity

Steam 3.47*10-6 0.004 0.022 $/kg
Electricity 1.3*10-4 0.01 0.124 $/KWh
Cooling water 7*10-4 0.003 0.412 $/m3
Table 4.7.2.1: Utility cost estimation based on Ulrich and Vasudevan’s literature work

65
4.7.3. Other Costs
Other costs of production are operating labor, maintenance cost, taxes and
insurance costs, supplies costs, depreciation, licensing and royalties and plant
overhead costs. The techniques used to estimate these costs are described by
various correlations according to the references. The correlations from the
references are mentioned as follows,

 Labor costs
For determining the annual labor costs, we have to first arrive at the number
of operators required to run a 24-hour industry. The following correlation is
given in the above mentioned reference to find out the number of operators
required per shift.
NOL= [6.29+31.7P2+ 0.23Nnp] 0.5
For a plant that runs on a 24 hour basis and according to employment
policies, an individual worker should work in an industry for only 8 hour
shift at max. Hence, for each of the NOL operators per 8-hour shift,
approximately 4.5 operators must be hired for a plant that runs 24 hours per
day, to account for the 3 shifts per day.
Nnp: Number of other processing steps
P: Number of processing steps involving particulate solids
In this process design, there is no solid processing step; hence we take P as
zero. And Nnpis calculated based on the following table.

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Equipment type Number of equipment Nnp
Heat exchangers 2 2
Pumps 2 -
Fired heater 1 1
Reactors 1 1
Flash vessel 1 -
Distillation towers 2 2
Mixer 2 2
Splitter 1 1
Table 4.7.3.1 : Number of other processing steps in the process design

In this step, pumps and flash vessels are not included for manual operating; hence
they are neglected from Nnp.

NOL= [6.29+ 31.7(0)2+ 0.23(9)] 0.5 = 2.89

Operators= 2.89*4.5=13.005~13

Average annual a salary of technical operators of a chemical plant starts from

$56,595

Annual labor cost= 13*56,595=772590 $

 Maintenance cost = 6% of fixed capital investment

 Supplies cost= 2% of fixed capital investment
 Taxes and insurance = 3% of fixed capital investment
 Depreciation (assuming the plant depreciation rate is 8%) = 8% of fixed
capital investment
 Licensing and royalities = 3% of total manufacturing cost

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  Plant overhead costs= (70% of labor costs) +(4% of fixed capital
investment)

4.7.4. Economic Evaluation Of The Process

The base process described above is evaluated according to the economic model.
The total capital investment for the process is estimated to be around $194 million
for the year. The utility requirement cost as calculated in the earlier stion was
found to amount to an approximate value of $2 million. More information about
each type of utility required in this process is presented in Table 4.7.4.1. In this
design, almost 53% of the utility cost belongs to cooling water and electricity was
found to have the least contribution to the utility cost , amounting to just 3.85%.

The revenue obtained from the design includes three parts, i) cumene stream as the
main product (99.5% purity) , ii) fuel gas ( mixture of hydrocarbons) which is a
potential source of income and iii) by-product stream which can be used further in
other stors (DIPB). Our major aim of the project is to increase the cumene
formation with minimum formation of by-product; however, the very little amount
of by-product can also be a source of income in the industrial scale. Stream 14
consisting of cumene as the main product, with a flow rate of 10219.88 kg/hr
generates revenue of around $127 million on an annual basis. The fuel gas stream
consisting of benzene, propylene and propane as the major compositions generate
average revenue of $19 million annually. The byproduct stream consisting of very
negligible amount of cumene and majorly consisting of DIPB with a flow rate of
136.789 kg/hr generates average revenue of $14 million annually.

The major raw materials of this process include Benzene, propylene and propane
(inert material – used as a heating medium). The raw material costs were obtained

68
 from the ICIS article descriptions released in 2017. The benzene was found to be
priced at 789.251$ per ton, propylene at a price of 1030 $ per ton and propane at a
price of 411.26$ per ton. Since the raw materials of this process are valuable, it
will be concluded that if the reaction condition of the process is changed, the
economic condition of process can be enhanced greatly. The major aim of this
project is thus to alter the parameter to find out the optimized value for each
section of the design in order to make the process economically feasible.
Therefore, we focused on the reaction condition and parameters that can influence
the conversion and the selectivity of reactions. The following table gives a detailed
analysis of the economic parameters of this design for cumene production process.

Item Component VALUE($) VALUE(INR)

Lang factor 5.7

Fixed capital 2956154.6

investment($)
31,35,97,033.9

Raw material cost ($)

Benzene 123929072.8

Propylene 56315361.75

Inert gas 965665.982

Total 181210100.5

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Utilities cost($)

Steam @400psi 1125398.046

Cooling water 1546111.22

Electricity 111532.32

Catalyst 112000

Total 2895041.586

Labor cost($) 772590 4,95,46,196.7

Maintanence cost 293401.248

Taxes and 146700.624

insurance($)
Supplies cost ($) 97800.416

Depreciation($) 391201.664

Plant overhead($) 736413.832

Licensing and 3492228.974

royalities($)

Working Capital
Investment
116997345.7

70
Total capital 121887366.5 7,81,66,36,813
investment($)
Revenue($)

Cumene 127856005.6

Fuel gas 19085995.24

P-dipb 14327993.2

Total 433335327.8

Net profit ($) 39382627.56 2,52,56,07,905

Net profit margin (%)

24.42

Turnover ratio
8.05

ROR (%)
32.31

Payback period(years)
3.09

Table 4.7.4.1: Economic evaluation of the design process in detail

71
 CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION

This project involved the process design and simulation of the Cumene production
plant using Q-max process and the desired unit operations was carried out
accordingly. In this project, A step by step optimization procedure is followed. The
basic components of a cumene plant are (1) Reactors and (2) Separators. Each unit
is optimized by maximizing the quality of the desired product as well as its flow
rate. Therefore the process must be designed (investing capital and paying for
energy) so as to not waste feed stocks or lose products (particularly in the form of
undesirable products). After a unit is optimized, optimum flow rates are obtained.
These flow rate values are used for optimizing the next unit.

The project also involves the manual design of particular equipment, namely
reactor and distillation column. All the parameters required for the design and
sizing of the reactor was determined. The reactor in this design is a catalytic
packed bed multi-tubular reactor with solid phosphoric acid catalyst (SPA). The
weight of catalyst required for the operation of the plant on an annual basis was
found to be 9553.575 kg. Another important parameter as far as the reactor design
is concerned, is the residence time which was found to be 22.86 minutes. The
physical sizing of the reactor was calculated in a progressive manner in the
previous stions, the volume of reactor was found to be 9.55 cubic meters and
thickness of the reactor was found to be 84 millimeters and other required
calculations for the reactor sizing was also carried out in the previous section.

Similarly, the distillation column design and sizing was also carried out manually
as shown in the third stion. In the distillation design and sizing, the parameters of
interest were calculated in a step wise procedure. The feed condition was found to
be partially vapor and partially liquid (q = 0.45). The MCabe Thiele plot for the

72
distillation column was hand drawn, using which the actual number of stages was
found to be 10. The minimum and actual reflux ratio was found to be 0.316 and
0.474respectively. The feed plate was found to be between the 2nd and 3rd plate.
The minimum weeping velocity was found to be5.605 m/s which leads to an
inference that our actual velocity in the distillation column must be greater than
weeping velocity in order to prevent the occurrence of weeping. The height of the
column was found to be 5.55 meters which was approximated to 6.55 meters while
drawing in order to allow equal distance for reboiler and reflux liquid return.

The separator system design begins with the plotting of VLE curves for possible
mixtures. It can be concluded from the VLE plots that separation is easier for
Benzene-Cumene-DIPB system. The VLE plot of the Benzene-Cumene system
was found to be wider than the Cumene-DIPB system, which leads to an inference
that the separation of the first system is comparatively easier. Flash distillation is
tried before actual fractional distillation as the operating costs are very low. The
optimum temperature for flashing is estimated to be 94 degree centigrade. The
distillation columns i.e. Benzene column and Cumene column depend on a large
number of variables (high degree of freedom). Each variable is optimized by
keeping the other values constant. After an optimum value of a variable is obtained
the remaining variables are optimized maintaining that data constant. The number
of trays in benzene column was found to be 20 and for Cumene column it was
found to be 16 while the feed tray location is 6 for benzene distillation column and
8 for Cumene column. Reflux ratios are obtained as 0.45 and 0.8 respectively.

Reactor and distillation column design revealed a lot of design considerations. For
example in distillation column design if distillate rate is increased the product
quality and the flow rate of the desired product increase but after a certain value
(optimum value) the product quality andflow rate reduce drastically. Similar

73
findings were obtained while optimizing other units and they have been discussed
briefly in the previous pages.

Again design solution cannot be considered absolute. For example if we decrease

the reaction costs, the separation costs tend to increase. The design should not only
take cost into consideration but also other factors such as safety, environmental
impact, future needs etc.

74
6. REFERENCES

1. Linnhoff B., Townsend D. W., Boland D., Hewitt G. F., Thomas B., Guy A.
R.,
Marsland R. H., User Guide on Process Integration for the Efficient Use of
Energy,The Institution of Chemical Engineers (1994).
2. Turton, R., Bailie, R. C., Whiting, W. B., Shaelwitz, J. A. Analysis,
Synthesis and design of Chemical Processes, 2nd ed.; Prentice Hall: Upper
Saddle River, NJ, 2003.
3. Coulson & Richardson Chemical Engineering, Volume 6, Fourth edition
Chemical Engineering Design R. K. Sinnott
4. Plant design and economics for chemical engineers, 5th edition , By Max
Peters and Klaus Timmerhaus and Ronald West

5. Dysert, Larry R. “Sharpen your cost estimating skills,” Chemical

Engineering, October 2001, New York: Chemical Week Associates.
6. Cost Estimation | Chemical Engineering Projects
7. Ulrich, G. D., and Vasudevan, P. T. (2006). How to estimate utility costs,
Chem. Eng., April,66–69.
8. Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index (CEPCI), chemical engineering
online June 17, plant cost index updates for prelim of June month and end of
May

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