The basic flowsheet of Melamin BASF Process

Gambar Siji. BASF process a) Reactor; b) Heating coils; c) Fluidizing gas preheater; d) Gas cooler; e) Gas filter; f) Crystallizer; g) Cyclone; h) Blower; i) Urea washing tower; j) Heat exchanger; k) Urea tank; l) Pump; m) Droplet separator; n) Compressor

The BASF process (see Gambar siji. 1) is a onestage,low-pressure, catalytic vaporphase process. Molten urea is fed to the fluidized catalytic bed reactor (a) at 395 400 C and atmospheric pressure. Alumina is used as a catalyst, and fluidization is accomplished with an NH3 CO2 mixture (the process off-gas). The reactor temperature is held at ca. 395 C by molten salt circulated through internal heating coils (b). The fluidizing gas is also preheated to 400 C. To secure an ammonia-rich atmosphere in the reaction zone, make-up ammonia is added to both the fluidizing gas and the urea nozzles. Gas leaving the reactor is a mixture of gaseous melamine, traces of melem, and unreactedmurea (in the form of its decomposition products isocyanic acid and ammonia), as well as ammonia and carbon dioxide (part newly formed, part fluidizing gas). In addition, the gas mixture contains entrained catalyst fines; coarser catalyst particles are retained by cyclone separators inside the reactor. The gas mixture leaving the reactor is cooled in the gas cooler (d) to a temperature at which only the byproduct melem crystallizes. Precipitated melem, in the form of a fine powder, is removed together with the entrained catalyst fines in adjacent gas filters (e). The filtered gas mixture enters the top of the crystallizer (f ) where it is blended countercurrently with recycled off-gas (140 C). The temperature in the crystallizer is thereby reduced to 190 200 C, and more than 98% of the melamine crystallizes as fine crystals. Melamine is

recovered from the gas in a cyclone (g), after which it is cooled and stored. It can be used without further treatment and has a minimum purity of 99.9 %. The nearly melamine-free gas stream from the cyclone is fed to the urea washing tower (i) where it is scrubbed with molten urea (135 C), which provides both cooling andwashing. Clean gas leaving the urea scrubber (after passing through droplet separators) is partially recycled to the reactor as fluidizing gas and partially recycled to the crystallizer as quenching gas. The surplus is fed to an off-gas treatment unit. A single-stage reactor has the advantage of converting the corrosive intermediate isocyanic acid immediately to melamine; also, the heat of this exothermic reaction is used directly for the endothermic decomposition of urea, the first step in melamine synthesis.