Ethylene oxide production using

ASPEN Plus
OVERVIEW
Ethylene oxide, C2H4O is a color-less, flammable gas or liquid. The primary use for
ethylene oxide is in the manufacture of derivatives such as ethylene glycol, surfactants and
1 ethanolamines. By itself it acts as an excellent disinfectant, sterilizing agent, and fumigant
when used as a non-explosive mixture with N2 or CO2.

Industrial production started in 1925 using the chlorohydrin process and was improved in
1931 by introducing the much more economic direct catalytic oxidation method.
2
Currently, almost all ethylene oxide production plants are based on the direct oxidation
process with air or oxygen

High purity oxygen is mixed with ethylene and fed to a multi-tube plug flow reactor packed with
silver catalyst. The gaseous stream from the main reactor, containing ethylene oxide is then passed to
3
the ethylene oxide scrubber. Here, water is used as the scrubbing media which scrubs away majority
of ethylene oxide The aqueous stream resulting from the above scrubbing process is then sent to the
ethylene oxide de-sorber. Here, ethylene oxide is obtained as the overhead product.
SIMULATION OF THE REACTOR

Key Points

Fig 1 a. Components used in reactor Fig 1 b. Rplug reactor Reactor used: Rplug reactor

The method used was Ideal

method for simulation

Stream 1 consists of ethylene

and oxide where as stream 2
consists of ethylene , oxygen
and ethylene oxide
Fig 1 c. Input Data
for the reactor. The reaction that takes place in
reactor is:
Fig 1 d. Results Summary
SIMULATION OF THE ABSORBER COLUMN

Key Points

Fig 2 a. Components used in the column Fig 2 b. Column Flowsheet

Fig 2 c. Input to the column

Fig 2 d. Results Summary

SIMULATION OF THE SEPARATOR COLUMN
Fig 3 a. Components used in the column
Fig 3 c. Column
Input Data
Key Points
Column type and
condenser/reboiler and number
of stages data, feed stage
Fig 3 b. Column Flowsheet
Feed stream and product
composition
Column operating conditions
Fig 3 d. Results Summary
FULL PLANT SIMULATION

Key Points
In the full plant simulation it
was seen that we needed to
add pressure changing devices
like pumps and compressors, as
required.

The compressor was a positive

displacement one and the
valve followed an adiabatic
process.

An additional separator column

was added to improve the
product yield and purity.
Fig 4. Full Plant Flowsheet
 SIMULATION OF ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS

Fig 5 a. Input Data for Compressor Fig 5 b. Input Data for Valve

Fig 5 d. Result Summary for Separator Column

Fig 5 c. Input Data for Separator Column

 OPTIMIZATION OF YIELD AND PURITY
Key Points
TEMP (C) YIELD PURITY Optimization of Ethylene Oxide Production
It was seen that by varying the
10 0.44 0.99 1 column temperature we were
15 0.689 0.985 able to control the yield and
0.8 purity of product.
20 0.794 0.9794
25 0.848 0.9714 Ratio
0.6
30 0.883 0.96 Yield Here, yield = (Amount of EO
0.4
35 0.908 0.95 Purity produced/Amount of Ethylene
40 0.927 0.93 0.2 used) and purity=mole
45 0.942 0.91 fraction of EO in the product
50 0.954 0.88 0 stream.
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Temperature (in C)
From the graph it is clearly seen
that the optimum value of
operating temperature is 40C,
where both are at their highest
values.
CONCLUSION

Key Points
It was seen that by a direct
oxidation method we were able to
produce EO (ethylene oxide
successfully).

The product purity and yield

was found to be 0.927 and
0.93, respectively.