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    Separation Chain

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    Kaleem Ullah
    The document discusses the separation of Benzene-Toluene-Xylene (BTX) using distillation. It proposes sending an equimolar BTX mixture to a 20-stage distillation column to separate benzene overhead and a Toluene/Xylene mixture in the bottom. A second 30-stage column further separates the bottom mixture. The document recommends inserting the flash drum overhead separately into upper trays rather than mixing with the bottom to reduce reboiler duty and maintain product purity with less energy.

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    Separation Chain

    Uploaded by

    Kaleem Ullah
    14 views2 pages
    The document discusses the separation of Benzene-Toluene-Xylene (BTX) using distillation. It proposes sending an equimolar BTX mixture to a 20-stage distillation column to separate benzene overhead and a Toluene/Xylene mixture in the bottom. A second 30-stage column further separates the bottom mixture. The document recommends inserting the flash drum overhead separately into upper trays rather than mixing with the bottom to reduce reboiler duty and maintain product purity with less energy.

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    SeparationChain

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    The document discusses the separation of Benzene-Toluene-Xylene (BTX) using distillation. It proposes sending an equimolar BTX mixture to a 20-stage distillation column to separate benzene overhead and a Toluene/Xylene mixture in the bottom. A second 30-stage column further separates the bottom mixture. The document recommends inserting the flash drum overhead separately into upper trays rather than mixing with the bottom to reduce reboiler duty and maintain product purity with less energy.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    14 views2 pages

    Separation Chain

    Uploaded by

    Kaleem Ullah
    The document discusses the separation of Benzene-Toluene-Xylene (BTX) using distillation. It proposes sending an equimolar BTX mixture to a 20-stage distillation column to separate benzene overhead and a Toluene/Xylene mixture in the bottom. A second 30-stage column further separates the bottom mixture. The document recommends inserting the flash drum overhead separately into upper trays rather than mixing with the bottom to reduce reboiler duty and maintain product purity with less energy.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    BTX SEPARATION CHAIN

    INTRODUCTION :
    Benzene-Toluene-Xylene (BTX) are major feedstock for a large number of
    intermediates which are used in the production of synthetic fibres. Styrene, linear alkyl benzene and
    cumene are the major consumer of benzene. As per CMAI, demand for benzene is forecast to grow at an
    average annual rate of 2.8% per year through 2020 resulting in nearly 57 million tonnes of demand by
    2020. Major application of toluene is as solvent, raw material in manufacture of benzoic acid, chloro
    derivatives, nitro toluenes, benzaldehyde. Amongst the xylenes, about 80% of the production is of para
    xylene; used in the manufacture of terephthalic acid.
    Catalytic reforming is a refining process that uses selected operating conditions and
    selected catalysts to convert high value aromatic hydro carbon into BTX. The process of aromatic BTX
    separation from the reformates of the catalytic cracking of naphtha and heavy oil has for a long time
    utilized a series of extraction and distillation. When the solvent is regenerated for its recycled use,
    distillation is applied using high-pressure steam due to high boiling point of the solvents. In addition, the
    amount of solvent used in the extraction is large, about 2.5times the feed amount which makes the process
    costly.
    PROCESS OVERVIEW:
    Separation processes in many industries are by far the most dominating energy users to an
    extent that the operating costs of chemical productive processes are highly influenced by the downstream
    separation units. Over half of a plant’s energy demand for either process is used in full operational
    distillation columns; optimizing the process with maximum energy recovery through more engineering
    time given to the design phase and retrofitting older operating plants to save or recover even minuscule
    amount of energy used can significantly affect the economic efficiency.
    The conventional procedure for a simple separation can begin by introducing feed to a
    flash drum where light component(s) are vaporised and discharged off from the top and the liquid exiting
    the bottom. The bottom product will then be preheated either with the warm products of the tower using
    several heat exchangers or just by using a furnace (heater). The top product of the flash drum will meet up
    again with the preheated liquid upon entrance to the tower where they are inserted as one single stream
    An equi-molar mixture of BTX is sent to a 20 staged distillation column operating at 1
    atmospheric pressure. The overhead is pure benzene (60-90oC) with the bottom containing a mixture of
    Toluene (90-110oC )and Xylenes (110-140oC)which are further distilled in a 30 stage column to yield
    pure products respectively. The emphasis is on optimisation of feed tray & vapour fraction in feed that
    reduces reboiler load and a portion of energy that might be recovered through a condenser.
    RESULTS:

    XYLENE-RICH TOLUENE RICH EQUI-MIX BENZENE RICH

    Temperature 411.522 382.86 298.15 353.589 K

    Molar Flow 3.34958 3.34972 10.049 3.34976 mol/s

    Mol Frac (Benzene) 1.55135E-10 0.0208596 0.333333 0.979119

    Mol Frac (Toluene) 0.000784 0.97833 0.333333 0.020876

    Mol Frac(P-xylene) 0.999216 0.00081043 0.333333 4.98486E-06


    CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

    1. Click on the "Chem-Sep" custom unit operation. Go for "Tools--->Parametric study".


    2. On selecting the feed tray plate as the independent; Reboiler, Condenser duty as the response variables.
    The following table can be obtained,

    The net energy supplied to the reboiler( Steam...) can be obtained as heat input to the condenser process
    fluid (Cold water...); the energy recovery is similiar to feed input on 2-19th stage. Since the economics
    also depends on the reboiler load, minimum energy that the cold water can take before reaching
    saturation; 7 or 8th stage allows recovery with a minimum heat input.
    3. Methods as feed splitting and heating part of the feed have also been suggested. Through preheating by
    part of the feed and inserting the other part as cold to maintain low reflux ratio, however requires
    additional equipments, but will yield a significant reduction in energy consumption of approximately
    38%.
    4. The usual topology will actually result in a higher reboiler heat duty as it requires additional elevation
    of light components to higher stage. The proposal is to insert the top product of the flash drum in upper
    trays of the column separately instead of mixing it with the liquid exiting the bottom of the flash drum
    upon insertion to the distillation column .
    5. Being composed of light hydrocarbons corresponding more to higher stages of the column, inserting
    this feed to upper trays results in an increase of purity of side stream products (if any exists) or column’s
    main products (Distillate and Bottom). This is due to less contact of the vapour entering and the liquid
    falling down from upper trays. Eventually the rising vapour is less likely to experience condensation and
    be detected in the side stream products. Therefore the reboiler duty would decrease as no further boiling
    of light components would occur, consequently maintain the same purity of products with a lower
    reboiler duty.

    REFERENCES:
    1.Image Source: Chem.-Sep Custom Unit Operation.
    2. Flash Zone Optimization of Benzene-Toluene-Xylene Fractionation Unit by M.Arjmand, K.Kotari
    3.Flowsheeting :Chem. Sep Separation book http://www.chemsep.com/downloads/index.html

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