CHEM ENG 3030/7054: PROCESS DESIGN III

Design Project Specification – 2023

Introduction
The objective of the conceptual design project is for students to undertake a sequence of
process design tasks, to carry out Aspen Plus simulation of a specified industrial process
and to prepare a report documenting the results of the design process.
Design Project
You and your group members are working at an established chemical engineering
consultation company. Your group is assigned for your client, Dr. Who Chemicals Ltd
located at Adelaide in Australia. This company has predicted that the demand for styrene-
based plastics and packaging will rise and would like to assess the possibility of building a
new grassroots styrene plant to handle the anticipated increase.
A concept design of a 250,000 metric tonne per year styrene production process via the
gas-phase catalytic dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene is required from your consultant
company.
The company has a new proprietary catalyst with kinetic data as included in Appendix 1.
The initial draft process flow diagram (PFD) for the catalyst-based process is described in
Appendix 2. You will synthesize the production process via the means-ends analysis
method, simulate the PFD within the Aspen Plus® software package, and then optimize the
PFD after the simulation.
The project element includes:
1. Group-based computer simulation of the process for making styrene via
dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene.
2. Computer simulation for optimising process conditions.
3. Major equipment design and validation including reactor(s), separation tower(s), and
heat exchanger(s).
4. A report encapsulating and summarising the results of all above activities.
The design report should provide sufficient details to enable the client to evaluate the
simulation results of the project.
The client (and representatives) will be available on each Tuesday# from 11am to 2pm
(IW 234) to clarify any issues related to the project.
The final project report and associated files (Aspen Plus, Matlab, Excel and other files
related to your calculations) should be submitted via MyUni by:
11pm on Friday 27 October, Week 12.
The base case report is the first required deliverable and should be submitted via MyUni by:
11pm on Friday 8 September, Week 7.
(Guidelines and marking scheme to follow)
A further group presentation will be required midway through the design (in Week 8) to report
on progress and any issues encountered in the initial parts of the design.
The time of these presentations will be provided at a later date.
#meetings can be made via appointment.
Report
Each design group will be required to submit a single report. Some parts of the report will
reflect the collective efforts of the group, while other parts will represent individual work
which must be clearly attributed (see below). The report must clearly record all decisions
and findings together with supporting logic and calculations.
The first section of the report will be a self-contained summary of the work involved. Process
understanding for the given PFD will be briefly described in the background, based on the
lecture notes on the Means-End Analysis of a process.
The main body of the report will contain mass/energy balance and major equipment sizing
using computer simulation. Any assumptions made, parameters chosen, and methods
employed for computer simulation should be stated and justified.
The final report should have the following sections:
1. Project summary
2. Table of contents
3. Allocation of work
4. Background
5. Computational simulation results
6. Equipment sizing
7. Evaluation of process conditions
8. Utility appraisal
9. References
10. Appendices:
A1 Quantitative flowsheet from Aspen Plus
A2 Other files (Matlab, Excel etc.) for calculation
A3 Agendas and minutes of design meetings
Report Sections
1. Project Summary (max. 1 pages)
The purpose of the summary is to give a clear unambiguous statement of the project to the
senior divisional management of your client company, with whom you have had no previous
contact. Consequently, you should present sufficient information in this summary to enable
them to prepare a firm proposal for main board sanction of the project, without needing to
refer to the main body of the report.
The summary should cover the following:
a) Project scope
b) The extent of the work done
-Brief process description
-Flowsheet/heat and material balances
-Major equipment specification
-Optimised process conditions
c) Conclusions drawn from your simulation work.
2. Table of contents
3. Allocation of work
Clear list of tasks and responsibilities assigned to each group member

content follows.
4. Background
A brief description of the background to the project is required. Your project needs to be
defined in a more confined and accurate way for the purpose of your simulation. You need
to provide key chemical/physical properties of chemical compounds involved in the project,
and a brief review of processes developed, and use means-end analysis to finalise the PFD
in this project. You need clearly specify your aim and objectives, and your role allocation for
the project.
5. Computational simulation results
You need to justify the simulations you have done and make clear explanation of
approaches you have taken for your process flow simulation, equipment sizing and process
optimisation. The balances must provide the manual estimates and Aspen Plus calculations
of: a) total amount of raw materials required; b) total energy released from the process and
required from the process, and the amount of steam generated; the amount of steam
consumed; and the amount of cooling water or other cooling media used; c) the mass and
energy balance for the reactors, separation columns and heat exchangers.
6. Optimised process conditions
This section will investigate the effect of process condition variations on the process
performance.
You will need to justify the models and process conditions employed. The process variations
to be investigated include reaction temperatures and pressures; separation column
temperature, pressure, and reflux; and heat exchanger performance evaluation.
Each student will be required to evaluate the performance of ONE major equipment
item. Evaluation will include sizing and an assessment of unit performance subject
to variations in process conditions (ie. variations in temperature, pressure, flow, etc).
7. Major equipment sizing
Equipment sizing from the process simulation will be performed to provide estimates of
major equipment sizes.
The equipment sizing will be carried out for reactor(s), separation tower(s), and heat
exchanger(s).
Each student will be required to size ONE major equipment item following the
examples provided from the lecture notes (AND to evaluate performance)
8. Utility appraisal
This section relates to the utility requirements and costs of the project. An evaluation of
operational costs will be made.
(eg. utility costs including steam, cooling water, electricity, and fuel gas)
9. References
References should be listed in the standard style.
10. Appendices
A clear, complete, labelled process flow diagram of your process will be presented in the
Appendix A1 including all equipment; A clear stream flow table including T, P, total flowrate
in kg/hr and kmol/hr, component flowrate in kmol/hr, and phase for each process stream.
Sample calculations for validation of sizing should also be included.
Elements of Aspen Plus Computer Simulation
1. Aspen Plus PFD
• Correct property method/methods are used.
• Correct reaction setups (reactions and parameters) are made.
• All unit operations added (including units for T/P/Phase changes) and correctly set.
• All necessary auxiliary operations including recycles, design spec, calculator and
sensitivity analyses have been correctly setup.
• Degree of freedom analysis is performed for key unit operations (chemical reactors,
column, heat exchanger). Justify your parameters chosen.
• Check the convergence method you have chosen, if you have used the default
method, find the default method, and justify your method.
• The simulation should be relatively stable for a controlled variation of 10% in the raw
material flow rate, production rate, reaction pressure and reaction pressure.
2. Reactor design
• Reactor sizing.
• Pressure drop calculation for the reactor.
• Reactor temperature control.
• Sensitivity analysis on feed composition, reactor temperature and pressure.
• Recycle utilisation.
3) Column Design
• Determine the appropriate operation pressure for the column.
• Determine the number of stages, reflux ratio, and reboiler and condenser heat duty.
• Determine required stages and reflux using the short-cut column.
• Determine the mass/energy balances using the rigorous column.
• Determine the height and diameter.
• Check the pressure drop, flooding, downcomer area/tower area; downcomer backup,
and other parameters and compare them with the heuristic data.
• Investigate effect of temperature, pressure, and reflux ratio on operation.
4) HEX design
• Select the correct heating or cooling utilities and specify the inlet/outlet temperatures.
• Calculate the pressure drop and heat duty.
• Determine required heat transfer surface area (ie. sizing).
• Determine the tube side geometrical configuration.
• Determine the shell side geometrical configuration.
• Check the temperature profile; Ft value; pressure drop; heat transfer coefficient and
other parameters with heuristic data.
• Check the outlet temperatures to meet the requirements.
• Investigate effects of fouling and baffle segments on performance.
• Performance evaluation of sized heat exchanger subject to changes temperature and
flow.
NOTE: the items listed above are intended as a guide of items to be considered in the design
and simulation of your process plant. Additional items should be included if relevant.
Appendix 1 Background information
Dr Who Chemicals Ltd has predicted that the demand for styrene-based plastics will rise.
The board of directors has agreed to contract a company to perform a technical and
economic analysis of a new styrene plant, specifically a preliminary design of a 250,000
metric tonne per year styrene process plant using ethyl benzene as a feedstock.
1 Manufacturing routines
A literature search reveals that current production of styrene generally entails
dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene (EB) using an iron-oxide/potassium oxide catalyst.
Beside the dehydrogenation reaction, there are two competing reactions that must be
considered in this production process. The first of the competing reactions produces
benzene and ethylene via the pyrolysis of ethyl benzene. The second of the competing
reactions produces toluene and methane from the reaction of ethyl benzene with hydrogen.

C6H5C2H5 (EB) ↔ C6H5C2H3 (Styrene) + H2 (R1)

C6H5C2H5 (EB) → C6H6 (Benzene) + C2H4 (Ethylene) (R2)
C6H5C2H5 (EB) + H2 → C6H5CH3 (Toluene) + CH4 (Methane) (R3)

2 Chemical reaction kinetics

Dr Who Chemicals has recently acquired a patent of producing a catalyst which can
accelerate the above reaction and reduce the side reactions. Laboratory experiments have
been operated at temperatures between 400 and 800 oC and pressures between 1 and 3
bar. The kinetic data for styrene formation and relevant side reactions are as follows.
Partial pressures of each component have the unit of bar.

𝐸𝑎1 𝑃𝑆 𝑃𝐻
−𝑟1 = 𝐴1 𝑒𝑥𝑝 (− ) (𝑃𝐸𝐵 − )
𝑅𝑇 𝐾𝑃
Where A1 = 7.49×10-2 mol g-cat–1 s–1 kPa–1 Ea1 = 21.8 kcal/mol
And ln KP = – 5.5476 – 13410/T + 3.152 lnT – 0.00237T for KP in bar and T in Kelvin

𝐸𝑎2
−𝑟2 = 𝐴2 𝑒𝑥𝑝 (− ) (𝑃𝐸𝐵 )
𝑅𝑇
Where A2 = 1.03×104 mol g-cat–1 s–1 kPa–1 Ea2 = 49.8 kcal/mol

𝐸𝑎3
−𝑟3 = 𝐴3 𝑒𝑥𝑝 (− ) (𝑃𝐸𝐵 𝑃𝐻 )
𝑅𝑇
Where A3 = 9.00×10-4 mol g-cat–1 s–1 kPa–2 Ea3 = 21.9 kcal/mol

In the equations, subscripts EB, S and H refer to ethylbenzene, styrene, and hydrogen,
respectively. Partial pressures are in bar (absolute) and T in Kelvin.

further specifications follow

A packed bed was recommended, the following data may be assumed:
Catalyst particle diameter dp = 5 mm
Catalyst particle density = 2100 kg/m3
Void fraction = 0.4
Hint: In Aspen, the reaction rate basis is defined based on reactor volume or catalyst weight.
Try either of the options but make sure you get the same results. Be mindful of the units.
To be able to input these kinetic data into Aspen Plus based on reactor volume, conversion
of the units must be performed first. In this case, the reaction rate is expressed as kmol/m 3s.
3 Specifications for Styrene
Styrene Purity ≥ 99.5 mol%
Ethyl Benzene < 500 ppm
4 Process Description
Ethylbenzene feed (1) is mixed with recycled ethylbenzene (24) and heated with high-
pressure steam (3), then mixed with superheated steam (6). Steam is an inert in the
dehydrogenation reaction, which shifts equilibrium toward product formation by reducing
concentrations of all components. Because styrene formation is highly endothermic, the
superheated steam also provides energy to drive the reaction forward. Decomposition of
ethylbenzene to benzene and ethylene, and hydrodealkylation to give methane and toluene
are undesired side reactions (R2 and R3 respectively). The reactants (7) enter two adiabatic
packed bed reactors with interheating. The reactor products (10) are cooled, first producing
high pressure steam (11), then low pressure steam (12) from boiler feed water. The reactor
product stream is further cooled with cooling water (13) prior to entering a three-phase
separator. The light gases (hydrogen, methane, ethylene) (14), organic liquid (16), and water
exit in separate streams. The light gas stream is primarily hydrogen and may be used
elsewhere in the plant. The wastewater stream (22) is sent for treatment prior to
environmental discharge. The organic liquid stream containing styrene (16) is distilled once
to remove the benzene and toluene by-products, and then further distilled to separate
unreacted ethylbenzene for recycle (19) from the styrene product (20).
The styrene product can spontaneously polymerise at high temperatures, with experience
suggesting spontaneous polymerisation can be avoided if the purified product temperature
is maintained at less than 125C. Since this temperature is below the normal boiling point of
styrene (145C), and since low pressures shift the equilibrium of reaction 1 (R1) toward
product formation, much of the process is operated under a vacuum.

5. Utility costs
Low P steam 5 barg 160C $ 18 / tonne
Med. P steam 10 barg 184C $ 20 / tonne
High P steam 41 barg 254C $ 22 / tonne
Water reactant/process $ 3.14 / tonne
Electricity $ 0.36 / kWh
Natural Gas $ 30 / GJ
Wastewater Treatment $ 0.1 / tonne

Process Flow Diagram follows.

Appendix 2: Draft Process Flow Diagram for Styrene Production Process

End of Design Brief