Design and Simulation of Cumene Plant using Aspen Plus

Abstract

Cumene production process is gaining importance and so the process needs to be studied and better ideas suggested such that the production cost is reduced. With the advent of computers and simulating software like ASPEN PLUS® it is possible to design and optimize a particular process. Proper design can significantly reduce production cost as well as provide make the process safe and reduce environmental hazards. It has been identified from previous research papers that the cost of materials used is much higher than the cost of energy needed for the process. The materials, unit operations and processes involved are identified. Steady state simulation is done. 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 rough flow sheet. Use of newer equipments in the process is suggested. The reactor system on being optimised by an equilibrium based approach gave the operating temperature as 360 C and 6:1 Benzene: Propylene ratio in feed. The distillation columns were optimised and the number of trays for benzene column was found to be 20 by 8 and that for cumene column to be 20 by 10. The reflux ratio values were found to be 0.5 and 0.8 respectively for the columns. The optimised temperature for flashing was identified as 92.5 C. The modified flow sheet of the optimised process was prepared which gives the values of all the optimised variables in detail.







Keywords: Simulation, Optimization, Cumene, Benzene, distillation, reactor