Steady State Simulation of Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) In Aspen Plus

Abstract

In this project work, we report Aspen-plus simulation of a cracking reaction viz. conversion of ethane to ethylene and hydrogen using plug flow reactor system. Ethane, which is produced in refineries isn’t stored under normal temperature and pressure and is often sold at a cost lower than its production cost. However, cracking of ethane produces two very important compounds viz. ethylene and hydrogen which has very wide range of applications. Generally, in industry, cracking takes place in a fluidized bed catalytic cracker. In this work, the performance of plug flow reactor was studied to evaluate the process. Two contrastingly different routes were followed leading to the simulation. The first involved was the simulation of an adiabatic plug flow reactor at different operating conditions viz. feed flow rate, feed temperature, reactor temperature and pressure. The variation of diameter and length of the reactors were also studied in the overall performance of the system. Similarly, simulation studies were carried out for isothermal system as well. The performances of both the reactors were compared. It was observed that under a given set of conditions, isothermal plug flow reactor performed comparatively much better than its adiabatic counterpart.