Process Plant Design
Input-Output Structure of Flowsheet
Decisions for the Input-Output Structure
Input Output
Process
Flowsheet Alternatives
Decisions for the Input-
Output Structure
• Rule of thumb
• More than 99% of all valuable materials must be
recovered
• If air and water are reactants, since they are
inexpensive, they need not to be recycled
• In case of gaseous reactants or gaseous impurity or by-
product, all gaseous product may not be recycled.
Impurities are purged.
• Membrane separation made it easy
Level 2: Decisions
• Is feed purification required?
• Reversible by-product should be removed or recycled?
• Is recycle and purge stream required?
• How many product streams are required?
• What are the design variables for I/o structures?
• What economic trade offs are associated with the design variables?
Feed purification
• Whether feed purification is required?
• Type of separation system is unknown
• Guidelines
• If feed impurity is not inert and present in significant amounts – REMOVE
• If feed impurity is present in gas feed – PROCESS
• If feed impurity is present in liquid stream and is a by-product or a product
component – PROCESS THROUGH SEPARATION SYSTEM
• If feed impurity is present in large amounts or is poison for catalyst – REMOVE
• If feed impurity is an azeotrope with reactant – PROCESS
• If feed impurity is inert and easy to separate from product than feed - PROCESS
Feed purification
• Whether feed purification is required?
• Type of separation system is unknown
Guidelines
Feed impurity is not inert and present in significant amounts REMOVE
Feed impurity is present in gas feed PROCESS
Feed impurity is present in liquid stream and is a by-product or a PROCESS THROUGH
product component SEPARATION SYSTEM
Feed impurity is present in large amounts or is poison for catalyst REMOVE
Feed impurity is an azeotrope with reactant PROCESS
Feed impurity is inert and easy to separate from product than PROCESS
feed
Feed purification
Process Alternative
If we are not certain that our decision is correct, we list the opposite decision as a
process alternative
Economic Trade-offs for feed purification
• Feed purification involves economic trade offs between building a pre-process
separation systems and increasing the cost of the process. Increased flow rate of
inert materials.
• Amount of inert materials, where they will enter and leave, have significant
impact on processing costs.
Recover or recycle by-products
• In HDA process:
• 𝑇𝑜𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑒 + 𝐻2 → 𝐵𝑒𝑛𝑧𝑒𝑛𝑒 + 𝐶𝐻4
• 2𝐵𝑒𝑛𝑧𝑒𝑛𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑦𝑙 + 𝐻2
• For second reaction, diphenyl is recycled to let it build up in recycle loop till
equilibrium is reached
• All equipment to be oversized
• If it is removed from the system, heavy economic penalties. More and more
reactants are converted to diphenyl
Gas recycle and Purge
• In case of “light” reactant, and either a “light” feed impurity or a “light” by-
product, use a gas recycle and purge stream.
• Light component – which boils lower than propylene (-48 ℃).
• Lower b.p. compounds cannot be condensed at high pressure with cooling
water.
• High pressure and refrigeration would be required.
• Membrane technology is cheaper than refrigeration.
Number of product streams
• List all the components expected to leave a reactor
• Classify each component and assign a destination code
• Order the components by their normal b.p.
• Group neighbour components with same destination
• Number of groups are then considered as number of product streams
Number of product streams
10 components listed in order of their b.p. and with the destination codes indicated. How
many product streams will be there?
Number of product streams
Number of product streams
• Find the number of product streams from HDA process
• List the components:
Component Boiling point (℃)
Toluene 111
Hydrogen -253
Methane -161
Benzene 80
Diphenyl 253
Number of product streams
Component Boiling point (℃) Destination code
Hydrogen
Methane
Benzene
Toluene
Diphenyl
Number of product streams
• Arrange in the order of b.p.:
Component Boiling point (℃) Destination code
Hydrogen -253 Recycle and purge
Methane -161 Recycle and purge
Benzene 80 Primary product
Toluene 111 Recycle
Diphenyl 253 By-product
Evaluation of flowsheet
• Be certain that all products, impurities, and by-products leave the system
• If a trace remains in the recycle loop, the process will be inoperable
Design variables
• Well defined design problem
• Degrees of freedom
• Identify design variables
• For complex reactions: product distribution is correlated with selectivity, conversion
of limiting reactant, mole ratio of reactants, reactor temperature, and /or pressure
• If 𝐸𝑎 of all reaction is same, temperature effects are ignored
• In case of gaseous reaction, if there is no change in the number of moles of reactant
and product, pressure effects are ignored
• For liquid reactants, pressure effects are not considered
Design variables
• For pre-liminary designs, equations relating conversion and space velocity will
provide reactor design calculations
• If kinetic data is available, kinetics is evaluated
• If kinetic data is not available, configuration taken by chemist is used
• Excess reactants
Overall material balance
• Design variables
• Specified production rates
• From stoichiometry, calculate by-product flow rate and reactant requirement
• Calculate impurity inlet and outlet flow for feed streams (no recycle)
• Calculate outlet flow of reactants lost in purge stream (recycle)
Example – HDA process
𝑇𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑒 + 𝐻2 → 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑧𝑒𝑛𝑒 + 𝐶𝐻4
2𝐵𝑒𝑛𝑧𝑒𝑛𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑦𝑙 + 𝐻2
• Production rate of benzene = 𝑃𝐵
• Fresh feed of toluene which converts to benzene (𝑃𝐵 )
Example – HDA process
• Assumption: Toluene is completely recycled
• For low single pass conversion: high recycle – large size equipment – high cost
Selectivity (𝑺) and Conversion (𝒙)
Example – HDA process
Alternate approach
Economic Potential
Summary
• Design variables
• Overall material balance
• Economic potential
• Process alternatives
