Cumene is a very important petrochemical commodity, mainly to produce phenol and acetone. The overall growth rate for cumene capacity has been healthy, averaging slightly less than 3.5 % per year to reach 18 million metric tons per year in 2017. The purpose of this study is to generate a steady-state process simulation using ASPEN HYSYS version 10 to produce a small capacity of 10 ton/h of cumene with 99.99 wt % product purity. An alkylation reaction of benzene with propylene is carried out for producing cumene by using a zeolites catalyst as modeled by Badger technology. Transalkylation is also integrated into the system for eliminating unwanted products such as p-diisopropyl benzene. The proposed simulation flowsheet provides a good convergence overall result. The preliminary utility consumption obtained from the simulation consists of approximately 0.0418 kton/h of steam, 1.22 kton/h of cooling water, and 450 kW of electrical duty. Optimization is carried out in the simulation by conducting a sensitivity analysis study to find the optimum operating conditions of the alkylation reactor with a dimension of 1.3 m diameter and 4 m of length. The result shows that at an optimum value of B/P molar ratio of 7, reactant temperature of 170 oC, and reactant pressure of 3 MPa, the selectivity of cumene obtained is at a high value of 0.9446, while the percentage conversion of propylene to cumene obtained is at a high value of 99.99 %.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.