Pre-design of Biphenyl Chemical Factory from Benzene with Capacity of 10.000 Ton Per Year

Abstract

The design of a biphenyl chemical plant from benzene with a capacity of 10,000 tons/year will be built in Tuban, East Java with a land area of ​​10,010 m2. The raw material in the form of Benzene is obtained from Trans-Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI), Tuban. The factory is designed to operate continuously for 330 days, 24 hours per day, and requires 214 employees. Biphenyl preparation begins with reacting benzene (2,807.74 kg/hour) in a Pipe Flow Reactor (R-01) at a reactor temperature of 377 oC and a pressure of 2 atm. This reaction takes place with a conversion of 90% and is endothermic so that a Hitech heater is used to maintain the operating temperature. The products that come out of the reactor are biphenyl and hydrogen. It is then cooled and condensed in a Partial Condenser (CD-01) to a temperature of 151 oC. Then enter into Separator-02 (SP-02) to separate hydrogen from a mixture of benzene, toluene and biphenyl. Hydrogen in the gas phase as a result of the separtor. The bottom product in the form of benzene, toluene and biphenyl in the liquid phase is pumped and put into a distillation tower (MD-01) to purify the product with the bottom product in the form of biphenyl with a purity of 99.3%. The result of the distillation tower is benzene and its impurities are recycled as feed into the reactor with a temperature of 83 oC and a pressure of 1 atm. This factory requires Fixed Capital (FC) Rp. 34,341,856,338,- + US$ 4,195,836, Working Capital (WC) (Rp. 127,536,505,173,- + US$ 170,019), Manufacturing Cost (MC) (Rp. 254,092,040,390,- + US$ 816,090), and General Expenses (GE) (Rp. 33,990,417,539,- + US$ 81,609). Economic analysis shows the value of ROI before tax is 50.38 % and the value of ROI after tax is 32.75%. POT before tax is 1.65 years and POT after tax is 2.34 years. The BEP value is 43.11% and the SDP value is 23.75%. The interest rate in DCF for 10 years is 19% on average. Thus, from a technical and economic point of view, a biphenyl plant from benzene with a capacity of 10,000 tons/year is worthy of consideration.