Mathematical simulation and optimization of xylene isomerization reactor to enhance p-xylene production

This study investigated mathematical modeling and optimization of the xylene isomerization reaction in a commercial adiabatic reactor. The proposed model, consisting of a set of algebraic and ordinary differential equations, is based on a heterogeneous one-dimensional steady-state formulation. To verify the proposed model, the simulation results have been compared to available data from an industrial reactor. A good agreement has been found between the simulation and plant data. The genetic algorithm (GA) method is applied to optimize the reactor operating conditions considering the para-xylene (p-xylene) mole fraction in reactor outlet as the main objective function. According to the simulation results, there is an optimum initial temperature for maximizing the objective function. In the optimization process, the p-xylene mole fraction was enhanced by 3.0% at an optimized feed temperature of 678.04K.