Simulation of a Process Plant for the Production of Propylene

The simulation of a process plant for the production of propylene has been considered in this work. The reactor used for this research was a Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) which was deliberately picked because of the advantage of good temperature and reaction control. Other equipment includes a compressor, conversion reactor, cooler and splitter. Sizing was done for all equipment but detailed design was carried out for the CSTR since it’s the heart of the process plant. The principle of conservation of mass was applied for the development of basic design performance equations for the volume, the height, space time, space velocity and heat generated per unit volume at 90% conversion of propane to propylene. Aspen Hysys which is known for its reliability in chemical engineering process design was used to simulate the process plant and was used for all calculations and sizing of process equipment. The values of the functional and dimensional parameters which are required for the sizing of the reactor were obtained after the simulation with the following results: volume of reactor 37 m3, height of reactor 7.4 m, space time 0.028 hr, space velocity 59 hr-1 and heat load 78 kj/m3.