Development of an Industrial Multitubular Fixed Bed Catalytic Reactor as Cape-open Unit Operation Model Applied to Ethene Production by Ethanol Dehydration Process
The ethene production by ethanol dehydration has been established as a promising production route. In this work a computer software simulation written in FORTRAN 95 for an industrial multitubular fixed bed reactor (MTR), applied to this production route, is embedded in process simulation environment through a C#./NET wrapper code. This wrapper code was developed in agreement with the CAPE-OPEN standards, allowing the MTR simulator to be used as a native unit operation component in any CAPEOPEN compliant simulation environment.
The influence of configuration on controller design of multitubular reactors
Abstract The design, stability and control of multitubular fixed bed catalytic reactors are considered through a detailed mathematical model. An investigation of the interactions between coolant flow pattern and reactor behaviour suggests that new reactor configuration can improve control. Criteria are proposed for defining system operating conditions which can guarantee the reactor stability. Under these conditions the reactor can be very effectively controlled using self-tuning control algorithms.
The waste reduction (WAR) algorithm: environmental impacts, energy consumption, and engineering economics
A general theory known as the waste reduction (WAR) algorithm has been developed to describe the flow and the generation of potential environmental impact through a chemical process. The theory defines indexes that characterize the generation and the output of potential environmental impact from a process. The existing theory has been extended to include the potential environmental impact of the energy consumed in a chemical process. Energy will have both an environmental impact as well as an economic impact on process design and analysis. Including energy into the analysis of environmental impact is done by re-writing the system boundaries to include the power plant which supplies the energy being consumed by the process and incorporating the environmental effects of the power plant into the analysis. The effect of this addition on the original potential impact indexes will be discussed. An extensive engineering economic evaluation has been included in the process analysis which inherently contains the cost of the consumed energy as an operating cost. A case study is presented which includes a base process design and two modifications to the base design. Each design is analyzed from an economic perspective and an environmental impact perspective. The environmental impact analysis is partitioned into the impacts of the non-product streams and the impacts of the energy generation/consumption process. The comparisons of these analysis procedures illustrate the consequences for decision making in the design of environmentally friendly processes.