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Modeling and analysis of the Lurgi‐type methanol to propylene process: Optimization of olefin recycle
Author(s) -
Huang Xun,
Li Hu,
Li Hui,
Xiao WenDe
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.15565
Subject(s) - olefin fiber , yield (engineering) , methanol , cracking , propene , process (computing) , catalysis , chemistry , work (physics) , fluid catalytic cracking , chemical engineering , process engineering , materials science , organic chemistry , waste management , engineering , computer science , mechanical engineering , composite material , operating system
This work proposed a strategy to improve the yield of light olefins of industrial methanol to propylene process by reducing the olefins recycled back into the main reactor and appending an olefin cracking reactor. The heterogeneous fixed‐bed model was employed to simulate the reactors with a robust mathematical procedure developed to determine the reactor configuration and the recycle flow rates of the olefins. Two methods were proposed for the modulation: the recycle ratio and species of the olefins, respectively. Results show that the yield of C 2 –C 3 olefins can be improved up to 70% from the basement of about 60% when the ratio is reduced from 100% to less than 23% or when only butene apart from pentene and hexene is recycled back into the main reactor, and the latter method is more effective as its catalyst requirement is seven times less than the former's in the appended cracking reactor. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 63: 306–313, 2017