Description
Develop a flowsheet in Aspen Plus to simulate the following process for the production of
cyclohexane via benzene hydrogenation. Calculate the size of all the equipment in the flowsheet.
Fresh benzene and hydrogen feed streams are first fed through a heater to bring the streams up to
the reactor feed temperature and pressure conditions. This feed is then sent to a fixed-bed catalytic
reactor where the following reaction occurs:
3 H2 + 1 C6H6 -> 1 C6H12
The reactor effluent stream is then sent to a flash tank to separate the light and heavy components
of the mixture. The vapor stream coming off the flash tank is recycled back to the feed mixture after
a small purge stream is removed to prevent impurities from building up in the system.
The majority
of the liquid stream leaving the flash tank goes to a distillation column to purify the cyclohexane
product, while a small portion of the liquid stream is recycled back to the feed mixture to minimize
loss of benzene.
Operating specifications:
Feed Streams
Benzene Feed
Benzene mole fraction: 1
Total flow: 100 lbmol/hr
Temperature: 100 °F
Pressure: 15 psia
Hydrogen Feed
Hydrogen mole fraction: 0.900
Nitrogen mole fraction: 0.0abc (last 3 digits of your roll number)
Methane mole fraction: 0.1 – 0.0abc
Total flow: 310 lbmol/hr
Temperature: 120 °F
Pressure: 335 psia
Feed preheater
Outlet temperature: 300 °F
Outlet pressure: 330 psia
Reactor
Conversion: 99.8% of benzene
Outlet temperature: 400 °F
Pressure drop: 15 psi
Flash Tank
Temperature: 120 °F
Pressure drop: 5 psi
Distillation Column
Number of stage: 15
Feed stage: 8
Reflux ratio: 1.2
Cyclohexane recovery: 99.99 mole % in bottoms
Condenser Pressure: 200 psi
Purge
Rate: 8% of vapor stream from flash
Liquid Split
Rate: 70% of liquid stream from flash to distillation column
Deliverables (DUE DATE: 13 Feb 2022, 11:00pm)
1. Submit an Excel spreadsheet with the conditions and the size of each equipment.
2. Also submit the Aspen file.
The name of your files should be your Roll Number.
