Modelling, Simulation and Economic Analysis of

Hydrodealkylation Plant (HDA Process)

ASSIGNMENT-I

Submitted by:

VINAYAK PATHAK (2014A1PS549P)

Submitted to:

Dr. Pradipta Chattopadhyay

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
BITS Pilani

April 6, 2017

Department of Chemical Engineering

Birla Institute of Technology and Science
Pilani, Rajasthan-333031
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1. Background
a) Introduction
Hydrodealkyation forms an integral process of chemical industries for manufacturing of Benzene
which is an important constituent for various chemical processes across the plants and labs. A
hydrodealkylation plant in general uses Toluene and Hydrogen as feed and producing various
fuels, most importantly being methane and butane which are burnt for obtaining the calorific value
and generating steam for electricity production.
A hydrodealkylation plant was modelled and simulated using Aspen Plus and economic analysis
was carried out using Aspen Economic Analyzer in order to obtain project feasibility. The plant
consisted of a reactor carrying out hydrodealkylation reaction at 922K, followed by a flash vessel
(334 kPa) in order to separate liquid benzene product from methane fuel. This is followed by a
distillation train operating at varying temperatures and pressure ultimately giving benzene product
of purity of 74.4%. In order to achieve benzene product of high purity optimization and sensitivity
analysis need to be carried out which shall be scope of future work.

Figure 1.1: Process flow sheet of Hydrodealkylation plant simulation on Aspen Plus [1]

b) Why the given process flow-sheet?

Modifications and Rationale: The existing flow sheet was modified by placing a flash drum in
place of distillation column. This helped in handling pressure changes accompanying the phase
change suitably, resulting in increased yield of the desired product Benzene and reducing load on
the compressor by 100 kWh thereby reducing the operating cost of plant. Also as alternative the
Diphenyl obtained as one of the by product can be recycled back into the reactor [2,3], leading to
increase in overall conversion of toluene to benzene from 99.67% to 99.854%.
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2. Economic analysis

i) Operations
Operating Weeks/years: 52 (1 Week: 7 days, 1 day: 24 hours.)
Economic life of Project: 10 years.

ii) Raw materials Cost

For flowsheeting, 43056 kg/hr (95860lb/hr) of overall process feed containing Toluene 41.3% by
mole (11442.4 kg/hr ) and hydrogen 58.7% by mol (357.12 kg/hr) in excess was considered with
stream prices respectively $3.2/gal[1] and $2.9/kg[1]. From process plant analyzer overall raw
material costs obtained are tabulated as follows:

Table 2.1: Cost Analysis of Raw Materials

Description Specification Rate per Units Rate Cost per Cost per Year(US$)
Basis Hour Units Hour($/hr)
H2-FEED Mass Basis 794.055132 LB LB/H 1080.53196 9470127.868
TOL-FEED Volume Basis 467.476044 CF CFH 9317.854053 81664654.63
TOTAL COST - - - - 10398.38601 91134782.5

iii) Product Costs

Main products obtained are Benzene (9311.511 kg/hr- 99.846% purity), Methane(Fuel and Purge),
and trace amount of Diphenyl from second Reversible reaction. The stream prices taken for
Benzene, Methane and Diphenyl are $4/gal[1] , $1/kg[2], $0.85/kg[2]
Table 2.2 Cost analysis of Products
Specification Rate per Rate Cost per Cost per
Description Basis Hour Units Units Hour($/hr) Year(US$)

BENZENE Volume Basis 409.700085 CF CFH 10207.81077 89457170.46

C12PURGE(DIPHENYL) Mass Basis 510.293695 LB LB/H 231.465138 2028467.883
FUEL Mass Basis 409.347612 LB LB/H 157.825609 1383120.507
PURGE Mass Basis 4564.16688 LB LB/H 2070.269583 18143014.52
TOTAL COST - - - - 12667.371 111011773.4

iv) Utilities Cost

External utilities are required in a process plant for sustaining various chemical processes and unit
operation in form of electricity and water. Cost analysis of utilities involved is tabulated as follows:

Table 2.3 Cost analysis of Involved Utilities

Utilities
Cost per Cost
Name Fluid Rate Rate Units Hour Units
Electricity 452.619 KW 35.077973 US$/H
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Cooling
Water Water 0.149503 MMGAL/H 17.94036 US$/H
Total 53.01/hr US$/hr
v) Overall Capital and Operating Cost Analysis
Table 2.4 Overall Cost analysis
S.No Quantity Percent of Total initial Cost (US$)
. Investment(T.I.)
Capital Costs
1. Total Initial Investment (T.I.) - $187285800
2. Total Project Cost - $ 8918370
3. Initial Working Capital Cost 5% $ 9364290
Operating Costs
1. Operating Charges 25% $ 46821450
2. Plant Overhead 50% $ 93642900
3. Total Operating Labor Cost 0.44% $ 832700
4. Total Maintenance Cost 0.05% $ 78346
5. General and Administrative 8% $ 911116
Expenses(G&A Expenses)

vi) Depreciation
Method: Straight Line Depreciation
Initial investment (V): 187285800
Salvage Value (Vs): 40% of Initial Working Capital Cost = $3745716
Service Life (n): 10 years

Depreciation: = = $18354008.4

vii) Profitability Measures

The Internal Rate of Return: Measure for potential profit from a particular investment
= 24.455%
Net Rate of Return: Measure of gain from a project over period of time
=1.436%
Payout Period: Length of time required to recover an investment
= 8.31576 years
Accounting Rate of Return: Amount of profit recovered based on initial investment
=164.123
Profitability Index: Used to correlate costs and profit =1.01363
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3.) Skill Achievement

This assignment helped in getting acquainted to various intricacies of process flow sheeting,
design and simulation.
At the same time it strengthened familiarity to economic aspects of process industry like
present value, depreciation, inflation, rate of return etc. which is as important as the technical
understanding for a Chemical Engineer.
The theoretical knowledge of Process Design and Economics was very well amalgamated
through use of Aspen Plus and Aspen Process Economic Analyzer(APEA) where various
unit operations and concepts like distillation, flash drum, reactor design, pump, compressors
and heat exchangers were explored well.
Besides this the required sensitivity analysis was performed for cost optimization and product
yield enhancement [5].
The assignment thus effectively helped in reinforcement of effective bridging between the
academic practices and industrial practicality.

4.) Conclusions
After suitable modifications in the conventional process flow sheet by introducing a recycle stream
of diphenyl benzene and replacing distillation column by flash drum it was observed that the
payout period decreased from 10.23 years to 8.3157 years. At the same time the operating cost of
the plant decreased from $48767543 to $46821450 (3.99%), and the Benzene yield increased from
0.0308 kmol/sec to 0.0334 kmol/sec(8.44%). Thus the obtained results confirms well with
suggested literature results [6].

5.) References

[1]. Jana, A.K. (2014). Process simulation and control using Aspen. New Delhi: PHI Learning.
[2]. Peters, M.S., Timmerhaus, K.D., & West, R.E. (2006). Plant design and economics for
chemical engineers. Boston: McGraw-Hill
[3]. Seider, W.D., Lewin, D.R., Seader, J.D., Widagdo, S., Gani, R., & Ng, K.M. (2017).
Product and process design principles: synthesis, analysis and evaluation. Hoboken, NJ:
Wiley.
[4]. Douglas, J.M. (2012). Conceptual design of chemical processes. Massachusetts: McGraw-
Hill.
[5]. Morales, M. (2013, July 19). Aspen Plus V8.0 Tutorial - Sensitivity Analysis. Retrieved
April 04, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8inROJ10Jw.
[6]. Hoo, K. (2015). A Modified Hierarchy for Designing Chemical Processes, (June 2006),
50375043. https://doi.org/10.1021/ie051443k