Process Design

The main raw materials are hydrogen and toluene to produce benzene and methane known as
hydrodealkylation process (HDA). The feed specifications of the process were defined at 25C and
3500kPa before they are heated in a furnace to 725C. The thermodynamic package was used is Peng
Robinson in Aspen HYSYS simulator.

Reaction Heuristic
 PFR – used for high production rates and for short residence time reactions.
 The reactor must not exceed 800C to prevent significant cracking.
 High exothermic heat of reaction – increase the amount of hydrogen added to the reactor
(excess reactant).
 In practical instances, the ratio of hydrogen to toluene should be high to prevent coking.
 Initially, for the non-recycle scenario, we can classify our reaction set as consecutive. This is
because reaction 2 cannot occur until reaction 1 has taken place. When dealing with a set of
consecutive reactions, we must look at the activation energy of the reactions to determine
optimal reactor operating conditions. The activation energy of reaction 1 is greater than
reaction 2, therefore we should use a decreasing temperature profile through our PFR in to
favour reaction 1 as much as possible.
 In the scenario with the recycle stream, reactions 1 & 2 will occur simultaneously as reaction
2 reactants will be present in the feed stream. The activation energy for the desired reaction 1
is greater than the activation energy for reaction 2 – therefore, heuristically, we should operate
the reactor at a high temperature to favour reaction 1. This can be confirmed by analysing the
reaction kinetics using an Arrhenius expression.

Figure ? (need to be reproduced)

From the above plot it can be seen that, to achieve the greatest comparative favourability for the
desired reaction to the unwanted secondary reactions, we must operate the reactor at a higher
temperature.
 General Heuristic: A batch or plug flow reactor should be used for multiple reactions in
series.