Reconstruction of the hardware design for isopropylbenzene production for the production of ethylbenzene

The hardware design of the rectification unit for the production of isopropylbenzene in the presence of the AlCl3 catalyst is considered, the use of which has a number of problems associated with its corrosiveness, rapid deactivation, the complexity of regeneration, etc. One of the possible solutions to the listed technological disadvantages is the use of heterogeneous zeolite-containing catalysts. In this case, during the reconstruction of the existing production of isopropylbenzene in the technological scheme of separation of alkylate, three rectification columns are released, which are expediently used to separate the alkylate of ethylbenzene production. To study the possibility of using the discharging distillation columns, a computational experiment was carried out using the Honeywell UniSim Design modeling system, in which a model of the alkylate separation unit for ethylbenzene production was formed. The NRTL method was used as a mathematical package for calculating the thermodynamic properties of the mixture components. As a result of modeling the operation of the alkylate separation unit for each distillation column, the optimal operating process parameters were obtained: pressure of the top and bottom of the column, reflux ratio, temperature profile along the height of the column. The calculated material balance of the technological scheme shows that in the first distillation column, complete separation of benzene from the alkylation reaction mass is achieved, the second column ensures the production of commercial ethylbenzene, and in the third column, a fairly clear separation of diethylbenzene from the remaining components of the mixture is obtained. The performed computational experiment showed that for the organization of the stable operation of the technological scheme for the separation of alkylate in the production of ethylbenzene, it is possible to use all the considered distillation columns without changing their design parameters at a load on the reaction mass of alkylation of about 60 t / h.