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Chlorobenzene Plant Tutorial

This document provides a tutorial for modeling a chlorobenzene production process in Aspen Plus. It describes setting up the process flow diagram which includes two distillation columns for separating the product streams, reactors for the chlorination reactions, pumps, compressors, heat exchangers, and a washing unit. Properties are specified, blocks are defined, reactions are added, and simulations are run to determine that the process meets the product specifications. Key results reported include the power requirements and temperatures for the compressor and heat exchangers, sizes and duties for the reactors and distillation columns, and stream compositions.

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381 views21 pages

Chlorobenzene Plant Tutorial

This document provides a tutorial for modeling a chlorobenzene production process in Aspen Plus. It describes setting up the process flow diagram which includes two distillation columns for separating the product streams, reactors for the chlorination reactions, pumps, compressors, heat exchangers, and a washing unit. Properties are specified, blocks are defined, reactions are added, and simulations are run to determine that the process meets the product specifications. Key results reported include the power requirements and temperatures for the compressor and heat exchangers, sizes and duties for the reactors and distillation columns, and stream compositions.

Uploaded by

djona lokima
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Aspen Plus Tutorial, adapted from You Tube Series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC4SGlVn4HI&list=PLbTw6Y7MopQVwoM7pAMN5oJifKiJgakyH&in
dex=2

Application to a Chlorobenzene Plant

1. Problem Information:
2. Block Diagram for the Process:

3. Open up a new AspenPlus simulation (General with Metric units). Define the components listed
below under “Properties” -> “Components” -> “Specifications”:
4. For the property method, choose RK-Soave (non-ideal, non-polar hydrocarbon components).
Warning when running property method analysis is ok since we will not be working with NaOH in
the vapor phase (Warning has to do with the Antoine Parameters).

5. Reproduce the flowsheet shown below. Note that WASHING is an RStoic and is used to neutralize
HCl in the liquid product stream which could corrode downstream operations.

6. Now we are going to work on the separations train. Insert two DSTWU columns into the flowsheet
as shown below. The distillate from the first column should contain primarily benzene, the
distillation from the second column should contain primarily monochlorobenzene, and the bottoms
from the second column should contain primarily dichlorobenzene. Note that we are using DSTWU
columns because the reflux and stages necessary to achieve our product specification are currently
unknown.
7. We are now going to add heaters to our feed streams. Using the heater model will make it so that
we don’t have to choose a heating medium. This way we can choose the most economical medium
as we learn later in the process what utilities we have access to.

8. Now insert a compressor to bring the chlorine feed up from atmospheric pressure to the design
pressure and a pump to bring the benzene feed up from atmospheric pressure to the design
pressure (located in “Pressure Changers”. Your new flowsheet should look like the one below:
9. Define the benzene feed stream as shown below. It enters the process at atmospheric pressure and
temperature.
10. Define the caustic stream as shown below:

11. Define the chlorine feed stream as shown below. It enters the process at atmospheric pressure and
temperature.
12. Enter the information for the pump and compressor as shown below:
13. Define the two DSTWU columns as shown below:
14. Define the heaters as shown below:
15. Define RCSTR as shown below:
16. Define the reactions from the problem statement in the “Reactions” folder under “Blocks”. Choose
POWERLAW as the reaction type. You will need to click “New” again for each reaction. (Note both
reactions are 0th order w.r.t. Chrlorine).
17. Define the kinetics of the reactions in the “Kinetic” tab as shown below:
18. Add R-1 to the list of reactions (or “Selected reaction sets”) under the CSTR block (browse to
“Blocks” -> “RCSTR” -> “Reactions”).
19. Define the WASHING reactor as shown below. For the second window, click on “New” to define the
reaction.
20. We can now run the simulation. My initial run had an error (yours may not). The problem was that
the model was interpreting the “WASTE” stream as the product stream from the “WASHING”
operation and the “CRUDE” stream as the waste stream. To clear up this error I redefine the streams
leaving the WASHING unit as shown below:

21. Reset and re-run the simulation and the simulation will converge. The stream table should look like
the one below. Note that there is 95 mol% monochlorbenzene in the P-MONO stream and 83.9
mol% dichlorobenzene in the P-DI stream, meeting our product specifications. Also note that about
½ of the benzene fed to the process exits in the benzene product stream. This could potentially be
recycled.
22. Look at the results for the benzene pump. Note the break power and NPSH:

23. Look at the results for the chlorine compressor. Note the work required, efficiency, and the outlet
temperature:
24. Look at the results for the benzene and chlorine heaters, noting the heat duties:
25. Look at the results for the CSTR. Note the heat duty and volume. Since the vapor phase is being
constantly drawn off, heuristics suggest that the reactor should be sized for the liquid volume
overdesigned for head space.
26. Look at the results for the washer, noting the heat duty:
27. Finally, look at the results for DIST1 and DIST2. Note the reflux ratio, the number of stages, and the
feed stage. Also note the condenser and reboiler duties.

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