Reference no: EM132309801

ASSIGNMENT PROJECT

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the project are to:

• Find and summarise information about a specific product and its manufacture.

• Analyse a nominated manufacturing process from a process synthesis point of view.

• Construct a Hysys simulation for the given process, clearly documenting the assumptions and choices made, and reflecting on its limitations.

• Perform an individual study on a process synthesis and design topic of your choice, explaining the benefits and scope of the study, your method, the results and their implications.

• Present the information in a professional report.

PROJECT TASKS

Please write a report that covers the following topics.

1. Product and process information (group work)

Please provide the following background information about isopropylamine (suggested length 2–3 pages):

(a) Brief description, typical specifications of commercial grades and commercial applications of the product.

(b) Business information on the product, such as major producers, trends in worldwide production capacity, recent industry news, typical plant capacities, and historic and current prices.

(c) Table that briefly explains and compares at least one alternative manufacturing process for isopropylamine with the Luyben process. Please give preference to current commercial processes. However, you can include superseded historical processes and processes that are not commercialised.

2. Analysis of the Luyben process (group work)

Please analyse the flowsheet by Luyben from a process synthesis viewpoint (suggested length 3–6 pages):

(a) Classification of the flowsheet into generic flowsheet blocks (such as Reactor Feed Preparation). Show the generic blocks by drawing your own generic block flow diagram of the process. Explain the reasoning behind your choice of blocks and classification.

(b) For the Luyben process, use either Smith’s onion model or Douglas’ hierarchical model of process synthesis to interpret the issues encountered, decisions made and possible alternatives that you think would have been considered by the process designers.

Please make sure you state clearly which synthesis model you are using. Show your analysis in a table, where the layers or levels of consideration are shown in the rows and the issues, decisions and alternatives are shown in the columns. For the reactor layer or level, for example, you could explore among other questions:

• Issues: What are the main factors that should be considered in designing the reaction section of the process? Are there any specific issues about making isopropylamine?

• Decisions: What reactor configuration did the flowsheet designers select? How did they decide to control the reactor temperature? How was by-product formation handled?

• Alternatives: Are there any reasonable alternatives to the given reactor design that you think the designers might have considered? Why might they have rejected them? What do you think would be worth exploring further?

3. Process simulation and review (group work)

You are asked to replicate the Luyben flowsheet in Hysys as close as reasonably possible, and compare your simulation with Luyben’s work. Replicating existing results is often used to build confidence that your methodology and parameter values are correct before undertaking
further studies.

However, it is almost certain that you will not be able to replicate all the flowsheet results exactly. Please don’t spend an excessive amount of time getting the last decimal place to agree with Luyben.

This part of the work should include the following (suggested length 7–10 pages, excluding the Input Summary):

(a) Construction of a steady state simulation of the Luyben process in Hysys with the following restrictions:

• A rigorous PFR model must be used for the reactor.

• Shortcut Columns (with Component Splitters if needed) must be used for the distillation columns. Please do not use fully rigorous columns for the group portion of the work.

(b) A clear image of the Hysys flowsheet.

(c) Stream tables for the material and energy streams, including compositions expressed in mole fractions.

(d) An Input Summary generated by Hysys (to be placed in the Appendix).

(e) A table that outlines the simulation created:

• Assumptions and decisions made

• Any justifications for them

• Any comments about their implications

The simulation elements covered should include not only the equipment, but also the list of species, thermodynamic method and similar.

(f) A table that reviews major differences between the simulation and Luyben’s flowsheet results. Please exclude minor differences.

(g) A short review (around ½ page) on the main technical challenge encountered in constructing the simulation and how the group overcame it or tried to overcome it. Please note that the Hysys (.hsc) case file for the group’s flowsheet will need to be submitted
at the same time as your report.

4. Individual study on a process synthesis and design topic

Before selecting a topic, please bear in mind the limited information that is available in Luyben’s document and in other open literature. Think carefully about the data you might need, how it could be obtained or approximated, and have a go at finding the information before making a final decision about what topic you do.

Some of the topics may require further research and some self-study. Original thinking is encouraged. For some topics you may also need to replace some of the simplified units by rigorous units. Each person’s study should not
exceed 10 pages.

Please note the following two important points:

• The study needs to be quantitative and must involve using the Hysys isopropylamine simulation developed by the group.

• The intended study and the proposed methodology have to be appropriate. A study, no matter how thorough, that investigates something unhelpful or applies an unsuitable method will not gain a good mark. Please check if you are not sure.

You are free to select any one of the topics here to investigate the process further; however, each person in your group must do a different study:

• Checking the appropriateness of the property package used, its alternatives and improvement.

• Alternative reactor configurations and operating conditions, possibly including different temperature control methods.

• Rigorous simulation of a distillation column and exploration of its behaviour.

Alternative separation systems, including different separation processes and/or different column sequences.

• Heat exchanger network analysis, synthesis and implementation.

• Questioning and exploring some of the decisions related to the reactor-separatorrecycle structure of the flowsheet.

• Economic analysis, including sensitivity and scenario analyses.

• Another topic of your choice related to process synthesis and design that interests you.

You can be creative here. This option is particularly encouraged, but please check with your lecturer for the topic’s suitability before starting the study. In general, dynamics and control should be avoided as that has been already been studied by Luyben.

For your selected individual study please:

(a) Clearly outline the intended scope of the study. Explain the significance and potential benefits of conducting it.

(b) Describe the methodology you will use for conducting the study, referring to the literature as appropriate.

(c) Show the results of the work performed: flowsheets, tables, graphs, etc.

(d) Discuss the results, including the reasons for the behaviour, the implications, the limitations of the study and recommendations coming from your work.

REPORT FORMAT

Please submit a single report that combines the group and individual work. Use 1.0–1.5 line spacing and A4-size pages. A professional standard of writing and presentation is expected. Pages should be numbered.