Design Project 499

BRIEF PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS MIRI 2013

There are eight projects available this year: Industry advisor Project title MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) Production Production of Maleic Anhydride Design of Acetic Acid Plant Design of Cumene Plant Vinyl chloride monomer Ammonia Plant Design of Acrylic Acid Plant Gas Processing Plant SSB = Sarawak Shell Berhad; PCSB = Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd. Academic advisors John Lau John Lau Hannah Ngu Hannah Ngu Tan Yin Ling Mesfin Getu Tan Yin Ling Tan Yin Ling Mesfin Getu No. of groups 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Project 1: MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) Production Methyl tert-butyl ether, also known as methyl tertiary butyl ether and MTBE, is an organic compound with molecular formula (CH3)3COCH3. MTBE is a gasoline additive used to increase octane number that is produced from methanol and isobutylene. The chemical engineering team are assigned to propose a conceptual design for MTBE plant with production capacity of 50,000 tonne/yr and will be submitted to the management for consideration. MTBE is produced by a liquid-phase reaction over a catalyst. The reaction is between isobutene and methanol as follows: (CH3)2C=CH2 + CH3OH (CH3)3C-O-CH3 You are required to report the current global market outlook of MTBE and design an economical production process. The process design could involve several unit operations (reactors, heat exchangers, mixer, distillation column and etc.) in terms of block flow diagram (BFD) and process flow diagram (PFD). Justifications of choosing the relevant process units should be included.

Project 2: Production of Maleic Anhydride Maleic anhydride is an organic compound with the molecular formula of C2H2(CO)2O . It is used primarily in the formation of unsaturated polyester resins for use in boats, autos, trucks, buildings, piping, and electrical goods due to its highly versatile properties that makes dissimilar chemistries compatible and improves the durability and value of end products. The management team of your company has a vision to construct a maleic anhydride production plant in order to expand their business. Therefore, as a chemical engineer, your mission is to propose a viable chemical process with the manufacturing capacity of 25,000 ton/yr maleic anhydride. Chemical Reaction: The raw material is benzene. The primary reaction is one in which benzene is partially oxidized to form maleic anhydride (Equation 1). There are two undesired side reactions, the subsequent combustion of maleic anhydride (Equation 2) and the complete combustion of benzene (Equation 3). The chemical reactions are as follows:

C6 H 6 + 4.5O2 C4 H 2O3 + 2CO2 + 2 H 2O (1) C4 H 2O3 + 3O2 4CO2 + H 2O C6 H 6 + 7.5O2 6CO2 + 3H 2O

(2) (3)

You are required to report the current global market outlook of maleic anhydride and design an economical production process. The process design could involve several unit operations (reactors, heat exchangers, mixer, distillation column and etc.) in terms of block flow diagram (BFD) and process flow diagram (PFD). Justifications of choosing the relevant process units should be included.

Project 3: Design of Acetic Acid Plant Acetic acid is a chemical reagent that is commonly used as raw material for manufacture of vinyl acetate, acetic anhydride and etc. It is expected that the global demand for acetic acid will rise in the near future. A multinational company plans to build an acetic acid plant with production rate of 100,000 tonnes per annum. Your company is requested to perform the feasibility study and the design of the whole plant. Acetic acid produced should have purity of 99%.

Project 4: Design of Cumene Plant Cumene (isopropyl benzene) is commonly used as feedstock for phenol and acetone production. A Malaysian company has requested your team to design a cumene production plant. It is expected that the plant can produce 100,000 tonnes of cumene per year with purity of 99.9wt%. Economic and technological justification will have to be conducted to defend the decisions your team made throughout the design. The plant design should also be controllable and operate safely.

Project 5: Vinyl chloride monomer Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) is a gas with high vapour pressure at room temperature. It is highly toxic and flammable chemical. Hence, it requires to be produced with strict quality and safety control. The VCM plant here in Malaysia is located in Kerteh Terengganu. The capacity of the Kerteh Vinyl Chloride KVCM is 400, 000 tpa (ton per day) with > 99.9% purity. The produced VCM will be used as a feedstock to produce PVC (polymer polyvinyl chloride). Both the VCM and PVC plant are owned by the same company-Vinyl Chloride (M) Sdn Bhd. Suppose due to the high market demand that the company obtained recently, there is a need to build a new VCM plant where the produced vinyl chloride resin will be directly exported. In this task, you are required to design the new plant with the most sophisticated technology with minimum impact to the environment.

Project 6: Ammonia Plant The proposed process will initially convert natural gas into gaseous hydrogen. This is achieved by steam reforming the natural gas followed by a CO shift reaction to make additional CO2. The hydrogen will be catalytically reacted with nitrogen to produce ammonia. The plant will be stand-alone and will include its own facilities for utilities, control and infrastructure. The plant will have a nameplate capacity of 2000 tpd ammonia production and an unclassified estimate of the capital cost. The natural gas to ammonia process follows these key process steps: Conversion of natural gas to produce a synthesis gas consisting mainly of H2 and CO Conversion of CO to CO2, to generate additional H2 Gas clean-up to produce a pure H2 stream and recovery of CO2 NH3 synthesis from H2 and N2 (N2 supplied from process air)

Project 7: Design of Acrylic Acid Plant According to Gerard E. Tarzia, Rohm and Haas vice president and business unit director of BASF, acrylic acid is one of the fastest growing commodity chemicals, with worldwide demand increasing at about four percent per year. He indicates that fuelled by its use in everything from water-based paints and sealants to super-absorbent polymers and detergent additives, a new world-scale 2-propenoic acid plant must be built every year, on average, to keep up with demand. And with worldwide demand for acrylic acid at about 7.5 billion pounds, the cost savings alone by using a significantly less expensive key raw material would revolutionize the industry.(http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Acrylic-Acid-Demand-GrowthRate/210263#ixzz0ukt9wXRx) As a result, a client of your company plans to evaluate the possibility to construct a plant to produce acrylic acid. Your team is assigned to the task and needs to design a plant that produces 300,000 metric tonnes of acrylic acid per year. Economic justification will have to be conducted to defend the decisions your team made throughout the design. Furthermore, energy and material minimization through reuse and recycling should be conducted. The plant design must also be controllable and safe to operate.

Project 8: Gas Processing Plant Natural gas has become an important fuel for its steady growth rate, wide availability, clean burning characteristics and easy transportation. Recent study shows that the world demand for natural gas is expected to almost double by 2030 and becomes a dominant fuel in industrial sector by overtaking oil. Malaysia has wide reserves of natural gas which is approximated to 87 TCF (trillion cubic feet) as you can see in the table below: Table 1: Gas fields in Malaysia Area Discovered Reserves (TCF) Producing P. Malaysia 92 36.6 4 Sarawak 85 44.3 5 Sabah 25 6.1 Total 202 87.0 9 Among the nine gas processing plants (GPP), the two complexes (GPP A & GPP B) exist in Kerteh Terengganu. The GPP A complex consists of four gas processing plants (GPP 1, GPP 2, GPP 3 and GPP 4) and one back up plant (DPCU-2). On the other hand, the GPP B complex plant has two gas processing plants (GPP 5 and GPP 6) and one back up plant (DPCU-3). The distance between the GPPA and GPP B complexes is 18 KM as you can see in the figure 1.
GPP A COMPLEX GPP B COMPLEX

GPP1

GPP2

GPP5

GPP6

18 kM

GPP3

GPP3

GPP7

GPP8

DPCU-2

DPCU-23

Figure 1: A simple representation for the location of the two GPP complexes in Kerteh

The production capacity of the existing gas processing plants (GPP) is shown below for your reference

Plant GPP1 GPP2 GPP3 GPP4 GPP5 GPP6 Total

Table 2: Production capacities of the two GPP complexes Sales gas Ethane Propane Butane (MMSCFD) (MTD) (MTD) (MTD) 250 440 470 250 550 500 320 250 550 500 320 250 550 500 320 500 960 1600 950 500 960 1600 950 2000 3570 5140 3330

Condensate (MTD) 640 320 320 320 1000 1000 3600

NB: The two back up plants (DPCU1 & DPCU2) in complex A and B provides a back up capacity of 750 MMSCFD sales gas. Suppose the management decided to make an expansion by adding two new gas processing plants due to the high customer demand that the plant received especially for the three products: ethane, propane and butane. The location of the newly plants (GPP 7 and GPP 8) to be built is shown with a dotted box in figure 1. Your task in this project is to design one of the two plants. The selected new plant is expected to fulfil the market demand with the production capacity given below: Sales gas (MMSCFD) 500 500 1000 Ethane (MTD) 1000 960 1960 Propane (MTD) 1650 1650 3300 Butane (MTD) 950 1000 1950 Condensate (MTD) 1000 1000 2000

Plant GPP7 GPP8 Total