Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
INTERGRATED DESIGN
GROUP MEMBERS :
- To propose a suitable catalyst and their temperature range commonly used in ethylene
oxide production.
- To determine the reaction details such as conversion, selectivity and kinetic data for
the selected catalysts.
- To find the most suitable reactor to carry out the reaction.
- To calculate the conversion and concentration of each species for the temperature
range of each of the catalyst.
- To conduct mass and energy balance of the catalytic in a process simulator
3.0 INTRODUCTION
ethylene chlorohydrin is converted to ethylene oxide by reaction with calcium oxide. The
chlorohydrin process is carried out in packed towers at 27-43°C and 2-3 atm pressure at a yield
be maintained below 7 wt.% to avoid formation of by-products such as ethylene dichloride and
dichlorodiethyl ether. However, this method is no longer used on an industrial scale and has
been replaced by direct catalytic oxidation method. Direct oxidation is carried out at 220-300°C
and 10-30 bar pressure and produces few by-products such as carbon dioxide and water. [1][2]
There are two reaction in direction oxidation method. The first reaction is oxidation of
Up to the present, silver has been considered as the most efficient catalyst for direct oxidation
of ethylene to ethylene oxide. However, pure silver catalyst shows low selectivity to ethylene
oxide. Hence, addition of promoters into pure silver catalyst have been introduced to improve
the selectivity to ethylene oxide. [4] In following discussion, three catalyst will be discussed to
Two mechanisms are proposed to explain the kinetic data for the isomerization and
oxidation of ethylene oxide and thermodynamic data were used to establish the most reasonable
one. The isomerization of ethylene oxide adsorbed on the catalyst to acetaldehyde is the
chemisorption of ethylene oxide on the catalyst. The oxygen is used to oxidized the
The value of the apparent ∆S*, which in this case would be the sum of ∆Si + ∆Si *, is
quite reasonable in relation to literature values for chemisorptive processes. Less reasonable
get the value about 10 kcal/mol, 𝑞𝑖 , which is the sum of q(adsorption) + q (chemisorption),
𝐸𝑎 = 𝐸𝑎 (true) + 𝑞𝑖
be at least about 10 kcal for the mechanisms to be valid. Since ethylene oxide is the only very
weakly adsorbed and q chemisorption is therefore small, this oxidation process of ethylene
oxide is unsatisfying.
as ethylene glycol which is used to manufacture polyester fiber for clothes, upholstery and
carpet. Ethylene oxide derivatives are used as ingredients in household and industrial cleaners,
personal care items such as cosmetics and shampoos. Besides that, Ethylene oxide is primarily
used to sterilize medical and pharmaceutical products that cannot support conventional, high-
4.1.1 CATALYST
Various dimension and specifications of catalyst can be varied to obtain the desired
product. Such parameters depends on various factors such reactor type, size of catalyst,
operating temperature of the reactor and etc. Two different article were choose to undergo a
literature review process to understand the specification of the silver catalyst used in the
ethylene oxide production.
The catalyst used commonly in this ethylene oxide production has the following
characteristics:
- 10% silver supported on alumina, promoted by a Ca additive
- Specific surface area, 0.225625𝑚2
- Total pore volume, 0.06𝑐𝑚2 g-𝑐𝑎𝑡 −1
- Spheroidal pellets, 6mm in diameter
- Prevailing pore radius, 200Å
The reaction is carried out in a plug flow reactor. Working with the optimum operating
temperature and pressure of 428F to 500 F and 330 psig, this reaction is said to produce the
maximum yield. Based on the plotted graph, the selectivity of the reaction is 73% and the
conversion based on the ethylene is 5.53%. The reaction are below as stated :
r1 = k1 [C2H4] [O2]0.5
r2 = k2[C2H4] [O2]3
𝐸𝑎
𝑘𝑖 = 𝐴𝑒 −𝑅𝑇 , i=1,2
𝐾1 𝑃𝑜 𝑃𝑒
𝑟1 =
1 + 𝐾3 𝑃𝑜 + 𝐾4 𝑃𝑒
𝐾2 𝑃𝑜 𝑃𝑒
𝑟2 =
1 + 𝐾3 𝑃𝑜 + 𝐾4 𝑃𝑒
Table 4.1.1.4: Kinetic Data for Silver Supported on Alumina, Promoted by Calcium Additive
Based on the table 4 below, the most suitable catalyst that can be used is silver
catalyst due to high conversion of ethylene and high selectivity. High conversion of ethylene
can prevent the waste of feed. Hence, it can reduce the cost. High selectivity mean more
desired product can be obtained. The more desired product produced, the more the profit
earned. Besides, the reaction is eco-friendly, since less carbon dioxide be produced.
Table 4.1.1.5: Summary for Comparison
ethylene
Most of the modern ethylene oxide production based on oxygen-based reaction using
fixed-bed reactor (plug flow reactor). It is because of four main reason. The first reason is the
higher productivity and selectivity. Second reason is lower initial capital costs needed because
plug flow reactor is requiring less volume than continuously stirred tank reactor. The reactor
cost will increase with volume hence initial capital cost can be reduced through using plug flow
reactor. Third reason is less expensive catalyst required. Lastly, less air pollutants resulting
PFR is one of the ideal reactors which provides higher conversion. In an ideal PFR,
there is no mixing along the axial length although there would be lateral mixing of the
reactants along the radial direction. PFR is a reactor where the concentration of the reactant is
maintained high as it flows from one end to another. Hence PFR is mostly preferred for
positive order (n>1) reactions. When the rate of reaction is maintained higher, volume of the
reactor would be greatly reduced., thereby minimizing the total fixed and variable costs.
A packed bed reactor (PBR) is preferred for heterogenous reactions, where the solid-
fluid contact greatly influences the rate of reaction. A PBR is a cylindrical vessel filled with
solids ( a reactant). The other reactant is allowed to enter in to the bed through the bottom. In
the case of PBR, there are conditions which makes the reactor a non-
ideal. Channelling and dead zones are the conditions which leads to non ideal reactor
conditions. These conditions are more prevalent in a PBR. A non- ideal reactor conversion
will always be less than an ideal reactor. [8]
Therefore in this case, plug flow reactor is more suitable reactor in this case. [3][5]
3.2 Calculation
Assumption
http://www.ugr.es/~tep028/pqi/descargas/Industria%20quimica%20organica/tema_5/oxido_e
2)Hanna Perzon. (2015) A Simulation Model of a reactor for Ethylene Oxide production.
3) Xiongtao.Y, Qiang. X, Kuyen.L, and Chirag D. Sagar (2010). Dynamic Simulation and
Optimization for the Start-up Operation of An Ethylene Oxide Plant. Industrial &
5) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Toxicological Profile for
Ethylene
Oxide. U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Atlanta, GA.
1990. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp137.pdf
Reactions of ethylene and ethylene oxide on a silver catalyst. J. Phys. Chem.,74 (7), pp 1493–
1502
7) Petrov.L, Eliyas.A and Shopov.D (1985) A Kinetic Model of Steady State Ethylene
8) Dr Sanju Nanda (2008) Reactors and Fundamentals of Reactor Design for Chemical
Reaction. Reactor design ,44 (1), pp21-30
APPENDIX
Notation
r1: Ethylene oxide reaction
A: Pre-exponential factor
Ea Activation energy
R: Gas constant
T: Temperature