Cyclohexane Production Unit

Presented by Brian Clifton

Executive Summary
The cyclohexane production plant is
not economically feasible unless the
price of cyclohexane is more than
double the price of benzene.
Yellow does not recommend IRI to
proceed with the plans to build and
operate this facility.
Outline
Process Overview
Economic and Risk Analysis
Pipe Network
Pump System
Heat Exchanger
Distillation Column
Process Overview
Benzene is hydrogenated in a Gibbs
reactor at high temperature and
pressure to form cyclohexane
MIXER
E1
C1
SPLITTER
E2
E3
R1
FLASH
P1
V1
SO1
PI1
PI2
PI3
1
30
T1
BENZENE
HYDROGEN
RECYCLE
S4 S5
S6
S7
S9
S1
S11
PURGEGAS
S13
PRODUCT
1PRODUCT
S3 1S3
S10
1S10
S2
S8
S12
S14
Process Overview
Economic Analysis
Equipment Cost
Distillation column $53,200
Heat Exchanger E1 $14,800
Heat Exchanger E2 $1,230
Heat Exchanger E3 $6,610
Reactor $5,040
Mixer $2,500
Splitter $2,500
Compressor $150,000
Flash $42,600
Total Equipment Cost (2005) $344,200
Economic Analysis
Production Cost: $7.14/gal
Revenue: $3.60/gal
TCI: $2.5 million
NPW: negative $1 billion
Accuracy: 10%
Required ROI: 8%

Strauss Plots/Propagation of Error
Strauss plots
for FCI, product
cost, and
product cost

Propagation of
error method

NPW vs. Product Cost
y = -3E+08x + 1E+09
($1,500,000,000.00)
($1,000,000,000.00)
($500,000,000.00)
$0.00
$500,000,000.00
$1,000,000,000.00
$1,500,000,000.00
$0.00 $1.00 $2.00 $3.00 $4.00 $5.00 $6.00 $7.00 $8.00
Product Cost ($/gal)
N
P
W

(
$
)
Product Cost
Linear (Product Cost)
2
Cost
2
) Cost (
) (
2
Price
2
) Price (
) (
2
2
) (
) ( 2
o o o o |
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
c
c
+
c
c
+
c
c
=
NPW NPW
FCI
FCI
NPW
NPW
Monte Carlo Simulation
Monte Carlo Simulation for NPW
500 data points
0
20
40
60
80
-
$
2
,
5
0
0
-
$
2
,
2
0
0
-
$
1
,
9
0
0
-
$
1
,
6
0
0
-
$
1
,
3
0
0
-
$
1
,
0
0
0
-
$
7
1
0
-
$
4
1
0
-
$
1
1
0
$
3
5
$
3
3
0
$
6
3
0
Net Present Worth
(millions of dollars)
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
Piping System
Piping materials made of stainless
steel
Insulation thickness of 1 inch
Schedule 40 pipes increased to
schedule 80 to operate under bursting
strength
FCI of $900,000 for piping system
Piping Specifications
Stream Type Length (ft) Elbows (90
o
) Valves (globe) Pressure Drop (psia)
Hydrogen 8'' Sch 80 700 3 3 0.1623535
Benzene 4'' Sch 80 500 5 3 0.0568027
Recycle 8'' Sch 80 350 4 1 0.1724243
Feed 6'' Sch 80 150 6 2 0.1095886
Top 8'' Sch 80 500 2 2 0.0748854
Bottom 6'' Sch 80 500 2 2 0.1420422
Purge 6'' Sch 80 300 2 1 0.0448303
S1 10'' Sch 80 150 2 1 0.5344238
S2 10'' Sch 80 100 2 1 0.643341
S3 10'' Sch 80 150 4 2 0.9095154
S4 10'' Sch 80 150 4 2 0.7703857
S5 10'' Sch 80 100 2 1 0.4255066
S6 10'' Sch 80 150 4 2 0.6598205
S7 10'' Sch 80 150 4 0 0.0444946
S8 10'' Sch 80 100 2 1 0.039032
Pumping Section
Cyclohexane is pumped from the
process to a storage tank at 555 psia
which is 35 feet above the flash tank


Pumping Section
Pump Section
Piping
All pipe are stainless steel schedule
40
ability to resist corrosion




Pump Section
Pump
Positive displacement pump
9 hp required
415 ft head available
All components are stainless
steel




NPSHA
1240
1260
1280
1300
1320
1340
1360
1380
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
flow rate, ft^3/hr
N
P
S
H
A
System Head
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
flow rate, ft^3/hr
h
e
a
d
,

f
t

Pumping Section
Cost for installation of the pumping
section, including the pump, pipes, and
valves, was determined to be
$105,000
Total fixed capital investment for the
cyclohexane plant up to $2.4 million.
Heat Exchanger Network
There are three heat exchangers in the
cylcohexane plant
The heating utility required by the plant
is minimized by using the hot product
stream to pre-heat the incoming
reactant stream.
Heat Exchanger Network
Heat exchanger 1
was designed
rigorously
A temperature heat
diagram was created
Heat Exchanger: Design
Duty, x 10^6 BTU/hr
0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,

F
100.0
140.0
180.0
220.0
260.0
300.0
Heat Exchanger E1 Zones Analysis
Shell Side
Tube Side
Heat Exchanger: Design
The single pass, countercurrent design
was selected
No baffles were
used, in order to
maintain the
shell-side pressure
drop under 5 psi
Heat Exchanger: Design
By Hand Pro/II
Area (ft
2
) 2730 2980
U
[Btu/(hr*ft^2F)]
9.6 126.8
Number of
tubes
326 x 2 OD 40 x 1 OD
Length (ft) 16 284
Heat Exchanger Design
Triangular pitch
Stainless steel heat exchangers
Hot streams were maintained tube
side in all heat exchangers
Heat exchanger 2 uses steam to heat
the reactant stream
Heat exchanger 3 uses cooling water
to cool the product stream
Distillation Column
30 theoretical trays
Optimal feed location:
16
th
tray
Column height:
32 feet
Column diameter:
42 inches
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
1
30
T1
TOP
BOTTOM
FEED
Distillation Column
Valve trays
94 valves / tray
Tray spacing:
24 inches
Condenser heat duty:
-1.9 MM Btu/hr
Reboiler heat duty:
3.01 MM Btu/hr

Summary
After the detailed designs were
conducted, the cyclohexane plant was
shown to not meet IRIs criteria for
profitablity.
Yellow does not recommend IRI
building and operating this facility.
Questions