CHBE 457 Process Synthesis

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

The University of British Columbia

Assignment 1 Due: Friday, 26 September 2014, 4:30pm CHBE Main Office

1. Nitrobenzene (a precursor for aniline) is made by nitration of benzene in the presence of sulfuric
acid:

[H2SO4]
+ HNO3 NO2 + H2O (R1)

US Patent 4,772,757 describes a process with recycle of nitrating acid.

(a) Search the literature and prepare a qualitative flowsheet for the nitrobenzene plant. Explain
the plant operation.
(b) Create a preliminary database, with the following parameters for all major components: Den-
sity, Normal Boiling Point, Heat Capacity, Heat Conductivity, and Critical properties. List
your sources (Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook, process simulators, the Internet, etc.).
(c) Show an input-output diagram for this process with capacity of 100 000 (tonnes/yr).
(d) What is the maximum gross profit attainable?
Source of prices of commodity chemicals: a weekly publication ICIS Chemical Business at
http://www.icis.com/StaticPages/Students.htm
(Reported prices are mostly from 2006.) Reports (~6 months old) available at
http://www.icispricing.com/il_shared/il_splash/chemicals.asp?llink%

2. Consider the flowsheet for the manufacture of vinyl chloride in Figure 4.8 of our textbook:

Figure 1: Flowsheet showing task integration for the vinylchloride process

1
 (a) If the pyrolysis furnace and the distillation towers are operated at the same pressure as the
chlorination reactor (1.5 atm), what are the principal disadvantages? Hint: Check the boiling
points and critical constants for the major chemicals, Table 1.
(b) Is it possible to use some of the heat of condensation from the C2 H4 Cl2 condenser to drive
the reboiler of the first distillation column? Explain your response.
(c) Consider the first reaction to make dichloroethane. Show the distribution of chemicals when
ethylene is 25% in excess of the stoichiometric amount and the chlorine is entirely converted.
Assume that 100 000 lb/hr of vinyl chloride are produced.

Table 1: Boiling points and critical constants

Normal Boiling Point Boiling point (◦ C) Critical constants
Chemical ◦
at 1 atm ( C) 4.8 atm 12 atm 26 atm Tc (◦ C) Pc (atm)
HCl −84.8 −51.7 −26.2 0 51.4 82.1
C2 H3 Cl −13.8 33.1 70.5 110 159 56
C2 H4 Cl2 83.7 146 193 242 250 50

3. It is desired to produce a hot vapour stream of benzene to feed a reactor for a certain petrochem-
ical process. The benzene is available from an off-site storage facility at 1 atm and 25◦ C. The
reactor requires the benzene to be at 250◦ C and 10 atm. Two possible process schemes are being
considered to heat and pressurize the feed: (1) pump the liquid benzene to 10 atm and then heat
it up/vapourize in a heat exchanger, or (2) vapourize the benzene first and then compress it to the
desired pressure. Use a process simulator to compare the cost of the two proposed schemes to
feed 1000 kg/h of benzene to the reactor. Assume that the cost of heating is $15/GJ and that the
electricity cost (to power the pump or the compressor) is $0.10/kWh.

4. The production of ammonia using the Haber process takes place at temperatures of around 500◦ C
and pressures of 250 atm using a porous iron catalyst according to the following highly exothermic
reaction:

N2 (g) + 3 H2 (g)  2 NH3 (g)

(a) Give possible reasons for the high temperature and pressure used for this reaction.
(b) Use a process simulator to determine the equilibrium conversion obtained in the reactor for
the given conditions. The feed is a mixture of N2 and H2 in stoichiometric proportion.
(c) Explain how the temperature and pressure should be adjusted to increase the conversion and
the penalties for making these changes. Support your explanations with the simulation re-
sults.