Ethylene Glycol Plant 1

Ethylene Glycol Plant

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Chem 6_3.pdf 1
2 Ethylene Glycol Plant

Workshop
Ethylene glycol has many industrial uses: a feed stock for polyester
resins, a hydrate inhibitor in natural gas pipelines, an all-weather
antifreeze and coolant, or an industrial solvent. Ethylene oxide and
water are fed to a reactor to produce ethylene glycol. The product
stream is fed to a distillation column where the excess water and
ethylene oxide are stripped off the top and the ethylene glycol is the
bottom product.

Learning Objectives
After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Simulate CSTR reactors

• Simulate an Ethylene glycol plant
• Use the recycle operation in HYSYS
• Choose suitable locations for recycles

Prerequisites
Before beginning this module, you need to be able to:

• Add and define the simulation basis, including components,

property packages, and reactions.
• Add streams and operations to a simulation.

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Process Overview
Column Overview
 Ethylene Glycol Plant 5

Building the Simulation

Defining the Simulation Basis
Start a New case and choose the NRTL Activity Model. The components
are Ethylene Oxide (C2H4O), Water (H2O) and Ethylene Glycol
(C2H6O2).
Fast track to page 11.
These components can be hard to find in the long list of available
components in HYSYS. Use the Formula filter and type the chemical
formulas given above into the Match Cell. This will help you find the
desired components quickly and easily.

Go to the Binary Coeffs tab. Select UNIFAC VLE as the Coeff Estimation
method to estimate the missing binary coefficients and press
Unknowns Only. This will estimate the coefficients for the ethylene
oxide / ethylene glycol pair.

Adding the Reactions

On the Rxns tab, add the following reaction to the Fluid Package:

C2H4O + H2O → C2H6O2

1. To define the reaction, press the Simulation Basis Mgr button

and select the Reactions tab.
2. Add all of the Fluid Package components by selecting the Add
Comps button and pressing the Add this Group of Components
button in the window that appears.
3. Press the Add Rxn button, choose Kinetic, and press the Add
Reaction button.

In the Stoichiometry and Rate Info group, define the reaction

stoichiometry of the reaction previously stated (-1 for reactants, and 1
for product comps).

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6 Ethylene Glycol Plant

4. Complete the Basis and Parameters pages as below:

In This Cell... Enter...

Basis

Basis Molar Concn

Base Component C2Oxide

Rxn Phase Combined Liquid

Basis Units kgmole/m3

Rate Units kgmole/m3-s

Parameters

Forward Reaction

A 5.0e+06

E 5.0e+04

No reverse reaction is defined in this example.

5. Return to the Simulation Basis Manager by closing the Kinetic

Reaction window. Return to the Rxns tab of the Fluid Package.
Press the Add Set button to add the Global Rxn Set to the Current
Reaction Sets group. Close the Fluid Package view.
6. Press the Enter Simulation Environment button.

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 Ethylene Glycol Plant 7

Adding the Feed streams

Add two feed streams with the following information. All compositions
are entered as mole fractions

In This Cell... Enter...

Conditions

Name EOx Feed

Temperature 25°C (77°F)

Pressure 120 kPa (17.4 psia)

Molar Flow 105 kgmole/h (230 lbmole/hr)

Composition

C2Oxide 1.0

H2O 0.0

EGlycol 0.0

Conditions

Name Water Feed

Temperature 25°C (77°F)

Pressure 120 kPa (17.4 psia)

Molar Flow 150 kgmole/h (330 lbmole/hr)

Composition

C2Oxide 0.0

H2O 1.0

EGlycol 0.0

Save your case!

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8 Ethylene Glycol Plant

Adding the Unit Operations

CSTR Reactor
Add a CSTR operation and enter the following information. Be sure to
assign the Global Rxn Set as the Reaction Set for the separator to model
CSTR button the reactor.

In This Cell... Enter...

Connections

Name Reactor

Inlets EOx Feed

Water Feed

Vapour Outlet Rx Vapour

Liquid Outlet Rx Liquid

Energy Rx Coolant

Parameters

Pressure Drop 10 kPa (1.5 psi)

Volume 2 m3 (71 ft3)

1. On the Reactions tab, select the Global Rxn Set and Rxn-1 as the
Reaction.
2. Specify the temperature of stream Rx Liquid to be 65°C (150°F).

From the Reaction results, what is the % Conversion of

Ethylene Oxide? __________

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 Ethylene Glycol Plant 9

Ethylene Glycol Tower

The Ethylene Glycol tower will be modelled as a Distillation Column.
Add the column with the following information:

In This Cell... Enter...

Connections

Name T-100

No. of Stages 10

Inlet Rx Liquid, Stage 5

Condenser Type Partial

Ovhd Vapour Vent

Ovhd Liquid Distillate

Bottoms Liquid Bottoms Product

Condenser Energy Cond Duty

Reboiler Energy Reboiler Duty

Pressures

Condenser 100 kPa (14.5 psia)

Condenser Delta P 0 kPa (0 psi)

Reboiler 105 kPa (15 psia)

Specs

Vapour Rate 0.0 kgmole/h (0.0 lbmole/hr)

Reflux Ratio 3.0

Reboiler Temperature 150°C (300°F)

Note: HYSYS generates column temperature estimates if none are

provided.

Save your case!

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10 Ethylene Glycol Plant
In general, a Recycle operation
is required for material
transfer and not for thermal
recycles.
Always supply a guess or
starting point for the outlet
stream of the Recycle, never
the inlet. A guess close to the
solution will result in a faster
convergence time.
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Installing the Recycle
A Recycle operation is a mathematical unit operation and is installed as
any other. It has an inlet (calculated) stream and an outlet (assumed)
stream. The operation is called/calculated whenever changes to the
inlet stream fall outside of the converged tolerance.
The Recycle installs a theoretical block in the process stream. The feed
into the block is termed the calculated recycle stream, and the product
is the assumed recycle stream. The following steps take place during
the convergence process
• HYSYS uses the conditions of the assumed stream (outlet)
and solves the flowsheet up to the calculated stream (inlet).
• HYSYS then compares the values of the calculated stream to
those in the assumed stream.
• Based on the difference between the values, HYSYS modifies
the values in the calculated stream and passes the modified
values to the assumed stream.
The calculation process repeats until the values in the calculated
stream match those in the assumed stream within specified tolerances.
 Ethylene Glycol Plant 11

Recycle the Water Stream

The stream Distillate contains mostly unreacted water. This water can
be recycled to the reactor in order to reduce the feed water
requirements (as well as eliminate a waste stream).
Open the case OptRecy.hsc
Install a Recycle block operation. The inlet stream is the Distillate and
the outlet stream should be mixed with the pure Water Feed stream,
before entering the Reactor.

Delete the specified molar flow rate of the Water Feed stream. This
value will be back-calculated from the outlet of the mixer.

Specify the molar flow of the mixer outlet stream, Water to Reactor, as
150 kgmole/h (330 lbmole/hr). Once the flow rate in this stream is set,
HYSYS will automatically calculate the flowrate of the Water Feed
stream. If we had not deleted the specified value, HYSYS would report a
consistency error, because a the two values would be in conflict with
each other.

What value does HYSYS calculate for the flowrate of the

stream "Water Feed"? __________

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Parameters tab

Tolerance page

The smaller the tolerance

value, the tighter the
tolerance. Generally it is a
good idea to start with the
default tolerance until you
have a converged solution and
then tighten the tolerance.

HYSYS allows you to set the convergence criteria or tolerance for each
of the Recycle variables. In this example, leave everything at the default.

Numerical Page
This page contains the options for the two types of Recycles, Nested
and Simultaneous.

• Nested - this type of recycle gets called whenever it is

encountered during calculations. Use this type if you have a
single Recycle or if you have multiple recycles which are not
connected.
• Simultaneous - all recycles set at Simultaneous will be called
at the same time. Use this option if your Flowsheet has multiple
inter-connected recycles.

Change the Maximum Iterations number to 20.

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 Ethylene Glycol Plant 13

Monitor tab
This page displays convergence information as the calculations are
performed. Any variable that changes between iterations is displayed in
this table.

Worksheet tab
The Recycle WorkSheet page displays the Inlet and Outlet stream
information. In this instance, notice that the Inlet and Outlet streams
have the same values. This is because before we installed the Recycle,
the Inlet stream was already calculated by HYSYS. When the Recycle
was connected, the known Inlet conditions were automatically passed
to the Outlet stream to serve as the starting guess.

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Exploring with the Simulation

Exercise 1
Create a Case Study to plot the Ethylene Glycol molar flow in the liquid
product against the Reactor Outlet Temperature. The temperature
range can be between 45 and 110 °C (100 and 240 °F), with a step of 10
°C (20 °F). Be sure to "Ignore" the Recycle operation before starting the
Case Study.

What temperature produces the maximum Ethylene Glycol

flow? __________
What problems will be encountered if the temperature
exceeds approximately 115 oC? __________

Remember to save the file under a different name if you wish to save it!

Exercise 2
Set up an Adjust operation to make sure the molar flow of Ethylene
Glycol in the Rx Liquid stream is equal to 110 kgmole/h (240 lbmole/
hr), by adjusting the EOx Feed molar flow with a step size of 1 kgmole/h
(2 lbmole/hr).

What EtOx feed rate is required to produce the specified

molar flow of Ethylene Glycol? __________

14

A very poor choice of a tear
stream is a stream with an
Adjust operation controlling
one of its variables.
Ethylene Glycol Plant 15
Advanced Modelling
Because the Recycle operation is a mathematical representation of a
physical process, its location in a simulation is a particularly important
one. The location of the tear stream can often determine success or
failure to converge a recycle
Choose a Tear Location to Minimize the
Number of Recycles
Reducing the number of locations where the iterative process is
required will save on the total convergence time. Choosing the location
of the Recycle will depend on the Flowsheet topology. Attempt to
choose a point such that specifying the assumed stream will define as
many streams downstream as possible. It generally occurs downstream
of gathering points (mixers) and upstream of distribution points (tees,
separators, and columns).
Choose a Tear Location to Minimize the
Number of Recycle Variables
Variables include vapour fraction, temperature, pressure, flow, enthalpy
and composition. Choose the tear stream so that as many variables as
possible are fixed, thus effectively eliminating them as variables and
increasing convergence stability. Good choices for these locations are
at separator inlets, compressor after cooler outlets and trim heater
outlets.
Choose a Stable Tear Location
The tear locations can be chosen such that fluctuations in the recycle
stream have a minimal effect. For example, by placing the tear in a
main stream, instead of the physical recycle, the effect of fluctuations
will be reduced. The importance of this factor depends on the
convergence algorithm. It is more significant when successive
substitution is used.
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Recycle Exercises
Choosing the Right Location
When installing Recycle operations in a HYSYS simulation, it is vital
that right location for the operation be chosen. Several guidelines were
given on a previous page, and several different problems will be given
here. Note that some of these flowsheet may require more than one
Recycle operation.

Flowsheet 1
Where should the Recycle be placed in this flowsheet and why? Assume
that you know the following information:

• Temperature and Vapour Fraction of "Cond Out".

• Pressure drop and Duty of "Chiller" operation.
• Pressure of "Chiller Out" stream.
• Pressure drop of "Condenser" Operation.
• The Mixer is set to "equalize all."

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 Ethylene Glycol Plant 17

Flowsheet 2

Where should the Recycle be placed in this flowsheet and why?

Assume that the Feed is fully defined, Shell and Tube Side pressure drops
are known, as well as the Column Feed temperature.

Flowsheet 3

Where should the Recycle be placed in this flowsheet and why?

Assume the Feed is completely defined, shell and tube side pressure drops
for E-100 and E-101, and the temperatures of streams 3 and 4 are known.

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18 Ethylene Glycol Plant

Flowsheet 4

Where should the Recycle be placed in this flowsheet and why?

Assume the Feed is completely defined, and the shell and tube side
pressure drop for E-100 is known.

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