Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1142 2908 1 PB PDF
1142 2908 1 PB PDF
1
Niaz Bahar Chowdhury, 1 Zahid Hasan and 1 A. H. M. Biplob
1
Chemical Engineering Department, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
Email: niazche@gmail.com
Abstract – Sulfuric acid is a basic chemical used intensively all over the world. One can determine the prosperity of a
nation by measuring the annual use of sulfuric acid of that country. Also sulfuric acid is a very important basic
chemical, widely used in different industrial sector. The main purpose of the study is to simulate and optimize the
annual profit 98.4% sulfuric acid plant by Aspen HYSYS 3.2. In this project, a simplified sulfuric acid production
process is simulated and optimized. In order to simulate this process some process operational data of the Sulfuric Acid
plant of WATA CHEMICALS LIMITED are used. The optimization criterion of the process is to maximize the annual
profit. This study will be helpful for the entrepreneurs who are interested to build a sulfuric acid plant. Also this study
will be very helpful for the plant operators to run the factory efficiently by minimizing the process system requirement.
3. Process Description
Figure3. Absorption Tower and Circulation Tank
Type Moist air is dried in the drying tower using
98% sulfuric acid. The resulting dry air, along with This cool gas, containing sulfur trioxide, is fed to an
liquid sulfur, is fed to a sulfur burner to produce absorption tower where it reacts with 98% sulfuric acid to
sulfur di oxide. form 98.5% sulfuric acid. The stack gas from the
absorption tower consists predominantly of nitrogen. The
98.5% sulfuric acid is fed to circulation tank along with
demineralized water and, 97.5% sulfuric acid which
comes from the drying tower. The resulting concentration
of the sulfuric acid exiting from the circulation tank is
98.1%, which is split into two portions. One portion is
cooled and recycled back to the absorption tower. The
other portion is also cooled and further split into two
portions; one of which is the final product (98% sulfuric
acid) and the other portion is recycled back to the drying
tower [3]. Therefore, the above is a brief description of the
sulfuric acid production process simulated by us.
-
{(Duty1+ Duty2 + Duty3 + Duty4 + Duty5 + Duty6 +
Duty7) 0.000293 3 }] 24 ( )
300 ( )
4.2. Variables
The optimization variables are temperatures of –
a. Cool 1st Converter Bed Inlet
b. Cool 2 nd Converter Bed Inlet
c. Cool 3 rd Converter Bed Inlet
d. Cool 4 th Converter Bed Inlet
e. Absorber Inlet
f. Cool Recycle 1
g. Cool Final Product Figure6. Maximized Profit
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Figure8. Product Composition after Optimization
We express our gratitude to Wata Chemicals Limited
5. Limitations for providing some basic information on Sulfuric acid
plant
a. In our simulation, all reactions are
considered as conversion reactions, though References
they are actually equilibrium reactions. This
is done because sufficient data for [1] W. G. Davenport and M. J. King, Sulfuric Acid
equilibrium type of reaction in Hysys were Manufacture: Analysis, Control and Optimization,
not available. 3rd edition, Elsevier, New York, 2006, pp 33-38
b. In practice, solid sulfur is the raw material
input to the process, which is consequently [2] www.aspentech.com
melted in a sulfur melter. But, in Hysys,
there is no such unit operation as sulfur [3] George T. Austin, Shreve’s Chemical Process
melter. As a result, liquid sulfur is directly Industries, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York,
fed as the raw material for the process. 2008, pp 320-345
c. In practice, one 4-pass converter or two 2-
pass converters in series are used to convert [4] W. W. Duecker, and J. R. West, The Manufacture of
sulfur dioxide into sulfur trioxide. But in Sulfuric Acid, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New
Hysys, there is no provision for 4-pass or 2- York, 1966, pp 167-178
pass converter. So four single pass converters
in series are used in the simulation [4] Vitae
d. In Hysys, there is no absorber where reaction
can take place. This type of unit process is Mr. Niaz Bahar Chowdhury was born in
needed to convert sulfur trioxide to sulfuric Chittagong, Bangladesh. He obtained a B. Sc degree
acid. In absence of that, conversion reactor is in 2012 in Chemical Engineering department from
used as an absorption tower. Bangladesh University of Engineering in Technology.
e. In Hysys, there is no circulation tank where He worked as a Research Assistant in the above
mixing action take place without flashing. department. His research interest includes LPG,
This type of unit operation is needed to Process Engineering, Coal Gasification, and Thermal
convert 98.5% sulfuric acid to 98.1% sulfuric Engineering.