ASPEN SIMULATION OF MULTITUBULAR PLUGFLOW REACTOR

Property method used: NRTL –HOC

Reactor specs:

Reactor type : Reactor with specified constant temperature of 150 C

KINETICS

Kinetic prameters for VAM synthesis over a Pd/Au/SiO2 Catalyst

{DOI: 10.1002/9783527621583.ch10}

−r VA =k 1 pαC H pOβ
1

2 4
1

−r C O =k 1 p αC H p βO
2
2

2 4
2

Reacting phase : Vapor Rate basis : Weight of catalyst

1) ETHYL-01 + ACETI-01 + 0.5 OXYGE-01 --> VINYL-01(MIXED) + WATER(MIXED)

k = 0.000265

E = 15 kJ/mol

2) ETHYL-01 + 3 OXYGE-01 --> 2 CARBO-01(MIXED) + 2 WATER(MIXED)

k = 0.00075

E = 21 kJ/mol

Pressure of process stream at reactor inlet = 10 bar

Pressure drop for process stream = 1.5 bar

Utility : Cocurrent flowing cooling water

Utility side film coefficient = 0.0135 GJ/hr-sqm-C

Inlet liquid stream pressure = 10 atm

 Outlet stream Temperature = 140 C

Outlet stream pressure = 8.5 atm

Catalyst Particle density= 1000kg/cum

Bed Voidage = 0.45

ASPEN Design Specs was used to obtain data regarding number of tubes and catalyst loading by
fixing thetarget as VAM outlet mass flow at 2503 kg/hr flow rate and assuming the diameter of each
tube to be 0.06 m and length 6m

Number of tubes = 1202

And for 1202 number of tubes, the catalyst loading required was found to be 11208 kg

RX

1 2

Material Stream Name Units Feed Product

MIXED Substream      
Phase   Vapor Phase Vapor Phase
Temperature C 25 150
Pressure Bar 10 8.5
Average MW   38.5256 39.5146
Mole Fractions      
ETHYL-01   0.499634 0.455107
OXYGE-01   0.0600734 0.0179128
ACETI-01   0.200062 0.153855
VINYL-01   0 0.0513427
CARBO-01   0.240231 0.258419
WATER   0 0.0633636
Mass Flows kg/hr 22376.1 22376.1
ETHYL-01 kg/hr 8141 7229.88
OXYGE-01 kg/hr 1116.48 324.582
ACETI-01 kg/hr 6978 5232.03
VINYL-01 kg/hr 0 2503
CARBO-01 kg/hr 6140.64 6440.22
WATER kg/hr 0 646.41
Volume Flow l/min 20791.1 36778.4
Design Equation:
XA
W dX A out

=∫
FA 0 −r A '
0

For 1st reaction:

T= 423.15 K

R= 8.314 kJ/kmol K

P= 10 bar = 106 Pa

−15000 kmol
k1= 0.000265 exp( ¿=3.7286 ×10−6
RT k g cat s P aα + β

−r VA =k 1 pαC H pOβ
1

2 4
1

0.36 0.21
– r VA=k 1 × ( Po Ethylene ( 1−X A ) ) ×( Po Oxygen
( 1− X A ) )

1
Generating data b/w XA and up to XA = 0.25 and using Excel equation generating property to
−r VA
find relation and then integrating
 290

280
f(x) = 0 x² + 0.64 x + 235.46
270 R² = 1

260

250
1/-r

240

230

220

210
0 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 .1 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 .2 21 22 23 24 25
0 . 0 . 0. 0 . 0. 0 . 0 . 0. 0 . 0 0 . 0. 0. 0 . 0. 0 . 0. 0. 0 . 0 0 . 0. 0. 0 . 0.
XA

XA out
dX
∫ −r A' =58.87 k gcat . sec /mol
0 A

Now, FA0 = 161.336 mol/sec

W1
=58.87
FA 0

W1= 161.336 × 58.87

= 9497.853 kg

Density of catalyst = 1000 kg/m3

Volume of catalyst = V1 = 9.497853 m3

For 2nd reaction:

T= 423.15 K

R= 8.314 kJ/kmol K

P= 10 bar = 106 Pa

−21000 kmol
k1= 0.00075 exp( ¿=1.91319× 10−6
RT k g cat s P aα + β
−r C O =k 1 p αC H p βO
2
2

2 4
2

−0.31 0.82
– r C O =k 2 × ( P oEthylene ( 1−X ) )
2
× ( Po Oxygen
( 1−X ) )

Generate data b/w X and 1/−𝑟 up to X = 0.03 using Excel equation generating property to find
relation and then integrating

4120
4110
f(x) = 0 x² + 2000 x + 4050
4100 R² = 1
4090
4080
4070
1/-r

4060
4050
4040
4030
4020
0 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.04
X

XA out
dX
∫ −r A' =122.4 k gcat . sec /mol
0 A

FA0 = 12.7054 mol/sec

W2 = 122.4 × 12.7054 = 1555.147 kg

Density of Catalyst = 1000 kg/m3

Volume of catalyst = V2 = 1.555 m3

Total Volume= V = V1 + V2 = 11.053 m3

Void volume fraction = 0.45

Volume of catalyst bed = 11.053/0.55 =20.096 m3

L/D = 3

Volume = π D2 L ∕ 4

On solving this substituting L/D =3, we get

Cat. Bed diameter = 2.043 m

Length of the cat. Bed = 6.12 m

Shell and Tubes configuration:

OD = 0.0635 m

ID = 0.0604 m

BWG = 11

Inner cs flow area per tube = 0.002865 m2

Length of 1 tube = L = 6 m

Volume of 1 tube = 0.01719 m3

Volume of Reactor 20.63

No. of tubes = = = 1200
Volume of 1 tube 0.01719

Triangular tube pitch = 1.25 × 0.0635 = Pt = 0.079375 m

1
N
Tube Bundle diameter (in mm), Db = do
k1( ) n1

Where, do= outer diameter of tube (in mm)

N = Number of tubes

For triangular pitch

k1 = 0.319

n1 = 2.142

Db = 2964.54 mm

Clearance, C = 116 mm

Shell ID = Db + C = 3080.54 mm

For Carbon steel SA/EN 10216-2 P235GH

Maximum allowable stress = 103 MPa = 10.227 kg/mm2

Joint efficiency = 0.85

Corrosion allowance, CA = 1 mm

Di =shell ID = 3080.54 mm

Design Pressure, p = 9 × (1.1) = 9.9 bar = 10.0952 kg/cm2

p Di 10.0952 ×3080.54
t s= +CA = +1 mm=18.99 mm
2 fJ− p 2 ×10.227 × 100× 0.85−10.0952
Therefore, let the thickness of the Shell be 20 mm

OD of shell = 3120.54 mm

Length of shell = 3 ×OD = 9361.62 mm

Volume of reactor = 1.20×

π D2 3
× L=85.888 m (Assuming 20% extra)
4
Therefore the original OD of reactor = 3.3157 m

And the original length of reactor = 9.947 m

Tube side pressure drop:

By Erguns Equation for calculation of pressure drop in a packed bed

2 2
∆ p 150 × µ × ( 1−ɛ ) × µo 1.75 × µ×(1−ɛ )× ρ × µo
= +
L ɛ 3 × D 2p ɛ 3 × D 2p

ɛ = Void fraction = 0.45

L = length of bed = 6 m

ρ = density of fluid =