‫جامعة النجاح الوطنية‬ An-Najah National University

‫كلية الهندسة وتكنولوجيا المعلومات‬ Faculty of Engineering and IT

Department of Chemical Engineering

Course name: Plant Design and Economics Course Number: 10626445

Project: Chemical Plant Design

...………………………:
Instructor Name:Student
Dr. Shadi
NameSawalha
Question Points CLO Question
...………………: Grade Required
AcademicRegistration Time
Year: 2023-2024
Number
18 i ...………………………
Semester: Spring
Serial Number
..………………………………
Credit Hours: 4 :Section
36 ii
Total Project
Date: 11/02/2024
Mark: 150
18 iv
Project Deadline:
Weight: 25%
25/03/2024
15 v
15 vii
15 viii
18 xi
15 x
Student Grade

Good Luck

Cumene (Isopropyl Benzene) Plant Design Project

Background:
Cumene (isopropyl benzene) is produced by reacting propylene and benzene over an acid catalyst
(phosphoric acid catalyst supported on kieselguhr). Cumene may be used to increase the octane in
gasoline, but its primary use is as a feedstock for manufacturing phenol and acetone.

You are thinking of constructing a plant to produce about 100000 tons of cumene per year, for
someone has made a preliminary sketch for such a process and has submitted it to the engineering
department for consideration. You are assigned the problem of evaluating the sketch
recommending improvements in the preliminary design and redrawing a full detailed PFD and
P&ID.

Each student’s group should first perform a literature search to carry out a process selection
through benchmarking between 3 to 5 established processes. Furthermore, a full design of the plant
will be carried out by the students’ team; solving:

- Material and energy balance problems

- Design equipment’s and piping system,
- Estimating cost and profitability of the process and product in addition to the payback
period and cash flow
- Hazards analysis
- Plant site selection and plant layout must be considered.
- Use Excel to curry out material balance.
- Each team should submit a report including all the above items and following the
required report structure requirements such as title page, table of contents, summary,
discussion, conclusion and well-written bibliography

Firstly, students should prepare a plan of work and assign members responsibility.
Each team should submit each work stage (as will be divided later) on time.

Cumene Production Reactions

The reactions for cumene production from benzene and propylene are as follows:
C3H6(Liquid) + C6H6 (L)® C6H5-C3H7(gas)

C3H6 + C6H5-C3H7 ® C3H7-C6H4-C3H7(gas)

The best technology for cumene production is a catalytic process that is optimized at 350°C and 25
atm. pressure. The benzene is kept in excess to limit the amount of DIPB product.

Process Description

The reactants are fed as liquids from their respective storage tanks. After being pumped up to the
required pressure dictated by catalyst operating conditions, the reactants are mixed, vaporized and
heated up to the reactor operating temperature. The catalyst converts the reactants to the desired
and undesired products according to the reactions listed above. The molar feed ratio is 2:1 benzene
to propylene; propylene conversion is 99%; the product molar selectivity ratio is 31:1 cumene to
DIPB. The product gases are cooled to 40°C at 25 atm. pressure to condense essentially all of the
cumene, DIPB, and unreacted benzene to a liquid. The unreacted propylene and a propane impurity
are separated from the liquid and are used as fuel gas. The liquid stream is sent to two distillation
towers. The first distillation tower separates benzene from cumene and DIPB. The benzene purity
level is 98.1 mole%. We have no chemical market for this stream and plan to sell it as unleaded
gasoline. The second distillation tower separates cumene from DIPB. The cumene is 99.9 mole%
pure. The DIPB stream will be sold as fuel oil. A sketch of the process is attached.
Table 1: Prices for Feedstock's and process products

Chemical or Fuel
Price
0.96 ILS/L
benzene feed, >99.9%
0.8 ILS/kg
propylene feed, 95 mole% propylene, 5 mole% propane
1.84 ILS/kg
cumene, >99.8 mole%
0.704 ILS/kg
fuel gas
0.64 ILS/L
gasoline
fuel oil 0.52 ILS/L