2024 AIChE Annual Meeting
Optimizing Purity and Efficiency in Ethylene Oxide Production
This research explores the design and sensitivity analysis of an ethylene oxide production plant in Aspen Plus software, concentrating on the optimization of separation processes.The main objective is to find the optimal process conditions to maximize distillate purity and minimize reboiler duty. Separation processes are a fundamental part of transforming raw materials into value-added products. These processes are vital for product purification, driving economic impact in chemical operations and adapting to diverse industrial needs. Distillation is a purification process in which the components of a liquid mixture are separated based on their difference in boiling points or volatility. Properly designing a distillation column is crucial as it ensures separation efficiency, minimizes operational costs, enhances safety during operation and improves long term performance of the column. The experiments in this investigation were carried out using the sensitivity analysis tools of Aspen Plus v14. These computational tools help to analyze how changes in input variables affect output results. Based on this experiment, the optimal conditions of the column are a feed stage of 4 and a molar reflux ratio of 6. When compared with a base case of feed stage 7 and molar reflux ratio 10, the optimal design boasts a 7% decrease in reboiler duty with a 3% increase in distillate purity. These findings will have a positive impact in the field of engineering because they help production plants to save money by using the least amount of resources such as steam and cooling water to achieve the maximum product purity. Additionally, this investigation highlights how simply using advanced technology like simulation tools can help to considerably improve chemical processes on the industrial scale. The relevance of this project is substantiated by the fact that Mexico currently faces a notable shortage of ethylene oxide due to insufficient internal production and high dependency on imports. The results of this research demonstrate that ethylene oxide production can be more cost-effective, which can lead to an increase in local production and an economic boom in Mexico.