INQU 5021: CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN I

SPRING 2014 SEMESTER: PARTIAL EXAM #1

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
UPR-MAYAGUEZ
Instructor: Dr. Moses N. Bogere
Student Names:
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Date out: April 28, 2014
Due Date: May 6, 2014 by 4:00 PM (no exceptions)
Instructions: work within your groups. Submit your work with this rst
page as your cover.
1
Problem #1 (50%). Development of PFD and Economic Perfor-
mance.
Acetaldehyde (CH
3
CHO) is used primarily as an intermediate chemical for pro-
ducing acetic acid, pyridine and pyridine bases, peracetic acid, pentaeythritol,
butyrene glycol, and chloral. It is a colorless liquid with a pungent, fruity odor
(like many aldehydes). Furthermore, it is a volatile and ammable liquid that is
miscible in water, alcohol, ether, benzene gasoline and other common organic
solvents. There are at least two established commercial processes for produc-
tion of acetaldehyde: vapor phase oxidation and vapor phase dehydrogenation
of ethanol, all over catalysts.
(A) Draw sketches or block ow diagrams of two commercial processes for pro-
ducing acetaldehyde, one based on oxidation and the other based on dehydro-
genation of ethanol. Clearly identify the main process units and associated
references.
Problem #1 (A) solution starts here
2
(B) It is proposed to produce 100 million kg/yr acetaldehyde via vapor phase
dehydrogenation of ethanol. The reactions that take place in the reactor are
given below.
Acetaldehyde:
CH
3
CH
2
OH ! CH
3
CHO + H
2
Ethyl acetate:
2 CH
3
CH
2
OH ! CH
3
COOC
2
H
5
+ 2 H
2
Butanol:
2 CH
3
CH
2
OH ! CH
3
(CH
2
)
3
OH + H
2
O
Acetic acid:
CH
3
CH
2
OH + H
2
O ! CH
3
COOH + 2 H
2
It is estimated that the conversion of ethanol to the various reaction products
is 70%. It is also given that the reactor euents contain 93% acetaldehyde,
4% ethyl acetate, 2% butanol and 1% acetic acid [all on percent kilogram mole
basis].
(i) On hourly basis (assuming 8160 hours of operation in a year) calculate the
amount of ethanol fed to the reactor, and the amounts of product and all other
components from the reactions.
Problem #1 [B-(i)] solution starts here
3
(ii) For the economic data we will assume that the costing of the plant is year
2005 (just before the recession of 2008) and this data is to be extrapolated to year
2013 (using Chemical Marketing Reporter or Chemical Engineering Magazine,
M&S or CEPCI - chemical engineering plant cost indices). Here you may opt to
work in British or SI units since some pricing data is in dierent units. Obtain
pricing information (and references) of raw materials (including catalyst) and
products, in increments of ve years (starting 1985) up to year 2005 and then
extrapolate to year 2013. Some pricing data is given in the tables below.
Raw materials: Ethanol
Year: 1981 1985 1990
Ethanol cost ($/lb): 0.27 0.346 0.50
Ethanol cost ($/gal): 1.83 2.27 3.36
Raw materials: Ethanol Catalyst 1101 (or equivalent)
Year: 1981 1985 1990
Catalyst 1101 ($/ft
3
): 125 175 300
Product and by-products:
Acetaldehyde 1981 1985 1990
Price ($/lb): 0.39 0.54 0.88
Acetic acid
Price ($/lb): 0.245 0.32 0.45
Hydrogen
Price ($/lb): 0.21 0.627 1.04
Butanol & Ethyl acetate
Price ($/lb): 0.04 0.12 0.20
Sold as fuel*
Price ($/MM Btu**): 4 12 20
*sold as fuel stream containing hydrogen, butanol and ethyl acetate (use
natural gas prices).
Many of the by-products are nowadays very useful for example ethyl acetate
is used as a solvent in the pharmaceutical industry in its purest form.
Waste stream treatment (if acetic acid, butanol & ethyl acetate are treated
as such):
Year: 1981 1985 1990
Organics per ($/yr/lb/day): 32 51 91
Problem #1 [B-(ii)] solution starts here
4
(iii) Based on year 2013 estimate the annual gross margin based on revenues and
raw material costs. Since the catalyst to be used can last many years, exclude
it from the annual operating costs (it can later be included in other variable
costs such as supplies). Search for information on cost of overall plant.
Problem #1 [B-(iii)] solution starts here
5
(iv) Compare the saleable value of the by-products (excluding hydrogen) to
waste treatment as a cost. Note that for the by-products to have value ad-
ditional separation steps may be needed (requiring additional infrastructure).
Can you estimate these?
Problem #1 [B-(iv)] solution starts here
6
(v) Estimate the hourly cost of heating ethanol feed from 30 deg Celsius to the
reactor conditions. Document any information about the cost of utilities in
year 2013 for: cooling water (90 deg F supply and 115 deg F maximum return),
steam system (15, 50, 75 and 250 psig all saturated using o-site boilers).
Problem #1 [B-(v)] solution starts here
7
(C) Economic potential EP is generally evaluated in stages. The rst stage
EP

is
EP

= {product value}+{By-products value}-{Raw material costs}

-{Auxiliary material costs}-{Ecological costs}
Processing costs =
fEquipment costs/Payback timeg
+fCost of utilitiesg
+fAdditional environmental costsg
The economic potential at any stage n is then
EP
n
= EP
I/O
- {Processing costs}
For the acetaldehyde production process the EP can be determined as:
EP = EP
I/O
-{Rxtor costs/payback time}-{cost of sepns}
-{utilities costs}-{additional environ costs}
You can assume that environmental costs are 5-6% of product and by-product
sales. It can be assumed also that sales/(all other costs in EP

) ratio is 1.7 -
3.0. Use this information to determine annual EP

after obtaining the sales

costs of products and by-products [assume 340 days of manufacture per year].
Use sales cost data you compiled earlier for year 2013.
Problem #1 [C] solution starts here
8
(D) Develop a "crude" PFD for the acetaldehyde production process based on
(some) patented data and product specications below:
Acetaldehyde: 99+ mol% pure, 0.05 mol% ethanol
Hydrogen gas: 99+ mol% pure
Acetic acid: 90+ mol% pure
Ethyl acetate & other light organics: 90+ mol% pure
n-butanol: 90+ mol% pure
Based on your design decisions (and based solely on sales value) your PFD may
not include all by-products in their pure form.
Investigate any patented catalytic process that will improve selectivity. Show
also its PFD. As you can realize, there are a lot of opportunities for energy inte-
gration (even steam generation) for this process. Identify points in the proposed
PFD where additional heat exchangers are located. Compare the PFD to one
involving a catalytic process in terms of energy integration.
Problem #1 [D] solution starts here
9
Problem #2 (50%). Analysis and Cost of Heat Exchanger Network.
In the HEN example solved in class and your project, the analysis was made
assuming that
min
of 20

. First we need to nd the annual cost of the heat

exchanger and then compare it to the cost when other values are assumed
(in general though we would need to use some optimization tool to get the
optimum pinch point).
In the analysis, use the same heat exchanger network of seven heat exchang-
ers given (this is a little bit ambitious or a serious assumption that needs to be
checked!). Use cost data for the hot oil as $3.50 and for the cooling water as
$0.45 each per GJ. These costs take into account ination and higher fuel costs.
Use an overall heat transfer coecient of 1400 W/m
2
K for each process-process
heat exchanger and 900 W/m
2
K for each utilities heat exchanger. The heat
exchanger purchase prices will be estimated from Table 7.2. It is assumed that
the straight-line depreciation for 5 years is used and at which point there will
be no salvage value (means equipment can be thrown away and replaced). An
income tax rate (ITR) of 39 percent (todays rate) per year will be used. Use
the objective function given in class for the analysis. Assume that the total
investment (TI) in the heat exchanger system is assumed to be seven (7) times
the total heat exchangers purchase price. The minimum acceptable return on
investment or rate of return (ROI) is 15 percent per year after income tax.
From the objective function of annual cost of operating the HEN:

= (annual cost of heating oil and cooling water)(1-ITR)+(annual depreciation)(1-ITR)+

In the following parts answer the questions and show all the steps involved in
obtaining the solution.
(a) Obtain the annual cost for the HEN when
min
is 20

.
Problem #2 (a) solution starts here
10
(b) Obtain the annual cost for the HEN when
min
is 10

.
Problem #2 (b) solution starts here
11
(c) Obtain the annual cost for the HEN when
min
is 30

.
Problem #2 (c) solution starts here
12
(d) Compare the cost of the three networks and discuss which one you would
choose.
Problem #2 (d) solution starts here
13
(e) How realistic is it to assume that the original number of heat exchangers
would be the same as in parts (b) and (c)?
Problem #2 (e) solution starts here
14