Embedding of shock wave reactor in thermal cracking process for ethylene

Abstract

The goal of this project was to embed the Shock Wave Reactor (SWR) into an ethylene plant in order to assess the performance of this unique reactor. The performances are based on the energy consumption and ethylene yield. There are some researches done. Unfortunately no information is found in articles about how to embed the SWR in an ethylene plant. So, to embed the SWR, the behavior of the whole plant must be monitored. The embedding of the SWR in an ethylene plant is done by integration this reactor in an ethylene plant based on conventional cracking. Conventional cracking is done by a furnace. The only different is the cracking reactor.The separation configuration is taken the same. Strong GDP (gross domestic product) growth in major regions results in strong petrochemical demand growth. The reason of this growth is due to the growing market of China and India. So the importance of ethylene increases. Ethylene is and in the future still be an important bulk chemistry in the petrochemical and industry The process chemistry with its thermodynamics and kinetics are based in earlier research done by R.Bosma. Normally more than 1 million reactions occur during ethane cracking but here 7 major reactions are used. The residence time plays a big role in this cracking. Thermodynamically high temperature is favorable but kinetically not. High temperatures increase the secondary reactions with more by-products as result.The SWR was already modeled in Matlab by R.Bosma [21]. To investigate the SWR energy consumption, the SWR is modeled in Aspen. A user model in Aspen has been made, which reflects the behavior of the SWR at some given conditions. This Aspen model is validated in order to determine the reliability of this model. The model is successfully made but some parameters where slightly different. With Aspen Pinch, the determination of the energy consumption is made. This is very important because the energy consumption will conclude if this SWR economical favorable compared with a conventional furnace. Also the environmental impact of the SWR has been studied. It is known in the aviation industry, shock waves produce a lot of sound power. It can have a certain risk to the human health and environment. This is a complex problem because of the difficulties to monitor the sound behavior of this reactor. It is concluded that the SWR is an energy slurping process compared with a conventional furnace. The ethylene yield is also lower than the ethylene yield produced with a conventional furnace.