GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Chandkheda Ahmedabad
Affiliated

GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE

VALSAD

A Presentation on:
“Process Simulation of manufacturing of Acetone from
Isopropyl Alcohol using DWSIM”

Under subject of:

PROJECT-1

B.E. IV, SEMESTER-VII

(CHEMICAL BRANCH)
 Prepared By:

No. Name Enrollment No.

1 Davara Dharmik G. 160190105016
2 Devganiya Darshan I. 160190105018
3 Karena Hardik K. 160190105033
4 Navadiya Reeken M. 160190105045
5 Pandav Mukund G. 160190105049

Under Guidance By : Hemant M Jariwala

Academic Year : 2019-20
 Abstract
The aim of the project is to simulate a chemical process to produce Acetone from
Iso- propyl-alcohol (IPA).Acetone is produced by many processes like Cumene
Process, Fermentation Process, etc. But Dehydrogenation of Isopropyl Alcohol
is most widely used method. Currently process industries facing many challenges
in environment and continuous changing market conditions. Safe, profitable and
ecofriendly process achieved by optimum design plant that can be carried out by
using simulation studies. The Gas phase reaction converts IPA into Acetone,
Hydrogen and some amount of IPA which can be separated using Distillation.

Keywords : Acetone, Isopropyl Alcohol(IPA), Hydrogen, Distillation,

Simulation.
Industrial Methods Used for Manufacturing of Acetone :

1. Cumene Process
2. From Alkane Nitriles
3. Oxidation of Isopropyl Alcohol
4. Fermentation Process
5. Ozonolysis of Alkanes
6. Dehydrogenation of IPA

Most widely used industrial methods for manufacturing of acetone :

7. Dehydrogenation of IPA
8. Cumene Process
 Project Objective
 The objective of our project is to design and simulate chemical flowsheets.

 The objective of our project is to minimize energy requirement thereby reducing

the cost.

 We are going to apply thermodynamic properties to produce optimal product.

 To study about the factors such as temperature, Pressure, pressure drop, efficiency,
enthalpy, internal energy, heat, flowrates, mass flow, energy flow, power.

 To analyze the various product yield with respect to different thermodynamic

properties.

 Doing Material balance and energy balance of chemical flowsheets in DWSIM.

 To maximum utilization of product or by-product using Recycle stream .

Process Flow Sheet :
 Process Description

 Feed of IPA and water and recycle stream are mixed in feed drum. Then after this
mixture is send to vaporizer and changed to vapour phase.
 The mixture from vaporisor is heated to reaction temperature in the heater.
Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor is used in this process.
 Acetone, hydrogen gas (H2) are produced and water and i-propyl-alcohol are
discharged.
 The mixture which are acetone, hydrogen, water, i- propyl-alcohol are sent to
cooler.
 Then after the mixture is sent to flash unit. Hydrogen, acetone, i-propyl-alcohol and
water are obtained as top product.
 This top product is sent to scrubber to remove hydrogen.
 The bottom product of flash unit which is consist of acetone, water, i-propyl-
alcohol are mixed with the bottom product of scrubber before acetone column.
 In acetone column, acetone is obtained from top product with 99 wt%. İ-propyl
alcohol and water and also 0,1% of acetone is sent to i-propyl-alcohol column from
bottom product.
 The top product of this column is sent to feed drum and bottom product is thrown
away as waste water.
 Selection of Flow Sheet

 As per study of research paper

 Simulation and process integration of clean acetone plant, by Tohaneanu M.C.,

Plesu V., Iancu P., Bumbac G., Bonet Ruiz A.E., Bonet Ruiz J., Chemical
Engineering Transactions, 39, 469-474 DOI:10.3303/CET1439079

 Dehydrogenation of IPA for the production of Acetone is most widely used

method nowadays. So we have select this process for the simulation in DWSIM.
By the study of different research paper then we have found this paper in which
the basic data for our process are available. All component and equipment of our
process are available in DWSIM. So we have select the flow sheet for our project
is shown below :
Fig. Flow sheet of Manufacturing of Acetone by ASPEN HYSIS
 Literature Review
There are many processes are available for the
acetone production. So we have find the research papers related to the
acetone production and studied of those papers.
But we have faced some problem related to our topic like data required
for the simulation purpose, flow sheet of acetone production, etc.
 As per study of research paper :
Simulation and process integration of clean acetone plant, by
Tohaneanu M.C., Plesu V., Iancu P., Bumbac G., Bonet Ruiz A.E., Bonet
Ruiz J., Chemical Engineering Transactions, 39, 469-474
DOI:10.3303/CET1439079
This invention presents flow sheet and some required data
for the simulation purpose. In this paper, process design of acetone
production is performed in ASPEN HYSIS.
So we have decided to work on our topic by taking this paper as
a reference.
 In this paper, Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor is used for the
reaction between IPA and water. This reaction is Endothermic reaction.
Flash unit is used to separate the phases of mixture. Scrubber is provided
at the top to remove hydrogen from the mixture. Two distillation column
are used in this process.
After removing the hydrogen, mixture is fed to the first
distillation column which separates acetone as top product and the second
column separates IPA-water azeotropic mixture as top product.
The azeotrope obtained from the second column is recycled.
Water separated as second column bottom stream product is partly
recycled, after cooling, to the second distillation column.
NRTL model is used for the liquid phase and Peng Robinson
model is used for the gas phase.
In this paper, to minimise utilities consumption and to synthesize
process heat exchangers network (HEN), maximum energy recovery
(MER) methodology is used. The proposed HEN is included in process
flowsheet. Energy saving is 35 % for hot utilities and 37 % for cold
utilities, compared to non-integrated scheme.
 Unit Operations Used in the Acetone Production :

 Distillation columns
Two distillation columns are used to separate the resulted ternary
mixture. The column produces 96 % acetone purity, for 50,000 t/y
acetone productivity. The bottom product contains IPA (0.1476 mole
fraction) and water. This stream is then separated into IPA-water
azeotrope and water streams in the second column.

 Flash Unit
Reactor effluent stream components are separated based on flash
vaporisation as volatilities are very different. Flash unit is assumed to be
isothermal. The inlet and outlet temperatures are 288.15 K. The pressure
assumed constant is 185 kPa.
 Process Integration :
Pinch analysis is used to determine potential for energy saving. Heat
exchanger network synthesis is based on MER methodology.

 We have learned basic unit operation in DWSIM:

 Continuous stirred tank reactor flow sheet
 Plug flow reactor flow sheet
 Conversion reactor flow sheet
 Shortcut distillation flow sheet
 Regorous distillation flow sheet
 Heat exchanger flow sheet
Literature Gap :

 Software Used For Process  Software NOT Used For Process

Simulation Acetone Production
Simulation Acetone Production
 DWSIM
 ASPEN HYSYS  COCO Simulator
 MATLAB  Excel
 CAMCAD