A Report prepared for a chemical process based on its economic feasibility and safety. Its totally an academic project! The course was named as "Process Analysis and Simulation" at IIT Gandhinagar,. Objective of the study is as follows: To know how to optimize the process parameters to increase the production quality given set of possible constrains for a process. I used the ASPEN Package to do the same and some basic calculations based on a book!

1. 1 P a g e 0 | 5
CUMENE
PRODUCTION
REPORT ON ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY AND SAFETY
PROJECT WORK -II
PROCESS ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION| CL424
SEMESTER II, 2015-16
IIT GANDHINAGAR
BY,
PARAG PATIL|15310003

2. PAGE 1
INDEX
Sr.No Topic Page
No
1 Summary of Process and Work 1
2 Sizes of process equipments 2
3 Cost Estimation:
Capex, Opex and Profit
4 Safety considerations in design

3. PAGE 2
1. SUMMARY OF PROCESS AND WORK
As per the analysis carried out, the process is economically feasible,as it is
having a pay-back period of 7 years (approx), (Assuming full year of work
as discussed in APPENDIX)
As per the problem statement ,a process of cumene production from a
waste-water stream is suppose to be simulated in ASPENPLUS using NRTL-RK
method.
The CONSTRAINS for my work were as follows:
Sr.No. Constrain Required Value Achieved Value
1 Cumene Conversion in
Product stream
0.997(Roll Number
Specific)
0.999
2 Exit Temperature of Cold-Out
stream
97 0F(Roll Number
Specific)
97 0F
3 Waste- Gas Stream, Max flow 37lbmol/hr(As per
PCB rule)
36.980lbmol/Hr
Beside this , a profit was to be maximixed with the Optimization tool in
ASPEN.The Costs for the streams were provided and Utility-Cost was taken
from Turton et al(2009).
Maximization of the profit is done with using following parameters:
1. Using refrigerent with low cost (As stated in APPENDIX)
2. Using steam at lower pressure of 5kg/cm2(g)
3. Using Aspen tool of optimization by varying Reflux Ratios and length
of the reactor (to reduce CAPEX).
The safety is also considered while designing the process,discussed later on

4. PAGE 3
2. SIZES OF PROCESS EQUIPMENTS
The sizes of all the equipments were calculated with mass balances, rule of
thumbs (Like L/D=4,rule)and standard procedures given in the reference
to Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design by L.T.Beigler et al,1997.
Following are the equipments with their sizes
Sr.No. Equipment Size/Area
Diameter Height
1 Flash-Tank (vertical) 1.7m 6.8m
2 Cooler (Heat
Exchanger)
6.40m2
3 Pre-Heater 4.18m2
4 Plug-Flow Reactor 0.365m 5.18m
5 BZ-Column(D-01) 4.91m 20.478m
6 Cum-Col(D-02) 3.650m 12.858m
Following major equipments were not considered for sizing, however the
cost estimation for operation is considered for them
1. Reboilers and Condensors for distillation columns
2. mixing equipments
As it is assumed that these equipments will be in-sourced and since the
costing based on this is prelimanary, the effect will be adjusted within the
assumed range of cost-variation of ±40%.

5. PAGE 4
3. COST ESTIMATION:CAPEX,OPEX & PROFIT
Following cost estimation is done with the help of above sizing and the costs
given in the problem statement as well as the utility costs taken from Turton
et al,2009.The cost index of 5.22 is asumed for the year of 2016, and the
procedure for the cositng is taken from Systematic Methods of Chemical
Process Design by L.T.Beigler et al,1997.
Following is the Capex for the simulated process in Aspen
Sr. No. Equipment Cost in Dollars
1 Flash tank 40277.2999
2 BZ-Column 1267288.817
3 Cum-Column 636700.3791
4 Cooler 3045.1067
5 Pre-Heater 2684.385657
6 Reactor 4536.090918
7 Tray Stack for BZ-Column 82926.00991
8 Tray Stack for Cumene Column 263154.0378
Total Capital Cost 2300612.127
The Opex is first done on hourly basis, which is further extended to year to
calculate the payback period for the whole process.I have assumed the
Refrigeration and steam for cooling/(chilling) and Heating respectively.
The selling prizes and cost for Raw material,utility is also tabulated as follows:
Cooling/Chilling cost for refrigeration $276.14/Hr
Steam Cost for heating $366/Hr
Cumene (Production) $6456.88/Hr
Propylene (Raw Material) $5024/Hr
The Profit we can make from this process comes out to be $1110.0/Hr, which
is sufficient to pay back the whole Capex in 4.5 years (approximatly).

6. PAGE 5
4. SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS IN DESIGN
The process is designed by keeping safety considerations in mind.Some of
them are as follows
1. The steam is utilized but with low pressure (6kg/cm2(g)), So the person
coming in contact with it will have to face less trauma.
2. The process water is avoided and instead taken refrigeration system
into account so that the temperature in the pipeline of cooling will
remain within 5-12.5 degreeC.
3. Overall process pressure is well within 20psig, hence the explosion
chance is quite less.
While preparing layout and designing the plant, a care should be taken to
avoid the accidents as follows:
1. Boiler section can be kept sufficiently away from the process area
2. The cumene reactor and distillation column will safely kept away
from rest of the plant with equipped fire extenguishers as it is highly
flammable (MSDS of Cumene is in APPENDIX),rating pf health safety
is 3 on the diamond
Apart from design aspects of safety the plant personnel can be briefed with
the possible hazards of the chemicals and process to avoid the accidents.