Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: Design and Simulation of Plug Flow Reactor and Distillation Column for the Production of Aniline via Nitrobenzene Hydrogenation
by Adeloye Olalekan Michael and Opu-Osima Daniel Oridimate

Abstract:
The objective of this study is to design a plug flow reactor and distillation column for the production of 95% purity aniline from the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene. The hydrogenation of nitrobenzene took place in a plug flow reactor via the heating and mixing of nitrobenzene with hydrogen at 3000C for aniline production and the produced aniline was purified via a distillation column. Aspen Hysys software and MatLab simulation tool were applied in carrying out this research study, and the simulation converged effectively yielding 251.47kmol of aniline at 95% purity, reflux ratio of 1.816, boil up ratio of 28.98 with a condenser duty of 3.02 x kJ/hr. The design parameters such as column internal configurations, column tray, weir geometry, downcomer geometry and plug flow reactor were simulated using MatLab simulation tool and Aspen Hysys software, and results were compared, which yielded minimal deviations that shows the effectiveness of the operational process. Thus, the hydraulic plot showed entrainment of 0% weeping and 0% downcomer backup, and the column internals gave a weir height of 50.8mm, a downcomer clearance of 38.1mm and a side weir length of 1.628m at constant pressure. Hence, the research study operational process yielded an improved Aniline product purity with less convergence time.

Keywords: Aniline, Nitrobenzene, Distillation Column, Plug Flow reactor, Aspen Hysys, MatLab

Download full paper