Optimization of Single and Multiple Unit Chemical Processes: A Case Study on the Optimization of a Styrene Plant Design

Bracamonte, Piero (2016) Optimization of Single and Multiple Unit Chemical Processes: A Case Study on the Optimization of a Styrene Plant Design. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Adam Smith from Chemical Engineering, University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

Optimizing a chemical plant revolves around achieving an efficiency that takes into account operating constraints and costs, along with production requirements and addressing environmental concerns. The first part of this thesis focuses on the team’s optimization of a styrene production plant. The goal was to determine what changes from the base case minimize cost to produce the required amount of styrene while adhering to operating constraints. The team used PRO/II, a steady state process simulator, in order to simulate multiple unit operations included in the plant. The measure by which proposed design changes were compared was the calculated net present value (NPV) of the plant. An Excel workbook was used to determine and compare the economics of the design options considered. The team proposed a design which showed a higher NPV for the plant than that of the original base case design. Although the design proposal improved the NPV of the plant, it was not the global optimum design, due to a lack of considerations, such as controls, which fell outside the scope of our analysis. The second part of this thesis focuses on the optimization of a single unit, a fluidized bed reactor. This section follows more specifically the optimization process, the considerations taken, and analyses done. This single unit’s optimization is the essence of what was done for the styrene plant’s different units, accounting for effects of operating conditions on different units.

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