Modeling and optimization of ammonia process: Effect of hydrogen unit performance on the ammonia yield

Abstract

The main object of this research is the development of a mathematical framework to simulate a commercial ammonia plant and obtaining the optimal operating conditions of process at steady state condition. The considered ammonia plant consists of steam and autothermal reforming reactors, low and high temperature shift converters, hydrogen purification section, methanation, and ammonia synthesis reactors. The catalytic reactors are heterogeneously modeled based on the mass and energy balance equations considering heat and mass transfer resistances in the gas and catalyst phases. In addition, an equilibrium model is applied to simulate the absorption column. Then, the accuracy of developed framework is investigated against plant data. The results show that the internal mass transfer resistance in the commercial catalyst limits the syngas production in the reforming section. In the second step, an optimization problem is formulated to enhance the ammonia production considering safety and operating limitations. The formulated optimization problem is handled employing the genetic algorithm. The results show that more syngas production in the optimized hydrogen unit is one of the main reasons for higher ammonia synthesis in the considered plant. Applying optimal conditions on the process increases ammonia production potential from 1890 to 2179 mol s−1.