Steady State Modeling and Optimization of Styrene Production in an Industrial Axial Flow Adiabatic Reactor

Abstract

In this study, the performance of industrial axial flow adiabatic reactors to produce styrene through ethylbenzene dehydrogenation on the potassium-promoted iron catalyst studied at steady state condition. The dehydrogenation reactors have been modeled heterogeneously based on the one-dimensional mass and energy governing laws and considering a detailed kinetic model. The catalytic and thermal kinetic models have been applied in the mathematical model of process. To prove the accuracy of the considered model and assumptions, the simulation results are compared with the plant data at the same process condition. Also, Genetic algorithm as a powerful method in the global optimization has been considered to maximize styrene production as the objective function. The inlet feed temperature to each reactor is selected as attainable decision variables due to severe effect of temperature on the equilibrium and kinetic constant. This configuration has enhanced styrene production rate by 1.2% compared to industrial adiabatic reactor.