How to simulate cumene production (benzene alkylation)
Benzene and propylene alkylate over a fixed-conversion reactor to cumene (isopropylbenzene, the feedstock for phenol/acetone via the Hock process); a downstream column recovers unreacted benzene overhead for recycle-quality purity while cumene leaves the bottoms. Luyben, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2010, 49, 719.
Also known as: cumene unit, benzene alkylation to cumene, cumene production.
- 1Open the ready-made model
Open the "Cumene production (benzene alkylation)" model in the MaximaLabs workspace — no install, no license. It loads live on the canvas, ready to edit and run.
- 2Confirm the thermodynamics
This process is modeled with the PENG-ROBINSON property package over benzene, propylene, cumene — already selected, so the phase equilibrium and enthalpy are physically consistent from the first run.
- 3Review the flowsheet
The flowsheet chains MIX, RXN, COL. Every block is a real, solvable unit op you can reconfigure on the canvas.
- 4Run the simulation
Click Run. The deterministic solver converges the material and energy balances (recycles included) and fills the live stream table — the AI never invents a number.
- 5Read the results and iterate
Inspect the converged streams, tweak a spec, and re-run — or ask the AI copilot to explain a result or diagnose a failed solve in plain English.
- Thermodynamics
- PENG-ROBINSON
- Components
- benzene, propylene, cumene
- Unit operations
- MIXRXNCOL
Opens live on the canvas — free, no install.
Explore the model & flowsheetFrequently asked questions
- What does the Cumene production (benzene alkylation) model simulate?
- Benzene and propylene alkylate over a fixed-conversion reactor to cumene (isopropylbenzene, the feedstock for phenol/acetone via the Hock process); a downstream column recovers unreacted benzene overhead for recycle-quality purity while cumene leaves the bottoms. Luyben, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2010, 49, 719.
- Is "Cumene production (benzene alkylation)" the same as a cumene unit?
- Yes — this model covers what is also called cumene unit, benzene alkylation to cumene, cumene production. It runs the real process on the rigorous solver, so you can size and study it directly.
- Which thermodynamic method does it use?
- The PENG-ROBINSON property package, over benzene, propylene, cumene — already selected. You can switch the method on the canvas before running.
- Which unit operations are in the flowsheet?
- It chains MIX, RXN, COL. Every block is a real, solvable unit operation you can reconfigure, add to, or remove.
- Do I need to install software or buy a license?
- No. Cumene production (benzene alkylation) runs entirely in your browser on MaximaLabs — free, no install, no license. Open the model to load it live and run the deterministic solver.
More guides like this
Butene/isobutane alkylation
Sulfuric-acid alkylation of butene with excess isobutane produces high-octane alkylate gasoline blendstock; a conversion reactor stands in for the acid-catalyzed carbocation chemistry (a literal acid/hydrocarbon settler would need H₂SO₄ electrolyte thermodynamics this package doesn't carry — out of scope, same as the reactor already being a stand-in for the chemistry itself), and a deisobutanizer-style column recovers unreacted isobutane overhead. The high isobutane:olefin ratio real alkylation units run is maintained almost entirely by recycling that isobutane back to the reactor feed — closed here as a real Wegstein-converged tear loop, with only a small makeup feed replacing what the reaction actually consumes, rather than the previous version's isobutane leaving as an unrecycled product. Luyben, Principles and Case Studies of Simultaneous Design, Wiley (2011); Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2009, 48, 11081.
Hydrocracking reaction section
A refinery hydrocracker: heavy VGO (modeled as n-dodecane) plus excess H₂ is cracked over catalyst into lighter products via a discrete lumped first-order kinetic network, then flashed to knock out recycle H₂/light gas from the liquid product (Peng-Robinson). Conversion is set by reactor temperature and LHSV.
Benzene hydrogenation → cyclohexane
Benzene + 3 H₂ → cyclohexane in a conversion reactor, then a high-pressure flash recovers liquid cyclohexane and recycles the excess hydrogen (with a purge). The classic ChemSep recycle example — exercises reaction + recycle convergence.
2,6-Xylenol from phenol methylation
Liquid-phase methylation of phenol with methanol at 250°C/150 bar over a selective ortho-methylation catalyst, per US Patent 3,707,569. At 50% single-pass phenol conversion the reported selectivity is 70% to o-cresol and 25% to 2,6-xylenol (the further-methylated product) — modeled here as two sequential fixed-conversion reactors (phenol → o-cresol, then o-cresol → 2,6-xylenol) approximating that split, followed by a distillation separating the light methanol/water from the phenolics. The five-component side-draw column sits in the same successive-substitution residual plateau documented for the light-ends-train and DME-synthesis examples — it returns a physically reasonable partial profile rather than a clean converged status.
Ethylbenzene synthesis
Benzene alkylation with ethylene (exothermic, 98% ethylene conversion) followed by a recovery column — 100% EB bottoms. From the ChemSep casebook (AIChE J 57, 655).
Ethylene oxide hydration to mono-ethylene glycol (MEG)
Ethylene oxide reacts uncatalyzed with excess water at 200 C to mono-ethylene glycol (MEG, antifreeze/PET feedstock); the excess-water dilution that suppresses the over-reaction to di-/tri-ethylene glycol byproducts is reflected in the large water excess on the feed, and a downstream column concentrates MEG in the bottoms while excess water leaves overhead for recycle. Kinetics basis: Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2009, 48, 10840.