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Aromatics Process Flowsheets & Simulations

Explore 7 validated, solved Aromatics simulation flowsheets in MaximaLabs — real components: benzene, toluene, o_xylene, methylcyclohexane, phenol, sulfolane. Open any one directly in your browser.

Solved via: PENG-ROBINSON, NRTL.

FEED
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COL
Benzene
Toluene Xylene
Aromatics complex, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Aromatics column (Strigle)

A simple aromatics splitter recovering benzene overhead from a toluene/xylene-heavy feed, as described by R. Strigle (Gulf Publishing, 1987) — a classic packed-column textbook design case.

4 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

21 0

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FEED
Solvent
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dist
btms
ED
MCH Product
feed
dist
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SR
Toluene Product
Phenol Recovered
Reformate treating unit, Rotterdam, Netherlands

MCHT extractive distillation with phenol

Extractive distillation of methylcyclohexane (MCH) and toluene using phenol as the selective solvent, adapted from Tiverios and Van Brunt (Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2000, 39, 1614). Phenol raises toluene's relative volatility away from MCH enough to split an otherwise close-boiling pair; a solvent-recovery column then splits toluene from the phenol (reported as its own product rather than recycled).

7 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

21 0

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FEED
Solvent
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dist
btms
ED
Nonaromatics
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SR
Aromatics Product
Sulfolane Recovered
Aromatics complex, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Sulfolane extractive distillation of aromatics

Extractive distillation recovering benzene and toluene from a stabilized reformate's C6-C7 non-aromatics (represented by methylcyclohexane) using sulfolane, after Figure 10.2/10.6 of T. Brouwer (PhD thesis, TU Twente, 2021). A vacuum solvent-recovery column then splits the aromatics from the sulfolane (reported as its own product rather than recycled). Note: the extractive column (ED) does not fully converge within the solver's iteration cap for this 4-component polar/nonpolar system and returns a partial profile — shown for the process topology rather than as a converged reference case.

7 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

21 0

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Aromatics complex, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Sulfolane liquid-liquid extraction of aromatics

Liquid-liquid extraction of aromatics from a refinery catalytic-reformer stream with sulfolane, after Figure 10.1 of T. Brouwer (PhD thesis, TU Twente, 2021). A countercurrent extraction cascade pulls benzene and toluene preferentially into the sulfolane-rich extract, leaving a methylcyclohexane-rich raffinate.

5 unit ops • NRTL

21 0

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Aromatics complex, Ulsan, South Korea

BTX aromatics train

Benzene / toluene / p-xylene split in a two-column train — 99+% purity on all three products. From the ChemSep casebook (CScasebook_BTX).

6 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

22 0

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Refinery reformer block, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Reformate splitter

A single column cutting catalytic reformate into a light benzene/hexane overhead and a toluene/xylene bottoms — the IECR 50, 5680 configuration from the ChemSep casebook.

4 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

22 0

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Reference model (Dejanovic et al. 2011)

Reformate splitter via dividing-wall column

A refinery catalytic-reformer stream (benzene/toluene/o-xylene plus a non-aromatic n-heptane proxy) is split into three purified aromatics cuts by a single thermally-coupled dividing-wall column instead of two ordinary columns in series — the same DWC economics as the BTX example, applied to a genuine reformate splitter duty. Dejanovic, Matijasevic, Jansen, Olujic, "Designing a Packed Dividing Wall Column for an Aromatics Processing Plant," Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2011, 50, 5680.

5 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

21 0

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