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Dehydrogenation Process Flowsheets & Simulations

Explore 6 validated, solved Dehydrogenation simulation flowsheets in MaximaLabs — real components: propane, propylene, h2, 2_butanol, methyl_ethyl_ketone, isopropanol. Open any one directly in your browser.

Solved via: PENG-ROBINSON.

FEED
PDH
Coolbox
Flash
Propylene Product
H2 Offgas
PDH complex, Baytown, Texas, USA

Propane dehydrogenation cold box

Propane dehydrogenation (PDH) to propylene over a Pt/Cr catalyst, followed by a cold-box separation recovering liquid propylene from the H2-rich reactor off-gas, after US Patent 6,333,445 (Chart Inc., 2002). The refrigeration loop itself is not modeled — the cold box is represented here as a net cooling duty to condense the propylene, a bounded simplification. Unreacted propane recycle is not modeled either (reported as its own product stream).

6 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

17 0

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FEED
Dehydro
COOL
Flash
H2 Offgas
feed
dist
btms
COL
MEK Product
Butanol Bottoms
Solvents plant, Texas City, Texas, USA

Methyl ethyl ketone from 2-butanol dehydrogenation

Catalytic dehydrogenation of 2-butanol to methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) over an In/MgO catalyst, per DE2831465A1 (1978), followed by a flash to remove the H2 co-product and a distillation splitting MEK from unreacted 2-butanol.

8 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

17 0

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FEED
Dehydro
Scrub Water
liq
gas
gas
rich
ABS
H2 VENT
feed
dist
btms
COL
Acetone Product
Water Bottoms
Solvents plant, Texas City, Texas, USA

Acetone from isopropanol dehydrogenation

Endothermic gas-phase dehydrogenation of isopropanol (IPA) to acetone, after Luyben (Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2011, 50, 1206). The H2-rich reactor off-gas is scrubbed with water to recover the acetone before venting, then a column splits acetone from the water/unreacted-IPA absorbent.

8 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

16 0

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Reference model (Vasudevan 2009)

Styrene monomer via ethylbenzene dehydrogenation

Ethylbenzene dehydrogenates over an equilibrium/conversion reactor to styrene monomer plus hydrogen — the endothermic reaction that supplies the world's polystyrene/SBR-rubber feedstock. A downstream column recovers unreacted ethylbenzene overhead for recycle while polymer-grade styrene leaves the bottoms. Vasudevan design, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2009, 48, 10941 (Figure 15.1).

7 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

17 0

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Styrene chain, Antwerp, Belgium

Integrated styrene chain: benzene to styrene monomer

The full two-step styrene chain connected as one flowsheet rather than two standalone process snippets: benzene alkylated with ethylene to ethylbenzene, purified in a recovery column, then fed directly to the dehydrogenation reactor that makes styrene monomer. The unreacted ethylbenzene the dehydrogenation column recovers is reported as its own product stream rather than recycled back onto the alkylation feed (an honest simplification — closing that loop needs a torn-recycle edge back into ALKCOL, which the plant does but this flowsheet does not).

12 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

17 0

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⭐ Featured
Erlangen, Germany

LOHC hydrogen release (methylcyclohexane dehydrogenation)

A liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) power train: methylcyclohexane (MCH) is preheated and catalytically dehydrogenated (MCH -> toluene + 3H2, endothermic, equilibrium-limited to ~90% single-pass conversion) to release hydrogen for downstream power generation. A flash drum separates the H2-rich gas from the liquid; a distillation column then recovers the unreacted MCH overhead and recycles it to the reactor feed, closing a real tight liquid recycle loop, while spent toluene leaves the bottoms (to be re-hydrogenated back to MCH off-site, closing the supply-chain loop — out of scope for this dehydrogenation-side flowsheet). Screening-fidelity note: MCH and toluene are genuinely close-boiling (relative volatility ~1.4 under this thermo package at column conditions), so the recycle carries real toluene along with the recovered MCH rather than a sharp cut — a production column would use more stages to purify it further; this shows the recycle topology and its convergence, not an optimized column design.

8 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON

18 0

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