Reactor Process Flowsheets & Simulations
Explore 7 validated, solved Reactor simulation flowsheets in MaximaLabs — real components: n_dodecane, n_octane, n_butane, n_pentane, propane, h2. Open any one directly in your browser.
Solved via: PENG-ROBINSON.
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.
5 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON
17 0
View & openBenzene 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.
8 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON
17 0
View & openCumene 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.
7 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON
17 0
View & openButene/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.
6 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON
17 0
View & openEthylene 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.
10 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON
17 0
View & openEthylene oxide synthesis through to glycol
The full EO/MEG chain in one flowsheet, upstream of the standalone hydration example: ethylene and oxygen react over a silver catalyst to ethylene oxide (low per-pass ethylene conversion, ~10%, is realistic — high conversion pushes the competing total-combustion side reaction, which this model represents as a second reactor consuming a fixed share of the same ethylene at ~80% EO selectivity). A cooled flash condenses EO (and reaction water) from the unreacted ethylene/oxygen/CO2 vented for combustion-side purge; the condensed EO then hydrates with fresh water to MEG exactly as in the standalone hydration example. No ethylene/O2 recycle loop (an honest simplification — real plants recycle unreacted ethylene at high ratio).
17 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON
17 0
View & openStyrene 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
View & open