Modeling and Optimization of Ethylene Oxychlorination Fluidized Bed Reactor in Arvand Petrochemical Complex

The main goal of this research is the modeling and optimization of the ethylene oxychlorination reactor in the Arvand Petrochemical Complex. In this process, the dichloroethane is produced through the oxychlorination of ethylene on CuCl3 supported Al2O3 catalyst. The ethylene oxychlorination reaction occurs in a fluidized bed reactor equipped with a heat exchanger to control operating temperature. In the industrial plant, the oxychlorination and direct chlorination processes are in parallel and produced HCl in the direct chlorination and EDC cracking units fed to the oxychlorination reactor. In this research, the oxychlorination reactor is modeled based on the mass and energy balance equations at steady-state conditions. Due to fluid specifications and flow regime, a two-phase flow regime including bubble and emulsion phases with mass transfer between phases is selected to simulate the reactor. To prove the accuracy and precision of the considered model and assumptions, the simulation results are compared with the plant data. Then, an optimization problem is programmed to maximize the dichloroethane production rate based on the design and operating limitations considering feed temperature, coil temperature, operating pressure, and mass flow rate of hydrogen chloride and oxygen as decision variables. The simulation results show that applying the optimal operating condition on the system increases dichloroethane production from 128.7 to 141.3 mol/s.