Maleic Anhydride Production

1
Maleic Anhydride Production

• Dave Arnold
• Luke Kline
• Daniel Sweeney
• Craig Rogers

2
Overall Reactor Parameters

• Volume 100 meters cubed
• Catalyst Amount 130,000 kg
• Fbo 0.4 kmol/s
• Foo 0.2 kmol/s
• T 595 K
• UA 1 kW/(kg-catK)
• Delta P lt 10

3
Overall Reactor Parameters

• 22,000 tubes at 1 in diameter
• Reactor length -- 9 m
• Total cross-sectional area -- 11.15 m2
• Heat exchanger surface area -- 15,800 m2

4
Reactor Scheme

• Butane 3.5O2 yields C4H2O3 4H2O
• Butane 6.5O2 yields 4CO2 5H2O
• C4H2O3 3O2 yields 4CO2 H2O
• Assuming Complete Combustion to Carbon Dioxide

5
Optimization of Butane flow rate
6
Optimization of Oxygen flow rate
7
Optimization of Reactor Average Temperature
8
Temperature optimization
9
Catalyst Geometry
10
Profit and Expenses

• Maleic Anhydride -- 0.82 per lb
• Vanadium pentoxide -- 4.08 per lb
• Revenue -- 77.57 million
• Expenses
• Catalyst -- 1.17 million per charge
• Air cooled heat exchanger -- 200,000