Periodic and Recycling Operations in a Chemical Reaction Process for Production of Light Olefins

Abstract

Performance of a light olefins production process under both periodic and recycling operations was investigated via numerical simulation. In the periodic operation, the reactor wall temperature was set to vary sinusoidally along its axis. The by-products, butylene and pentene, were recycled to the inlet or the middle position of the reactor. As a result, we found that the yield of ethylene could be increased to 0.116 mol-ethylene/moI-methanol and the product ratio of ethylene and propylene could be raised to 0.685, by applying the appropriate combination of the recycling operation and the wall temperature modulation. The mechanism of the enhancement was also discussed from the viewpoint of a synergy effect between the two operations.