Process Modeling and Simulation of an Industrial-Scale Plant for Green Ethylene Production

Catalytic dehydration of ethanol is a key step in the production of polyethylene from renewable raw materials. Obtaining a mathematical model to optimize the ethanol-to-ethylene reactor setup is of great interest to the industry, allowing the optimal design of larger plants and improvements to existing plants. This work presents a phenomenological model of an ethanol dehydration reactor that takes into account 8 chemical reactions and 10 chemical species, considering nonidealities in the reaction rates and axial catalyst activity profile. Additionally, the axial variation of pressure, velocity, and thermodynamics properties are considered in the proposed model. Model validation at different operating conditions shows that the predicted temperature and composition profiles match the data from an industrial plant with relative deviations below 5% and from a pilot plant with relative deviation below 0.4%.