Mathematical modelling and parametric studies for the methanol production in fixed bed catalytic reactor using Aspen plus

• Published in: AIP Conference Proceedings
• Main Author: Ariff M.A.M.; Nasir N.A.M.; Rashid Z.A.; Bashah N.A.A.; Rohman F.S.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics Inc. 2023
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85166757175&doi=10.1063%2f5.0115963&partnerID=40&md5=29567799d4d765315f2cfdc44a39d4d1

In this study, methanol production was simulated using Aspen plus mathematical modelling and the effect of pressure and temperature towards methanol reactor production and selectivity as well as reactant conversions were investigated. Nowadays, the number of methanol plants are increasing due to high demand worldwide. Reactor is one of the main equipment for the methanol production and high impact accident such as explosion, may happen due to the upset of the critical process temperature and pressure which also could create major fluctuation of the methanol production. Thus, the reactor behaviour needed to be studied promptly so that the risk assessment can be performed in a later stage. A mathematical model for the fixed bed catalytic reactor which used RPLUG in Aspen Plus software was developed based on industrial data. The model had been validated and the percent error was below 5.5% compared to the industrial data. The model was also much better compared to the previous research which used ANN MATLAB for the model validation. Overall, it concluded that Aspen Plus simulation for this model could be used to simulate the process with regards to any changes in the process parameters. © 2023 Author(s).