Heat and Hydrogen Management Strategies in an Integrated Autothermal Radial Flow Reactor for Enhancement of Olefin Production

Abstract

Abstract Autothermal configurations are recognized as a novel concept in process intensification. The main objective of this study is modeling and optimization of the innovative radial flow configuration with dual-functionality of a well-mixed catalyst pattern for enhancement of olefin production. In this novel structure, namely, an autothermal radial flow reactor (AT-RFR), the hydrogen drain-off mechanism in hydrogenation-dehydrogenation reaction is applied. Since the olefin formation reaction is equilibrium-limited, the thermodynamic equilibrium is displaced by using of auxiliary hydrogenation reaction of nitrobenzene in well-mixed catalyst configuration. Moreover, the necessary heat for heavy paraffin dehydrogenation is supplied by the catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline. Subsequently, the NSGA-II algorithm is used for multiobjective optimization of this configuration. Olefin production rate and selectivity are maximized as two objective functions. The Shannon’s Entropy, LINMAP and TOPSIS methods as three decision making approaches are used to select the final solution of Pareto front. The optimization results have shown that olefin and aniline production rate enhanced about 41.1 and 23.77 ton/day, respectively, based on Shannon’s Entropy methods compared with the nonoptimized configuration. In addition, selectivity of olefin is increased 15.14% in optimized configuration.