Senior Projects Conference

A vacuum gas oil hydrocracker process was modeled using a number of series and parallel reactions (between 10 to 28) pathways to produce gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas), naphtha, kerosene, and diesel. The number of real species needed to accurately simulate the respective product fractions was justified based on separator behavior. The kinetics of the reactions were justified from literature data. The system was modeled using the process simulator ChemCAD and priced using cost equations from Turton, Shaeiwitz, Bhattacharyya, and Whiting (2018). Both topological and parametric optimizations were considered. The recycle streams increased the complexity of the simulator significantly but were required to accurately model the concentration build-up in the system. The impact of reactor residence time, temperature, separator recycle purity, and feed ratio on the economics will be presented. Process hazards will be identified and suggestions to mitigate hazards will be presented.