CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
OBJECTIVE...............................................................2
PROCEDURE............................................................2
PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM.......................................4
WORKBOOK............................................................5
QUESTION AND ANSWER........................................8
DISCUSSION............................................................9
CONCLUSION.........................................................10

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

OBJECTIVE
To simulate the production of propylene glycol by using different software, Hysys and

Icon.

PROCEDURE
A. Procedure by using Hysys Software
1. Hysys software was clicked.
2. New project was clicked.
3. Then, three component was selected which are :
a) Propylene oxides
b) Water
c) Propylene glycol
4. UNIQUAC fluid package was chose as thermodynamic model.
5. The reaction was set to kinetic
6. The forward reaction details was listed
7. The mixer, CSTR and Tower was chose and dragged into the flow sheet.
8. All stream between components are connected
9. The details for stream 1 which is propylene oxides and stream 2 which is water
are filled in
10. Next, the CSTR details are filled in into the box as shown below
The details are:
a) To produce a final product containing 99.5% propylene glycol.
b) Assume a CSTR with a volume of 8,000 L and liquid volume of 85%.
c) The outlet temperature of CSTR is 60C.
11. Next, we add details for tower
The details are:
a) The distillation columns have 10 stages
b) Feed inlet at stage 5.
c) Pressure of reboiler and condenser are 1 bar
d) Reflux ratio is 1.
12. The simulation are run

B. Procedure by using iCon software

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

1) The software iCon on the desktop was clicked.

2) Clicked on new project select thermodynamic model UNIQUAC
3) Then the component button was clicked, and the components were searched
and selected.
4) The units involved in simulation such as mixer, CSTR reactor and distillation
column were dragged into the main flow sheet.
5) All the units were connected by stream as in shown in process flow diagram.
6) Double clicked on mixer, the following information given were inserted for :
7) Double clicked on E-1, all the following information was inserted.
8) Double click on CSTR-1, the information needed were filled.
9) Next , clicked on reaction filled the information.
10)Clicked on kinetics, A and E forward values were inserted.
11) Double clicked on distillation column, add the stages in the distillation column.
12)The feed stage was set.
13)The reflux ratio and mole fraction were inserted.
14)The pressure for the each stage was inserted.
15)The simulation of a propylene glycol was solved.

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM

A. Process flow diagram for Hysys Software

Figure 2: Production of Propylene Glycol

A. Process flow diagram for iCon software

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

Figure 2 : Production of Propylene Glycol

WORKBOOK
A. Summary table for Hysys Software

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

B. Stream summary table for iCon Software

Name

M-1.Out

CSTR-1.Vap

Description
Upstream Op
Downstream Op

M-1.In0

M-1.In1

CSTR-1.In

VapFrac

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.00

T [C]

25.0

25.0

25.0

60.0

100.00

100.00

100.00

100.00

P [kPa]
MoleFlow/Composition

Fraction

kgmole/h

Fraction

kgmole/h

Fraction

kgmole/h

Fraction

kgmole/h

WATER

0.0000

0.00

1.0000

4990.00

0.55804

4990.00

0.18436

765.11

1,2-PROPYLENE GLYCOL

0.0000

0.00

0.0000

0.00

0.0000

0.00

0.00022

0.92

1,2-PROPYLENE OXIDE

1.0000

3952.00

0.0000

0.00

0.44196

3952.00

0.81542

3384.05

1.00

3952.00

1.00

4990.00

1.00

8942.00

1.00

4150.08

Total
Mass Flow [kg/h]

229528.76

89896.25

319425.01

210396.46

Volume Flow [m3/hr]

278.798

90.165

368.961

114954.644

Std Liq Volume Flow [m3/hr]

274.833

89.989

364.822

249.201

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

Std Gas Volume Flow [SCMD]

2.247E+6

2.8372E+6

5.0841E+6

2.3596E+6

Energy [W]

-1.453E+7

-4.702E+7

-6.155E+7

1.861E+7

H [kJ/kmol]

-13233.0

-33922.2

-24778.4

16142.9

111.005

43.625

78.124

213.614

58.08

18.02

35.72

50.70

823.2810

997.0148

865.7430

1.8303

130.472

69.551

96.476

70.540

0.1710

0.6072

0.2555

0.0182

3.0154E-4

8.9008E-4

5.5577E-4

1.0004E-5

0.071

0.018

0.041

27.699

0.0028

0.0007

0.0017

1.0000

S [kJ/kmol-K]
MW
Mass Density [kg/m3]
Cp [kJ/kmol-K]
Thermal Conductivity [W/m-K]
Viscosity [Pa-s]
Molar Volume [m3/kmol]
Z Factor
Surface Tension
Speed of Sound

Name

CSTR-1.Liq0

C1.LiquidDraw_0_condenserL

C1.LiquidDraw_9_reboilerL

Description

Upstream Op
Downstream Op

C-1.Feed_4_feed

VapFrac

0.00

0.00

0.00

T [C]

60.0

42.5

185.0

100.00

100.00

100.00

P [kPa]
MoleFlow/Composition

Fraction

kgmole/h

Fraction

kgmole/h

Fraction

kgmole/h

WATER

0.87248

3879.51

0.94571

3877.78

0.0050

1.73

1,2-PROPYLENE GLYCOL

0.07747

344.46

0.00001

0.02

0.9950

344.44

1,2-PROPYLENE OXIDE

0.05005

222.57

0.05428

222.57

0.0000

0.00

1.00

4446.54

1.00

4100.37

1.00

346.17

Total
Mass Flow [kg/h]

109028.55

82787.73

26240.82

Volume Flow [m3/hr]

113.804

86.630

29.544

Std Liq Volume Flow [m3/hr]

110.652

85.411

25.240

2.5282E+6

2.3313E+6

1.9682E+5

Std Gas Volume Flow [SCMD]

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

Energy [W]

-3.927E+7

-3.588E+7

-1.977E+6

H [kJ/kmol]

-31792.1

-31501.2

-20556.6

66.478

61.215

100.013

24.52

20.19

75.80

958.0360

955.6509

888.2065

Cp [kJ/kmol-K]

88.572

75.313

280.342

Thermal Conductivity [W/m-K]

0.4221

0.5208

0.1910

8.5309E-4

5.9298E-4

5.1404E-4

0.026

0.021

0.085

0.0009

0.0008

0.0022

S [kJ/kmol-K]
MW
Mass Density [kg/m3]

Viscosity [Pa-s]
Molar Volume [m3/kmol]
Z Factor
Surface Tension
Speed of Sound

QUESTION AND ANSWER

1.

What is the conversion of propylene glycol after reaction in CSTR?

Hysys Software

iCon Software

19.50% conversion

50 % conversion

2. What is the phase of the final product obtained?

The phase for top product is vapor and liquid for the bottom product.
3. What is the mole fraction for each component in the final product stream?
Hysys Software

iCon Software

COMPONENT

VAPOR

LIQUID

VAPOR (V
OUT)

LIQUID (L
OUT)

PROPYLENE
OXIDES

0.00080

0.00000

.05428

0.0000

WATER

0.9992

0.00500

0.94571

0.0050

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

PROPYLENE
GLYCOL

0.0000

0.99500

0.00001

0.9950

4. Is the purity of the final product 99.5%? If not, how to achieve the desired purity?
The purity of the final product for both software is 99.5%.

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

DISCUSSION
Propylene Glycol is a very common organic compound that is used in many
applications. It is used as an oil dispersant, a solvent in pharmaceuticals, an antifreeze
and as a moisture and many others applications. It is used produced via the hydrolysis
of propylene oxide which is usually accelerated by acid or base catalysis.
This experiment is about the production of propylene glycol by using propylene
oxides and water as a reactant to synthesis propylene glycol. The main objective of this
experiment is in order to install and converged a conversion reactor, to stimulate a
process involving reaction and separation by using Icon software and compare it with
Hysys Software. The properties package list used is UNIQUAC fluid package. In this
process, we used propylene oxide feed stream of 3592kg/h as a stream 1 and water
feed stream of 4990kg/h as a stream 2.
Both stream 1 and stream 2 was set up at temperature and pressure feed is
25C and 1 bar. The simulation begins with combination together stream 1 and stream 2
in mixer equipment where is labeled as M-1 as shown in figure above. The function of
using mixer is in order to combine or mixed together the component of reactant used.
Then, the output component from M-1 is water and propylene oxides with mass flow
8942 kg/h and consists of 55.81% water and 44.19% propylene oxide. After that, the
component is feed into the Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) where it is labeled
as CSTR-1. The liquid volume inside CSTR is around 85% with together 8000 L.
The function of introduced of CSTR in order to convert reactant that is propylene
oxide to propylene glycol with side product water. In this reaction involving between
phase liquid and liquid. The reason of this experiment using CSTR because CSTR have
a good control, low operating cost and easy to clean. After conversion takes places, the
component output from CSTR is 4446.54 kg/h with 7.747% mol propylene glycol,
5.005% mol propylene oxides and 87.248% mol water with temperature 60C and
constant pressure. The temperature increased after pass through CSTR due to reaction

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CPE 613 PROJECT SIMULATION :

PRODUCTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL

takes placed is involved Arrhenius Law. Energy used in CSTR is 75362 KJ/Kmol in
order to convert propylene oxide to propylene glycol and water.
Then, the output component from CSTR need to be separated by using
distillation column T-1 into 2 product component at the top and bottom product. The top
product is labeled as Stream 6 meanwhile for bottom product is labeled as stream 7.
The separation column takes placed by inlet feed stage 5 and have 10 stages. The
pressure of reboiler and condenser are 1 bar while reflux ratio is 1.
From the data obtained in stream summary table by using iCon software, the flow
rate of the overhead product is 4100.37 kmol/h with each component composition of
94.571mole % water, 0.001 mole% propylene glycol and 5.428 mole% propylene oxide
at 42.50C and 100 kPa. However, the bottom product is 346.17 kmol/h and the
component composition of water is 0.5 mole%, and propylene glycol is 99.5mole %.
From the data obtained in stream summary table by using Hysys Software, the
purity of production of propylene glycol is 99.5% mol at the bottom product together with
0.5% mol water at L-out. But, the bottom product does not exist of propylene oxides. For
the top product that is V-out there is no output propylene glycol due to have been
separated at the bottom product. The component at top product is 99.20% mol water
and 0.0018% mol propylene oxide. Mostly at the top product where can reused back
water by recycle in order to prevent is waste.

CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, this production is successful. The conversion was also successful
with purity of propylene glycol is 99.5%

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