728 Section 5 The Professional Engineer, the Environment, and Communications B.3 PRODUCTION OF ACETONE VIA THE DEHYDROGENATION OF ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL (IPA) [1,2,3,4] B.3.1 Process Notes The prevalent process for the production of acetone is as a by-product of the : manufacture of phenol. Benzene is alkylated to cumene which is further oxidized to cumene hydroperoxide and finally cleaved to yield phenol and acetone. How- ever, the process shown in Figure B.3 and discussed here uses isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as the raw material. This is a viable commercial alternative and a few plants continue to operate using this process. The primary advantage of this process is that the acetone produced is free from trace aromatic compounds, particularly benzene. For this reason acetone produced from IPA may be favored by the phar- maceutical industry due to the very fight restrictions placed on solvents by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The reaction to produce acetone from IPA is given below: vor PMOIAB E401 R01 E402 E403 P402NB HOT Veo. T-401 IPAFeeé IPAFeed IPAFeed IPA Reactor Trim Reactor Reactor Phase Acetone Drum Pumps Vaporizer Reactor Effluent Cooler Cooler Heater Pumps Fumace Separator Stripper Process Water ’ 5 poe 'soPropy! Alcoho! Figure B.3 Preliminary Process Flow Diagram for the Production of Acetone from Isopropyl Alcohol (Unit 400) Arabyeis, Spillegs aut Paje Chuical Paste Richard Tavtou 2+ al.Appendix B Information for the Preliminary Design of Four chemical Processes 729 (CH;);CHOH = (CH,),CO + H, Isopropyl Alcohol Acetone The reaction conditions are typically 2 bar and 350°C, giving single-pass conver- sions of 85-92 %. B.3.2 Process Description Referring to Figure B.3, an azeotropic mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water (88 ‘wt% IPA) is fed into a surge vessel (V-401) where it is mixed with the recycled unreacted IPA/water mixture, Stream 14. This material is then pumped and va- porized prior to entering the reactor. Heat is provided for the endothermic reac- tion using a circulating stream of molten salt, Stream 4. The reactor effluent, con- taining acetone, hydrogen, water, and unreacted IPA, is cooled in two exchangers prior to entering the phase separator (V-402). The vapor leaving the separator is (Text continues on p. 735) T402 E404 V409. «E405. 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E403 E40 E405 E406 E407 E408 Temperature 254 30 5 30 «16030160 30 In °C) Temperature 254 40,15 40 160 «40160 40 Out °C) Flow 209 7790 1350 74.00 168 «176003550 4.16 (tonne/h)Appendix B Information for the Preliminary Design of Four chemical Processes 735 scrubbed with water to recover additional acetone, and then this liquid is com- bined with the liquid from the separator and sent to the separations section. Two towers are used to separate the acetone product (99.9 mole %) and to remove the excess water from the unused IPA, which is then recycled back to the front end of, the process as an azeotropic mixture. Preliminary equipment summaries and stream information are given in Tables B.5 and B.6, respectively. B.3.3 Reaction Kinetics The reaction to form acetone from isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol) is endothermic with a standard heat of reaction of 62.9 kJ/mol. The reaction is kinetically con- trolled and occurs in the vapor phase over a catalyst. The reaction kinetics for this reaction are first order with respect to the concentration of alcohol and can be es- timated from the following equation [3,4]: E, Tra = erp] Rt |° gas _ kmol ita = gas with E, = 72.38MJ/kmol, ky = 351 x 10° =, s TP reactor § In practice, several side reactions can occur to a small extent. Thus, trace quanti- tics of propylene, diisopropyl ether, acetaldehyde and other hydrocarbons and oxides of carbon can be formed [1]. The non-condensables are removed with the hydrogen while the aldehydes and ethers may be removed with acid washing or adsorption. These side reactions are not accounted for in this preliminary design. For the design presented in Figure B.3, the reactor was simulated with cata- lyst in 2 inch (50.4 mm) diameter tubes each 20 feet (6.096 m) long and with a cocurrent flow of a heat transfer medium on the shell side of the shell and tube reactor. The resulting arrangement gives a 90% conversion of IPA per pass. 8.3.4 Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium Isopropyl alcohol and water form a minimum boiling point azeotrope at 88 wt% isopropyl alcohol and 12 wt% water. Vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data are available from several sources and can be used to back-calculate binary interac- tion parameters or liquid-phase activity coefficients. The process presented in Figure B.3 and Table B.6 was simulated using the UNIFAC thermodynamics package in the CHEMCAD™ simulator. This package correctly predicts the for- mation of the azeotrope at 88 wt% alcohol.