Catalytic Cracking of Ethane

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Catalytic Cracking of Ethane

Introduction

Ethylene and hydrogen are generated by a steam cracker using ethane as a feedstock.

C₂H₆ (g) ⇌ C₂H₄ (g) + H₂ (g)

The feed is 4 mol of H₂O to 1 mol of ethane, with the cracker operating at 1.01 bar and 1000 K. The products contain CH₄, C₂H₄, C₂H₂, CO₂, CO, O₂, H₂, H₂O, and C₂H₆ in the molar amounts n₁ to n₉.

	Species	In Feed	In Product
1	CH₄		n₁
2	C₂H₄		n₂
3	C₂H₂		n₃
4	CO₂		n₄
5	CO		n₅
6	O₂		n₆
7	H₂		n₇
8	H₂O	4	n₈
9	C₂H₆	1	n₉

This application calculates the composition of the reaction products by

•	calculating the Gibbs energy of formation of the individual species in the products, employing data from the ThermophysicalData:-Chemicals package

•	constructing a function that describes Gibbs Energy of the products as a function of product composition

•	and minimizing the Gibbs Energy of the products, subject to constraints.

>	restart: with(ThermophysicalData:-Chemicals): with(Optimization):

>	temp := 1000 * Unit(K): R := 8.314 * Unit(J/mol/K):

Physical Properties

Enthalpies

h_CH4 := Property("Hmolar", "CH4",            temperature = temp):
h_C    := Property("Hmolar", "C(gr)",          temperature = temp):
h_H2   := Property("Hmolar", "H2",             temperature = temp):
h_H2O := Property("Hmolar", "H2O",            temperature = temp):
h_O2   := Property("Hmolar", "O2",             temperature = temp):
h_CO   := Property("Hmolar", "CO",             temperature = temp):
h_CO2 := Property("Hmolar", "CO2",            temperature = temp):
h_C2H4 := Property("Hmolar", "C2H4",           temperature = temp):
h_C2H2 := Property("Hmolar", "C2H2,acetylene", temperature = temp):
h_C2H6 := Property("Hmolar", "C2H6",           temperature = temp):

Entropies

s_CH4 := Property("Smolar", "CH4",            temperature = temp):
s_C    := Property("Smolar", "C(gr)",          temperature = temp):
s_H2   := Property("Smolar", "H2",             temperature = temp):
s_H2O := Property("Smolar", "H2O",            temperature = temp):
s_O2   := Property("Smolar", "O2",             temperature = temp):
s_CO   := Property("Smolar", "CO",             temperature = temp):
s_C    := Property("Smolar", "C(gr)",          temperature = temp):
s_CO2 := Property("Smolar", "CO2",            temperature = temp):
s_C2H4 := Property("Smolar", "C2H4",           temperature = temp):
s_C2H2 := Property("Smolar", "C2H2,acetylene", temperature = temp):
s_C2H6 := Property("Smolar", "C2H6",           temperature = temp):

Gibbs energy of formation

CH₄

C (gr) + 2 H₂ (g) → CH₄ (g)

Enthalpy change

>	DeltaH := 1Unit(mol)h_CH4 - (1Unit(mol)h_C + 2Unit(mol)h_H2)

$- 89.07 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.1.1)

Entropy change

>	DeltaS := 1Unit(mol)s_CH4 - (1Unit(mol)s_C + 2Unit(mol)s_H2)

$- 108.55 ⟦\frac{J}{K}⟧$

(3.1.2)

Gibbs energy of formation

>	DeltaG_CH4 := DeltaH - DeltaS*temp

$19.49 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.1.3)

H₂O

H₂ (g) + 0.5 O₂ (g) → H₂O (l)

Enthalpy Change

>	DeltaH := 1Unit(mol)h_H2O - (1Unit(mol)h_H2 + 0.5Unit(mol)h_O2)

$- 247.86 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.2.1)

Entropy change

>	DeltaS := 1Unit(mol)s_H2O - (1Unit(mol)s_H2 + 1/2Unit(mol)s_O2)

$- 55.27 ⟦\frac{J}{K}⟧$

(3.2.2)

Gibbs energy of formation

>	DeltaG_H2O := DeltaH - DeltaS*temp

$- 192.58 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.2.3)

C (gr) + 0.5 O₂ (g) → CO (g)

Enthalpy change

>	DeltaH := 1Unit(mol)h_CO - (1Unit(mol)h_C + 0.5Unit(mol)h_O2)

$- 112.00 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.3.1)

Entropy change

>	DeltaS := 1Unit(mol)s_CO - (1Unit(mol)s_C + 0.5Unit(mol)s_O2)

$88.29 ⟦\frac{J}{K}⟧$

(3.3.2)

Gibbs energy of formation

>	DeltaG_CO := DeltaH - DeltaS*temp

$- 200.29 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.3.3)

CO₂

C (gr) + O₂ (g) → CO₂ (g)

Enthalpy change

>	DeltaH := 1Unit(mol)h_CO2 - (1Unit(mol)h_C + 1Unit(mol)h_O2)

$- 394.61 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.4.1)

Entropy change

>	DeltaS := 1Unit(mol)s_CO2 - (1Unit(mol)s_C + 1Unit(mol)s_O2)

$1.26 ⟦\frac{J}{K}⟧$

(3.4.2)

Gibbs Energy of Formation

>	DeltaG_CO2 := DeltaH - DeltaS*temp

$- 395.87 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.4.3)

C₂H₄

2 C (gr) + 2 H₂ (g) → C₂H₄ (g)

Enthalpy change

>	DeltaH := Unit(mol)h_C2H4 - (2Unit(mol)h_C + 2Unit(mol)*h_H2)

$38.22 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.5.1)

Entropy change

>	DeltaS := Unit(mol)s_C2H4 - (2Unit(mol)s_C + 2Unit(mol)*s_H2)

$- 80.93 ⟦\frac{J}{K}⟧$

(3.5.2)

Gibbs energy of formation

>	DeltaG_C2H4 := DeltaH - DeltaS*temp

$119.15 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.5.3)

C₂H₂

2 C (gr) + H₂ (g) → C₂H₂ (g)

Enthalpy change

>	DeltaH := Unit(mol)h_C2H2 - (2Unit(mol)h_C + 1Unit(mol)*h_H2)

$224.98 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.6.1)

Entropy change

>	DeltaS := Unit(mol)s_C2H2 - (2Unit(mol)s_C + 1Unit(mol)*s_H2)

$53.80 ⟦\frac{J}{K}⟧$

(3.6.2)

Gibbs energy of formation

>	DeltaG_C2H2 := DeltaH - DeltaS*temp

$171.18 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.6.3)

C₂H₆

2 C (gr) + 3 H₂ (g) → C₂H₆ (g)

Enthalpy change

>	DeltaH := Unit(mol)h_C2H6 - (2Unit(mol)h_C + 3Unit(mol)*h_H2)

$- 105.04 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.7.1)

Entropy change

>	DeltaS := Unit(mol)s_C2H6 - (2Unit(mol)s_C + 3Unit(mol)*s_H2)

$- 215.88 ⟦\frac{J}{K}⟧$

(3.7.2)

Gibbs energy of formation

>	DeltaG_C2H6 := DeltaH - DeltaS*temp

$110.83 ⟦kJ⟧$

(3.7.3)

H₂

>	DeltaG_H2:= 0:

O₂

>	DeltaG_O2:= 0:

Constraints

A mole balance on the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen gives these constraints

Carbon	n₁ + 2 n₂ + 2 n₃ + n₄ + n₅ + 2 n₉ = 2
Hydrogen	4 n₁ + 4 n₂ + 2 n₃ + 2 n₇ + 2 n₈ + 6 n₉ = 14
Oxygen	2 n₄ + n₅ + 2 n₆ + n₈ = 4

>	cons := n1 + 2n2 + 2n3 + n4 + n5 + 2n9 = 2 Unit(mol) ,4n1 + 4n2 + 2n3 + 2n7 + 2n8 + 6n9 = 14 * Unit(mol) ,2n4 + n5 + 2n6 + n8 = 4 * Unit(mol):

Gibbs Energy of the Products

Collect the Gibbs Energy of all species in a list

>	DeltaG := [DeltaG_CH4, DeltaG_C2H4, DeltaG_C2H2, DeltaG_CO2, DeltaG_CO, DeltaG_O2, DeltaG_H2, DeltaG_H2O, DeltaG_C2H6] /~ Unit(mol):

Total Gibbs Energy of the products

>	Gt := n -> local i; add(n[i] * DeltaG[i], i=1..9) + R * temp * add(n[i] * ln(((n[i] + 1e-10*Unit(mol))/ add(n[i], i=1..9))), i=1..9):

Optimization

>	Digits := 20:

composition := Minimize(Gt([n1, n2, n3, n4, n5, n6, n7, n8, n9]), {cons}, initialpoint = [n1 = 1 * Unit(mol), n2 = 1 * Unit(mol), n3 = 1 * Unit(mol), n4 = 1 * Unit(mol), n5 = 1 * Unit(mol), n6 = 1 * Unit(mol), n7 = 1 * Unit(mol), n8 = 1 * Unit(mol), n9 = 1 * Unit(mol)], assume = nonnegative, iterationlimit = 300):

Hence the product composition is

>	composition[2]

$[n1 = 6.75 \times 10^{- 2} ⟦mol⟧, n2 = 9.13 \times 10^{- 8} ⟦mol⟧, n3 = 2.77 \times 10^{- 10} ⟦mol⟧, n4 = 5.57 \times 10^{- 1} ⟦mol⟧, n5 = 1.38 \times 10^{0} ⟦mol⟧, n6 = 0.00 \times 10^{0}, n7 = 5.35 \times 10^{0} ⟦mol⟧, n8 = 1.51 \times 10^{0} ⟦mol⟧, n9 = 1.50 \times 10^{- 7} ⟦mol⟧]$

(6.1)

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