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Abstract

This work is aimed at carrying out the simulation of a process designed for the production of olefin from methanol with the aid of Aspen HYSYS. The olefin considered in this work was ethylene, which was synthesised in two steps: (1) equilibrium conversion of methanol to dimethyl ether using an equilibrium reactor, and (2) conversion of the produced dimethyl ether to ethylene. General Non-Random Two-Liquid (NRTL) model was employed as the Fluid Package of the simulation. The results obtained showed that a conversion of up to 98.29% was feasible for the reaction involving production of dimethyl ether from methanol. Moreover, the simulation of the design model with the aid of Aspen HYSYS showed that the it (the model) was a valid one because the results were found to be in good agreement with the theoretical principles of the process in each piece of equipment used. Furthermore, the material flow given by Aspen HYSYS around each of the pieces of process equipment were found to be balanced because the total amount of input for each component was equal to that of the output, in a situation where there was neither consumption nor generation. Also, the energy balances across the pieces of equipment of the process indicated that the all the process equipment of the design were having negligible heat duties except the condensers.