Hazard and Operability Analysis of an Ethylene Oxide Production Plant Samantha Ciricillo University of South Carolina, [email protected]
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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Senior Theses Honors College Spring 2019 Hazard and Operability Analysis of an Ethylene Oxide Production Plant Samantha Ciricillo University of South Carolina, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/senior_theses Part of the Other Chemical Engineering Commons, and the Risk Analysis Commons Recommended Citation Ciricillo, Samantha, "Hazard and Operability Analysis of an Ethylene Oxide Production Plant" (2019). Senior Theses. 274. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/senior_theses/274 This Thesis is brought to you by the Honors College at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Scanned with CamScanner Table of Contents: 1. Thesis Summary…………………………………………………...……………....1 2. Introduction……………………………………………………………………......1 3. Process Description………………………………………………………………..2 4. Implementation of HAZOP Study………………………………………………....4 a. Description of HAZOP Methodology……………………………………..4 b. Time of Study and Participants of Study Group…………………………..6 5. Major Results and Findings……………………………………………………….6 6. Future Work……………………………………………………………………….8 7. Conclusions………………………………………………………………………10 8. References………………………………………………………………………..11 Appendix A: Process Flow Diagrams and Equipment List...………………………..12 Appendix B: Ethylene Oxide Production Plant HAZOP Analysis Worksheet………17 Appendix C: Detailed Calculations………………………………………………….28 Thesis Summary The purpose of this work was to evaluate potential hazards and failures as part of the design and economic analysis for a chemical plant that would produce 150,000 tons of ethylene oxide per year[1]. The Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) method of analysis was used to accomplish this goal. This method of hazard analysis involves brainstorming potential errors in a system by examining each element of each process unit in full detail. This project was focused on the reactor unit because the reactor has several important parameters that could fail, resulting in safety issues within the system. Input for this analysis was received from the other members of the process team: Justin Brown, Alyssa Matarazzo, and Kyle Tynan as well as faculty mentors Dr. Thomas Stanford and Dr. Vincent Van Brunt. Through this analysis, many areas of concern for plant safety were found such as the ratio of hydrocarbon to oxygen causing an explosion hazard in the reactor, and the buildup of pressure in the reactor causing equipment failure. Additionally, safety precautions have been suggested such as adding a pressure relief system to the reactor, implementing controls on process parameters such as temperature and pressure, and writing emergency shutdown procedures in the case of system malfunction. These safety precautions are important for protecting the employees of the plant and the surrounding community. Introduction The goal of this report was to complete a detailed Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) analysis of the ethylene oxide production plant to complement the design and economic analysis of the plant conducted by the design group consisting of: Justin Brown, Samantha 1 Ciricillo, Alyssa Matarazzo, and Kyle Tynan[1]. The ethylene oxide plant was designed based on extensive research into industrial practices as well as literature on the chemistry and chemical kinetics of the direct oxidation of ethylene using a silver supported alumina oxide catalyst[2]. The chemical plant was designed to produce approximately 150,000 tons per year of ethylene oxide. The process was modeled using the Aspen HYSYS program and the process flow diagram was considered for this analysis. Process Description Ethylene oxide can be produced from ethylene in a number of ways; however, the most common industrial practice is to form ethylene oxide through the direct oxidation of ethylene with pure oxygen[2]. The reactant streams include a mixture of light hydrocarbons that is 94% ethylene as well as 99.5% pure oxygen[1]. The product stream will be mostly pure ethylene oxide as well as a waste liquid stream and vent gas streams. The by-products of this process are mostly water and carbon dioxide[2]. The process flow diagram for the process can be found in Appendix A and is taken directly from the Aspen HYSYS model simulation. Table 1: Component List for Hydrocarbon Reactant Stream Component Mole Fraction Methane 0.02 Ethylene 0.94 Ethane 0.03 Propylene 0.007 Propane 0.003 This process begins by separating the mixture of light hydrocarbons that includes methane, ethane, ethylene, propane and propene in order to get a high purity of ethylene[1]. The mole fractions of each component in the stream can be found in Table 1. This 2 separation involves two distillation columns in series to remove the methane in the first column and the ethane, propylene and propane in the second from the material steam. After these separations, the stream is mixed with the pure oxygen and a recycle stream. Then, this reactant stream is fed into the reactor. In the reactor, three main reactions are occurring, which are the reactions considered in the model. The main reaction is the direct oxidation of ethylene to ethylene oxide. Additionally, ethylene and ethylene oxide undergo complete combustion to form carbon dioxide and water[1]. The reactor is a plug flow reactor with silver supported alumina oxide catalyst inside the tubes. This catalyst is proven to enhance the direct oxidation reaction. After the reactor, the stream goes into an absorber. This separates most of the vent gases (carbon dioxide, oxygen and ethylene) from the water and ethylene oxide. The water and ethylene oxide mixture then goes through a refining process to remove the water and remaining vent gases, so the product is 99.73% pure ethylene oxide. The vent gases are treated in an amine absorber to remove carbon dioxide and then recycled to the reactor to react any remaining ethylene and oxygen[1]. During the process, it is important to pay attention to the lower and upper flammability limits of ethylene to avoid potential explosion hazards. At 25 °C and 1 atmosphere, the lower flammability limit for ethylene is 2.79% and the upper flammability limit for ethylene is 22.30%. The lower flammability limit for ethylene at the reactor temperature (240 °C) and pressure (2100 kPa) is 3.27%, while the upper flammability limit for ethylene at these conditions is 49.48%. The calculations for this data can be found in Appendix C. 3 Implementation of HAZOP Study HAZOP analysis is a well-accepted and effective tool used extensively in industry. It is a formal procedure to identify hazards in a chemical production plant as well as determining precautions to prevent these hazards[3]. A HAZOP analysis is a structured and systematic evaluation of a planned process in order to assess potential risks in the process. The ultimate goal of this work was to determine potential hazards and safety issues in the design and implement actions to improve the safety of this process and protect the lives of those who work in the plant. Description of HAZOP Methodology[3],[4] The basic idea of the HAZOP methodology is to brainstorm in a controlled, methodical fashion in order to consider all potential operational failures that can occur in a chemical process[3]. The first step was to gather a team of people composed of a cross section of experienced professionals from different backgrounds[3]. A HAZOP analysis is always done in a group[4]. Because this work was conducted in an academic setting, the analysis was mainly done individually with some input from peers and mentors as detailed in the section labeled “Time of HAZOP Study and Participants of HAZOP Study Group”. This procedure typically starts by looking at an up-to-date process flow diagram, such as the one in Appendix A. Other process information such as material and energy balances, materials of construction, and equipment specifications were also considered. Next, the process was considered as a whole to determine which process unit has the highest potential for hazards. It was determined that the plug flow reactor would be the best unit to look at since it is a key unit in the process and has many process parameters. Once the study node was chosen to be the reactor, the intent of the study node was 4 identified[3]. The intent of the reactor is to facilitate the reaction of ethylene and oxygen to produce ethylene oxide using a silver supported alumina catalyst for efficiency. Once the initial steps were finished, process parameters for the reactor were determined. These parameters included ethylene flow, oxygen flow, ethylene oxide flow, temperature, pressure, reactor volume, etcetera, which were determined during the design of the plant. These parameters were used to describe potential failures in the process that could cause safety issues. Then, guide words were applied to each process parameter to describe specific failures that may occur. These guide words are described in Table 2. Not every guide word was applicable to every process parameters, and some combinations did not produce potential hazards. This procedure could produce hundreds of combinations, but only those that were brainstormed and could produce potential hazards were considered. The combinations of guide words and process parameters are described more fully in the “Deviation” column of the HAZOP analysis table, which can be found in Appendix B. Table 2: Guide Words for HAZOP Analysis[3] 5 Once the combinations of guide words and parameters were chosen, possible causes were considered. Many different occurrences could be the cause of the same failure, so a list of potential causes was created in the analysis table. Additionally, a list of possible consequences for each guide word/parameter combination was also added to the analysis table. These two columns of the table were considered to form the final column of the analysis table, “Actions Required”. The final HAZOP analysis table can be found in Appendix B of this report.