Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
This work aims to present an industrial perspective on CatalyticWet Peroxide Oxidation
(CWPO) technology. Herein, process simulation and experimental design have been coupled to study
the optimal process conditions to ensure high-performance oxidation, minimum H2O2 consumption
and maximum energetic effciency in an industrial scale CWPO unit. The CWPO of phenol in the
presence of carbon black catalysts was studied as a model process in the Aspen Plus® v11 simulator.
The kinetic model implemented, based on 30 kinetic equations with 11 organic compounds and H2O2
involvement, was valid to describe the complex reaction network and to reproduce the experimental
results. The computer experiments were designed on a six-factor Doehlert Matrix in order to describe
the influence of the operating conditions (i.e., the different process temperatures, inlet chemical
oxygen demands, doses of H2O2 and space time) on each selected output response (conversion,
e ciency of H2O2 consumption and energetic effciency) by a quadratic model. The optimization of
the WPO performance by a multi-criteria function highlighted the inlet chemical oxygen demand
as the most influential operating condition. It needed to have values between 9.5 and 24 g L-1
for autothermal operation to be sustained under mild operating conditions (reaction temperature:
93–130 ºC and pressure: 1–4 atm) and with a stoichiometric dose of H2O2.
Description
Keywords
ASPEN plus Carbon catalyst Catalytic wet peroxide oxidation Design of experiments Energetic efficiency Heat integration Simulation and optimization Surface response methodology
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Diaz de Tuesta, Jose L.; Quintanilla, Asunción; Moreno, Daniel; Ferro, Víctor R.; Casas, Jose A. (2020). Simulation and optimization of the CWPO process by combination of aspen plus and 6-factor doehlert matrix: towards autothermal operation. Catalysts. ISSN 2073-4344. 10:5, p. 1-17