Modelagem e simulação de um reator de cloração de eteno para produção de EDC.

Abstract

The ethylene chlorination reactor used in the production of 1,2-dichloroethane (EDC) is a bubble column reactor. The ethylene chlorination reactor is a process which consist In injection from the gas phase (ethylene) through three sparger located at the base of the column in the liquid medium formed by chlorine and EDC dissolved. The direct chlorination reaction of ethylene held in the reactor is instantaneous, so that limiting step of the process is the mass transfer of ethylene gas to EDC in the liquid phase. Currently there is no loss of ethylene reacted in the top reactor section which reduces the yield of the process, since the ethylene raw material is a high cost. Thus, the objective of this dissertation is to make the modeling and simulation of reactor chlorination of ethylene and to analyze through statistical techniques which factors are most influential on the volume fraction of ethylene in the top of the reactor. The computational fluidynamics was used in modeling and simulation of reactor. The threedimensional simulations of the reactor were performed using the ANSYS CFX-12 that uses the finite volume discretization of the differential equations governing the flow in bubble column reactors. The sequence of simulations was performed from the 24 factorial design. The 2 4 factorial design was used to analyze the influence of four factors (diameter of holes from the sprinkler of ethylene, the reactor diameter, flow rate and flow of EDC Ethylene) on two levels and their combinations on the volume fraction of ethylene in the top of the reactor. The planning and all statistical analysis were performed in Minitab 16 software. From the results of the simulations was performed the statistical analysis of data leading to the conclusion that among the factors studied who had a major influence on the volume fraction of ethylene gas on top of the reactor were the diameter of the reactor, the ethylene flow and interaction these two factors. Therefore, increasing the diameter of the reactor decreases the volume fraction of ethylene gas at the top of the reactor, but the increased flow of ethylene increases the gas volume fraction of ethylene in the reactor top.