Simulação do pré-resfriador de cloro em modelo estacionário - estudo de caso.

Abstract

During the Chlorine production many impurities are incorporated to de product and it´s removed along the chlorine processing. Impurities removal is a key factor to assure not only product quality but also from a safety stand point, due to the fact that many of these impurities represent explosion hazards. On the processing process, the removal of one of the most hazardous impurity takes place at the pre-cooler, a trayed-column that besides removing the heavy impurities chills the chlorine gas prior to compression. The main objective of the present work was to develop a steady-state simulation on a commercial simulation software that represents the operating parameters of a pre-cooler like temperature profile along the trays, pressure profile and column hydraulics using as a case study a piece of equipment installed at one of Braskem S.A. chlorine processing plants. A detailed description of the equipment purpose and a brief description of the main technology updates since the first designed one back to 1930 until the Montreal Protocol signature and it´s impacts on the technology. It is also presented a discussion regarding the main hydraulic parameters and its effects on column performance and stability. A brief discussion regarding plate efficiency and the predictive methods. The simulation was developed under ASPEN Plus V8.4. A RADFRAC block was the choice to model the column sessions and a separated FLASH block to reboiler. Plant data were used to adjust and validate the simulation and a sensitivity analysis took place to verify the response of the process parameter to variation on the key process input variables, a diagnostic of equipment performance was performed as well. It was concluded that the use of the simulation was satisfactory to reproduce plant data and identified that some hydraulic constrains that leads to operational instability are possibly in place. Recommendations are given to stabilize the equipment operation and adjust at the equipment design.