Thermal cracking of propane and propane-propylene mixtures: Pilot plant versus industrial data

✍ Scribed by P. S. Van Damme; S. Narayanan; G. F. Froment

• Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 838 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0001-1541
• DOI: 10.1002/aic.690210604

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The product distribution and kinetics of the thermal cracking of propane and propane‐propylene mixtures were investigated for a temperature range of 700° to 850°C, exit total pressures from 1.2 to 2 atm. absolute, and steam dilutions of 0.4 and 1.0. The reaction kinetics were determined by two methods. The first uses the equivalent reactor volume concept to reduce the data to isothermicity before attempting the kinetic analysis. The second determines the parameters directly from the nonisothermal data by means of a search routine. Both methods led to a reaction order of 1. The effect of propylene addition was also investigated. Finally, a detailed molecular reaction scheme was derived from a nonisothermal and nonisobaric simulation of the cracking experiments. This scheme was used in the simulation of an industrial cracker and led to excellent agreement, in particular of the product distribution.