PROCESS DESCRIPTION

1. Drying of Benzene
Liquid Benzene from main storage is pumped into to a NaOH drier to remove
moisture or any paraffinic impurities and sidechain aromatics. Further it is
supplied to economizer where it is heat up to 50oC by use of hot nitrogen and
moisture mixture coming from the dryer. The main purpose of economizer is to
save heating cost. The feed from the economizer is send to oil heater to recover
some benzene and which is sent back to NaOH dryer while nitrogen, water and
still some benzene left is sent to chiller then to separator. In separator nitrogen,
water and some benzene are separated and nitrogen is reused.

2. Vaporizing of Chlorine.
Liquid Chlorine from Cl2 torner is fed to Chlorine vaporizer and is heated by
steam. If Chlorine supplied contains Hydrogen and Oxygen, proper precautions
should be taken to ensure that an explosive concentration of Hydrogen does not
occur in vapour stream from the chlorinator nor in the downstream Hydrogen
Chloride recovery system.
3. Reactor
After chlorine converted in gaseous form from liquid in the vaporizer by used of
steam is fed to the bottom of the reactor. Here chlorine is the limiting reactant. The
benzene with maximum of 50-ppm moisture content fed to the reactor. Some moisture
is required because in the present of this chlorine is react with ferrous rasching ring
and produce catalyst FeCl3. In the reactor, there is random packing of iron rasching
ring. This catalyst is corrosive in nature but the quantity of catalyst is limited i.e.
generated catalyst is completely filled toward reaction. There is restrainer at the top of
the packing to stop the pushing up of packing. The reaction temperature of the reactor
is 40oC. Here reaction is exothermic so that jacket is provided for cooling purpose.

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C6H6 + Cl2

`C6H5CI + HCI

C6H5CI + Cl2

C6H4CI2 + HCI

4. Graphite Absorber
It is used to absorb the HCl gas, which is produced during the chlorination of
benzene. It consists of two sections:
(I)

Top section is tail gas absorber filled up with graphite rasching ring. Its
material of construction is high density Poly Ethylene (HDPE). In this
section HCl vapor is absorbed in process water to produce 30% of HCl.

(II)

Bottom section is cooler absorber where cooling water is given to remove

heat of absorption because low temperature is necessary for absorption
process.
The graphite is used because
-

It is inert material.

It is non-corrosive with HCl solution.

No other chemical reaction is possible with graphite

It provides large surface area for absorption due to its porosity

property.

5. Glass Separator
The HCl and Benzene liquid mixture from the graphite absorber is send to the
collection tank in which HCl and C6H6 are separate in two layer as bottom and top
layer respectively. There is also intermediate layer in which HCl and Benzene are
present. This layer connected with glass separator in which HCl and benzene are
also separate.
6. CaCl2 Dryer
The benzene form the glass separator is passed through the CaCl 2 dryer. Its
contains CaCl2 layer of cylindrical shape and its material of construction is
HDPE. If any acidic impurities are present in benzene then it can be absorbed by
CaCl2 when it passes through it. In this way we get dry benzene.

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7. Neutralizer
The crude product from the reactor contains MCB, DCB, Benzene and some
dissolved HCI, which is then sent to the neutralizer. The dissolved HCI in the
crude product is very corrosive in nature. Hence to protect downstream
equipments from corrosion, the crude product is neutralized with 5% Caustic
solution. Good contact between Caustic solution and organic phase is obtained by
continuous circulation or agitation of the contents of neutralizer.
8. Decanter
After neutralizer, the mixture is sent to a decanter, which is a horizontal
cylindrical tank. In the decanter organic phase and aqueous phased are separated.
The aqueous phase separated may be further treated to remove organic
contaminants before disposal.

9. Benzene Distillation Column

The organic phase from the decanter is pumped to Benzene distillation
column. The Benzene vapours leaves from the top of the column and condensed
in the condenser cooled by cooling water. The Benzene fraction taken off
overhead typically contains about 99% Benzene and 1% MCB which is sent to
Benzene storage.

10. MCB Distillation Column

The bottoms of the benzene column typically contain MCB and DCB, which
are sent to a MCB column. The MCB vapours leaves from the top of the column
and condensed in the condenser cooled by cooling water. The MCB fraction taken
of overhead typically contains about 99.7% MCB which is sent to MCB storage.
The column bottoms contains about 99.5%> DCB, which can be further processed
into ortho, and para isomers, usually by fractional crystallization.

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