Modeling and Data Reconciliation of Decomposition Section of Urea Plant

Supervisor:
Dr. -Ing. Naveed Ramzan Name of Student: Registration No.: Sana Zahid 2009-MS-Chem-24

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DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, LAHORE-PAKISTAN Problem Statement:

Urea is one of the most important solid nitrogen-based fertilizers. It contains highest nitrogen among all the solid nitrogen based fertilizers, so it is of great importance in agriculture and also widely used as an intermediate in the chemical industry for yeast, urea formaldehyde and resins manufacturing. About 90 % of the world production of urea is used as a fertilizer all over the world. Urea production is carried out at high temperatures and pressures all over the world commercially. Modeling of Urea synthesis loop to get the maximum throughput and minimization of energy consumption is a major issue these days. A very few research work on the simulation of urea plant has been carried out. The development of simulation model of Urea Decomposition Section and data reconciliation with the existing units is the basic theme of this research work.

Process Description:
The production of urea commercially occurs at the high temperature (170 -200 oC) and high pressures (13 to 25 MPa) by the reaction of NH3 and CO2. The ammonia and carbon dioxide from the Ammonia unit and the ammonium carbamate from the recovery section are charged to the urea reactor. In the reactor two consecutive reactions the formation of ammonium carbamate and then the dehydration of ammonium carbamate occur to give urea and water. The formation of ammonium carabmate is an exothermic reaction and this heat of exothermic reaction is used to drive the endothermic dehydration of carbamate to urea.

2NH3 + CO2 NH4COONH2

NH4COONH2
(Ammonium Carbamate)

NH2CONH2 + H2O
(Urea)

The 1st reaction is fast and reach to equilibrium but the dehydration of ammonium carbamate is slower than the 1st reaction and does not goes to completion. In the recycle process, the synthesis mixture from the reactor is sent to the decomposition section where the Carbamate decomposes to NH3 and CO2. The NH3 and CO2 are separated by flashing and stripped off gases are absorbed in the absorber in the recovery section with the small amount of water to form the ammonium carbamate and this is recycled back in to the synthesis reactor. The heat generated in the absorption process is utilized in the decomposers. While the urea rich solution leaving the decomposer is sent to the filtration unit prior to further concentration and then prilling of urea takes place in the prilling tower. Ultimately the urea is sent either for marketing or for storage.

Decomposition Section:
The decomposition section consist of High Pressure Decomposition Low Pressure Decomposition

In high pressure decomposition, decomposition is achieved by reducing the pressure and increasing the temperature in the following equipment

Reflux Cooler(E-2161) Liquid Distributor(V-2161) 1st Pre Decomposer(E-2162) 1st Decomposer(E-2163) 1st Separator(V-2162)

The stream from the outlet of the reactor is divided to two streams the one stream is sent to the reflux cooler, cooled by the heat recycle stream and pressure is reduced to 300 psi and introduced to top of the liquid distributor and the other stream is sent to the bottom of the liquid

distributor by reducing pressure to 300 psi. This causes the considerable cooling and flashing of NH3, CO2 and H2O takes places and the stream coming from the top of liquid distributor reduces the H2O and CO2 contents in the off gas leaving the liquid distributor top. The pressure of stream leaving the liquid distributor is reduced and 1 portion is sent to the 1 st pre-decomposer is heated by the heat recycle stream leaving the reflux cooler and the heated urea rich stream is sent to the 1st decomposer and heated with the 185 # steam. The vapor liquid mixture is sent to the 1st separator where the liquid is separated and CO2 stream is introduced from the bottom and from the top of the separator CO2 rich stream is mixed with the ammonia rich stream and is mixed with the heat recycle stream to recover its heat completely. The low pressure decomposition includes the following equipment
Second Flash Separator(V-2163) Second Decomposer(E-2171)

Second Separator The products leaving the bottom of 1st separator is sent to the flash separator and decomposition is achieved with flashing due to drop in pressure. The gaseous phase is separated from liquid and concentration is further increased. The residual carbamate solution from the second flash separator is sent to the second decomposer where it is heated from the low pressure heat recycle stream leaving from the shell side of the 1st pre-decomposer and then sent to the second separator and low pressure CO2 stream leaving the top of the second separators mixed with the low pressure gaseous stream from the second flash separator and then sent to the recovery cycle. The urea rich solution is then sent to the evaporators where excess water is removed and the concentrated solution is then sent to the prilling tower and urea granular product is stored in the storage vicinity.

Data Reconciliation:
It is technology which is using process information and mathematical methods in order to automatically correct measurements in industrial processes. Data reconciliation is a tool which aims at finding a good compromise between the simulation values and the real plant data. Data Reconciliation helps finding the true state of the process for good decision making and profitability. As we know that all the process variables cannot be measured even if they are measured, the gross error as well as the random error in the measurement always shift the process state being monitored away from its true underlying state. Data reconciliation has many applications in evaluating process yield or in assessing the consumptions of utilities in different process units, i.e a plant wide energy audit using reconciled flows and temperatures help in a better identification of energy inefficient processes and equipments. On the other hand it could be useful in scheduling the maintenance for the process equipments e.g the heat transfer coefficient and level of activity of the catalyst can be estimated and used to schedule the maintenance program.[11]

Data reconciliation is a technique that targets at correcting measurement errors that are due to measurement noise, i.e. random errors. From a statistical point of view the main assumption is that no systematic errors exist in the set of measurements, since they may bias the reconciliation results and reduce the robustness of the reconciliation. Given n measurements yi, data reconciliation can mathematically be expressed as an optimization problem of the following form:

Where

is the reconciled value of the i-th measurement (

),

is the measured

value of the i-th measurement ( ), & the objective is to minimize the overall correction that is needed in order to satisfy the system constraints.

Literature Review:
Urea is one of the most valuable solid fertilizers. The urea production utilizes the huge amount of energy and there are many environmental challenges associated with this process. As in this new era world is facing the energy crisis and the energy sources are depleting day by day. The reduction the energy consumption requires not only finding the renewable energy resources but also using present resources carefully. As the urea process is known to consume the large amount of energy so the world is moving towards the maximum energy conservation from the process and to have a better control of environment. For this purpose the researchers are focusing to the understanding of the urea processes and to establish the simulation for the process so the better control of energy consumption could be made possible while increasing the urea production. There are only a few urea plants all over the world, whose complete simulation is carried out. The simulation of the urea process is still a grey area. So in this research work will not only provide the simulation model of the urea decomposition section but also with the help of data reconciliation we would be able to find the true state of the process to have a better control of the product yield and assessing consumption of utilities and to have a better identification of energy inefficient processes and equipments. The following literature review would be helpful in understanding the process and carry out the research.

 Daniela K. Cesari[1] perform the simulation of the decomposer considering it as a falling

film reactor as the temperature is increased at the low pressure the ammonium carbamate decomposes to NH3 and CO2. The research shows the close agreement with the existing unit. Dentae et al[2]worked with Snamprogetti and Stamibarbon Technologies and carried out high pressure simulation of urea synthesis loop. Zhang et al[3]presented the simulation of the synthesis section of a urea plant with Stamicarbon technology by the use of an equilibrium stages model and in his simulation extended UNIQUAC model was used. Hamidipour et al.[4]represented the stripper with a simple model based on total mass and energy balances. Pitrowski et al.[6] the vapor liquid equilibrium was studied and the worked to calculate the fugacity and activity coefficients for the high pressure system. David E. Martinez, Joan Carles Brun,[9] applied the data reconciliation technique to have a performance analysis of the Absorption Chillers. This work demonstrates that the application of data reconciliation can provide a good contribution in the performance evaluation of complex systems as absorption. Derya B. zyurt1, Ralph W. Pike[10] Data reconciliation is an important step in real time on-line optimization of a plant. It adjusts the process data to satisfy the constraints of the system model and provides estimates for unmeasured variables and process parameters, which are used in the consecutive economic optimization step. In this study, the focus has been on the simultaneous data reconciliation and gross error detection strategies to improve this initial step in on-line optimization. To this end, six different methods derived from robust statistics have been investigated along with weighted least squares and a modified version of MIMT for nonlinear models.

Methodology:
The following methodology will be implemented for the research work

Collection of data and Complete understanding of the process Modeling of Decomposition section in Aspen Plus Validating the simulation to the exiting Urea Synthesis Loop Data Reconciliation Analysis of Results Conclusion and Recommendation

Benefits of Results: To establish the simulation to the existing unit

To enhance the performance based on the different parameters

To minimize the energy consumption

Research Time Table:

Literature Review & Collection of Data Complete Understanding of the Process Base Case Model Development in Aspen Plus Analysis of simulation results & Data Reconciliation Results compilation and thesis submission

2 weeks 2 weeks 4 weeks 3 weeks 4 weeks

References:
1. Daniela K. Cesari, Susana Schbib, Daniel O. Borio., Steady State Analysis Of A

Falling Film ReactorDepartment of Chemical Engineering PLAPIQUI (UNSCONICET) 2. M. Dentea, S. Pieruccia, A. Sogaroa, G. Carlonib and E. Rigollib a Politecnico Simulation program for urea plants Chemical Engineering Department - Milan Italy Snamprogetti S.p.A. - Chemical & Fertilizer Plants Division - S. Donato Milanese Italy August 2001. 3. Zhang, X., Zhang, S., Yao, P. and Yuan,Y., Modeling and Simulation of High Pressure Urea Synthesis Loop, Computers & Chemical Engineering, 29(5): 983992 (2005) 4. Hamidipour, M., Mostoufi, N. and Sotudeh-Gharebagh, R, Simulation of the Synthesis Section of Stamicarbon Urea Process, Iranian Journal of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, 24: 45-56 5. Stayro, M.A, Li, Y.K and Agarwal, R.K, Modeling Urea Processes, Virtual Materials Group, Chemical Engineers Resource Page, 2000. 6. Piotrowski, J., Kozar, R. and Kujawska, M., Piotrowski, J., Kozar, R. and Kujawska, M., Thermodynamic Model of Chemical and Phase Equilibrium in the Urea Synthesis process, Chemical Engineering Science, 53(1): 183-186 (1998) 7. Frjacques, M., Theoretical Basis of the Industrial Synthesis of Urea, Chim. Ind., 60: 22-35 (1948) 8. M. R. Rahimpour* and H. R. Mottaghi., Simultaneous Removal of Urea, Ammonia, and Carbon Dioxide from Industrial Wastewater Using a Thermal HydrolyzerSeparator Loop 9. David E. Martinez, Joan Carles Brun, Miguel J. Bagajewicz, Alberto Corona Performance Analysis Of Absorption Chillers Using Data Reconciliation July 12-14, 2010, Istanbul, Turkey 10. Derya B. zyurt1, Ralph W. Pike, Theory and practice of simultaneous data reconciliation and gross error detection for chemical processes Computers & chemical Engineering,(2003) 11. Shankar Narasimhan, Cornelius Jordache Data Reconciliation & gross error detection, an intelligent use of process data (2000) 12. PDF for Urea plant Dawood Hercules 13. Material Balance for Urea Plant, Dawood Hercules Chemicals Limited