Design of a cyclohexanone production plant

Abstract

This project shows the design of an installation whose main equipment is a catalytic membrane reactor for the production of 80 kT/year of cyclohexanone from the oxidation of cyclohexane. This installation will be located in the company UBE Chemical Europe whose location is in the Serrallo estate in the Grao of Castellón. The process consists of introducing into the reactor the cyclohexane that reacts with the O2 of the air introduced at different pressures, where TiO2 acts as a catalyst to accelerate the reaction. Contact between cyclohexane and air and therefore, the reaction occur in the pores of the membrane. For the air to reach the necessary pressures, a compression system is required. Two phases are obtained from the reactor: an organic phase composed mainly of unreacted cyclohexane, due to the low degree of conversion; an aqueous phase composed of a mixture of water and cyclohexanone. Both phases are separated by decantation and the cyclohexane will be recirculated to the inlet of the reactor. Finally, the aqueous phase is separated by azeotropic distillation using two distillation columns adding acetone in the first one. The cyclohexanone is obtained from the bottom of the first distillation column.