Process simulation, analysis and optimization of a coal to ethylene glycol process

Qingchun Yang, Dawei Zhang, Huairong Zhou and Chenwei Zhang

Energy, 2018, vol. 155, issue C, 521-534

Abstract: With the rapid development of polyester industry, the increasing demand of ethylene glycol (EG) is in conflict with the shortage of supply in China. Large project of EG production from coal has been receiving more and more attention. However, little work has been done to model and simulate the complete coal to ethylene glycol (CtEG) process, and there is a lack of research analyzing or optimizing its system performance. In this paper, the CtEG process was modeled and simulated to calculate and analyze its mass and energy balance. The models were validated by comparison with industrial data. The element balance and thermodynamic performance of the CtEG process were analyzed to identify the technical bottleneck and provide theoretical support for the actual production. Key parameters were investigated and optimized for increasing the yield of product as well as improving the system performance of the CtEG process. Results indicate that, the process produce 37.50 t/h EG from 118.98 t/h coal. The exergy efficiency of the CtEG process is 30.68%. The coal gasification and EG synthesis units have the greatest potential for decrease in exergy destruction. After optimization, the production and the exergy efficiency of the process is increased by 3.04% and 2.64%.

Keywords: Coal to ethylene glycol; Exergy analysis; Process simulation; System optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544218307692
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:155:y:2018:i:c:p:521-534

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.04.153

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().