• Journal of Institute of Convergence Technology
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.31-35
• /
• 2016

In this paper, the present status of shale gas development was briefly introduced and intended the growing importance and shale gas as a source of chemicals. The large amounts of shale are expected to be produced thereby, a wealth of methane and ethane will be provided as a raw material of ethylene. This manuscript also focus on the influence of potential volumes of shale gas on petrochemical industry, especially domestic one based on naphtha cracking because ethane cracking can offer cost effective ways to convert methane to higher value chemicals.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.110-117
• /
• 2016

It is a essential to minimize production of by-products for economically effective petrochemical process. In order to find key factor to achieve the effective process, 2-dimensional computational fluid dynamics considering a variety of physics such as convective and radiative heat transfer and thermal cracking of ethane are carried out. The reactor is modeled as an isothermal tube, whose length is 1.2 m and radius is 0.01 m, respectively. At first, the axial distribution of representative by-products in ethane thermal cracking are investigated in each inner wall temperature conditions. Then the comparison between concentration of propene($C_3H_6$) and ethane conversion is discussed with respect to inner wall temperature conditions too. Finally, both reaction rate and turbulent kinetic energy are used to identify the production mechanism of $C_3H_6$ under the intersection point in the plot for $C_3H_6$ molar concentration and ethane conversion.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.43-49
• /
• 2016

Thermal cracking is commonly modeled as plug flow reaction, neglecting the lateral gradients present. In this paper, 2-dimensional computational fluid dynamics including turbulence model and molecular reaction scheme are carried out. This simulation is solved by means of coupled implicit scheme for stable convergence of solution. The reactor is modeled as an isothermal tube, whose length is 1.2 m and radius is 0.01 m, respectively. At first, The radial profile of velocity and temperature at each point are predicted in its condition. Then the bulk temperature and conversion curve along the axial direction are compared with other published data to identify the reason why discussed variations of properties are important to product yield. Finally, defining a new non-dimensional number, Effect of interaction with turbulence, heat transfer and chemical reaction are discussed for design of thermal cracking furnace.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.58 no.1
• /
• pp.69-83
• /
• 2020

Light olefins are important petrochemicals as well as primary building blocks for various chemical intermediates. As the number of ethane cracking center (ECC) process, in which ethylene accounts for most of the production, has increased in recent years, propylene supply is not catching up with steadily increasing propylene demand. This trend makes the conversion of methanol to olefins to get more industrial importance. The methanol to olefins (MTO) process produces methanol through syngas and obtain olefins such as propylene through methanol. Since the reaction from methanol to olefins provides different product compositions depending on the catalyst used for the reaction, it is important to choose an appropriate separation process for the reaction product with different composition. Four different separation processes are considered for four representative cases of product compositions. The separation processes for the reaction products are evaluated by techno-economic analysis based on the simulation results using Aspen plus. Guidelines are provided for selecting a suitable separation process for each of representative case of product compositions in the MTO process.