Design of a methyl ethyl ketone production plant

Abstract

Methyl ethyl ketone is an organic compound whose main use in industry is as a solvent in the manufacturing processes of resins, nitrocellulose coatings, cellulose acetates and others. The objective of the project is to design a production plant for methyl ethyl ketone that has a purity of 98%, with a production of 25,000 tons spread over 8,000 hours per year. The different methyl ethyl ketone production processes have been studied and a catalytic dehydrogenation of 2-butanol in the gaseous phase has been carried out. This process has 3 main stages; vaporization of the raw material, the dehydrogenation reaction and, finally, a separation of the components, firstly between the liquid phase and the gas phase and then between the methyl ethyl ketone and the 2-butanol. In the project, a basic design of the fixed-bed reactor, the liquid-gas separator, the plate distillation column and the cylindrical storage tanks has been carried out. In addition, the heat exchangers necessary for the correct operation of the main equipment have been designed and the pumps and the mixer have been selected according to the needs. In addition to a basic design of the process equipment, the control and instrumentation of the process has been studied to ensure the correct functioning of the plant