(51c) Design of Propane Dehydrogenation Plant

After ethylene, propylene is the most important raw material in the chemical processing industry. The recent shift in ethylene production from cracking to dehydrogenation has brought with it a decline in production of propylene, which is generally a side product of cracking. However, due to the abundance of low cost natural gas from shale gas, feedstock such as propane is now readily available for dehydrogenation into propylene. Our goal is to generate a preliminary design for a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant that is capable of producing 500kta of propylene with a minimum purity of 99.5wt% with a stream factor of 91%. The plant will also produce hydrogen as a side product with a minimum purity of 99.9wt%. The plant feed contains 97wt% propane with 1.5wt% ethane, 1.5wt% butane, and 30ppm sulfur impurities. The preliminary design will include heat and mass balances, equipment sizing, utility summary, and capital and operating cost estimates. Additionally we will discuss site location and we will prepare an economic evaluation of the site taking into consideration the local health, safety, and environmental regulations.