Aromatics production from methanol and pentane: Conceptual process design, comparative energy and techno-economic analysis

摘要

This work presents a comparative energy and techno-economic analysis for producing aromatics from methanol and pentane. A novel process design is presented and detailed process simulation models are developed based on five different methanol to pentane mole ratios. On this basis, we obtain the mass and energy balances and conduct energy and techno-economic analyses for the five cases. The results show that co-feeding of methanol and pentane enhance the performance for aromatics production. The case with methanol to pentane ratio of 1:1 results in the highest net present value, which is 1.17-3.66 times of the other four cases. Sensitivity analyses are also performed to investigate the influences of price deviations on the economic performances. The results indicate that co-feeding of methanol-pentane with a mole ratio of 1:1 is more economically attractive when the methanol price ranges from -18% to 8% or the pentane price ranges from -10% to 18%. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.