NED UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

FINAL YEAR (CHEMICAL ENGINEERING)

BATCH 2016-2017
C hemical Plant Design - (CH-402)

Name: OBAID UD DIN KHAN Roll # CH-16049

Assignment # 2: Taxonomy Level C2 (05 marks)

Submission deadline: January 8, 2020

Describe the complete development of a plant for producing formaldehyde. Prepare, in

the form of a flow sheet, an outline showing the sequence of steps for producing
formaldehyde. A detailed analysis of the points to be considered at each step should be
included. The outline should take the project from the initial idea to the stage where the
plant is in efficient operation.

Formaldehyde production
Introduction: Formaldehyde is a naturally occurring organic compound with the formula
CH₂O. It is the simplest of the aldehydes Formaldehyde is one of the most well-studied and well-
understood compounds in commerce.

Uses:
1. Formaldehyde-based resins are used to manufacture composite and engineered wood
products used extensively in cabinetry
2. Formaldehyde technology helps make vehicles lighter and more energy efficient.
Formaldehyde-based resins are used to make interior molded components and under-the-
hood components that need to withstand high temperatures.
3. Formaldehyde also discovers usage in the textile industry where it is added to dyes and
pigments. This helps the pigments to bound better with the fabric, thus avoiding the
colors from fading. Formaldehyde-based resins are used to increase a fabric's resistance
to folds and wrinkles

Hazards in handling:
 Formaldehyde should always be used in a chemical fume hood, with spot (snorkel)
ventilation or in an enclosure exhausted to the outside of the building.
 Always use chemical splash goggles when handling formaldehyde to minimize the risk of
even a small splash or vapor exposure to the corneas.
  Wear a laboratory coat and appropriate footwear that covers the entire foot.
 Medium or heavyweight nitrile, neoprene, natural rubber, or PVC gloves should be worn
when handling concentrated formaldehyde. Disposable nitrile gloves may be used when
handling dilute concentrations (10% or less).
 Implement feasible engineering and work practice controls to reduce and maintain
worker exposure to formaldehyde at or below the 8- hour TWA and the STEL. If these
controls cannot reduce exposure to or below the PELs, employers must provide workers
with respirators.
Plant capacity selection survey:
Production of Formaldehyde in Pakistan is 340000 ton/Year. And Demand of Formaldehyde in
Pakistan is 400000 tons/Year .Capacity of Formaldehyde required to produce.
Demand-Consumption = Capacity
400000 – 340000 = 60000 ton/year
To meet this production capacity 60000 ton/year we have to produce 200 ton/day (as per suveys
done by Wah chemical-wah cantt)
Capacity per day * Working Day of plant = Required production capacity per year
200*330 = 66000 ton/year
We select capacity of 200 ton/day to fulfill the need of Pakistan.
Price of formaldehyde is 42-45 Rs/Kg

Process selection:
For making Formaldehyde there are mostly two methods are used.
 Silver Catalyst Method
 Metal Oxide Catalyst Method
A brief comparison between the two available process is given below
Silver catalyst Metal oxide catalyst

Process run Process Need Heat

adiabatically Exchanger
Tail Gases Can be Tail Gases Cannot be
Combustible Combustible
Silver process did not Metal oxide process
need ion exchange to needs an extra setup to
eliminate formic acid. eliminate formic acid.
Operating cost of Silver Operating cost of Metal
Process is less than Oxide is greater than
Metal Oxide Process. Silver Process

Therefore we can select silver catalyst process and further discuss its description.
Methanol Vaporizer:
The feed to the reactor is converted from liquid to vapor phase by means of a shell and tube heat
exchanger vaporizer (with adequate baffle spacing )the feed enter as sub-cooled pressurized
liquid at 290 K and 2 atm and leaves at super heated vapor with pressure drop of less than 0.3
atm and 393 K. the heating medium is saturated steam and leaves as saturated liquid the steam
is placed in the tube side and methanol is placed in the shell side.
Reactor:
so the reactor we are using is fixed bed catalytic reactor because our process is continous. The
feed enter the reactor at 393K and 2 atm and leaves the reactor at 473K and 1.7 atm pressure
with a conversion rate of 0.98 and has the pressure drop of 0.32 atm.the main reactions that are
taking place in the reactor for methanal formation are:
Absorption unit:
Packed column absorber are used here. The packing provides adequate area for intimate contact
between phases. The packing is the heart of the performance of the absorber. For the absorption
packing we select Pall Rings because it is the most efficient packing with very little tendency or
ability to nest and block areas of bed . now the reactor output with temperature 473K and 1.7
atm pressure enters the Packed column absorber. In absorber process water with temperature of
303K and 1.8 atm pressure also enter. After reaction the tail gases flew off from absorber and
from bottom formaldehyde, unreacted methanol, water are collected with pressure drop of 0.2
atm
Distillation tower:
The purpose of distillation design is to recover unreacted methanol from the solution of water
and formaldehyde. Continuous distillation is used in this process. Absorber bottom product enter
distillation column with 338K temperature and 1.8 atm pressure after distillation the bottom
product goes to heat exchanger where it exchanges heat and goes out where as some of the
product goes back in the distillation tower to distillate again. Formaldehyde is extracted from
both top and bottom of the distillation column with temperature of 350k and pressure drop of
0.14.optimum reflux ratio is to be selected to ensure maximum separation.
Heat Exchanger:
Here We choose shell and tube exchanger. Function: To reduce the temperature of Product
Formaldehyde and preheat the reactor feed. so the inlet and outlet temperature at shell side is
350K and 303K respectively. similarly inlet and outlet temperature at tube side is 307K and 320
respectively. Pressure drop at is within permissible limit of 10psi