(364a) Modeling and Analysis of the Production of Formaldehyde from Methanol

Formaldehyde is an important platform chemical in the petrochemical industry and is used in the production of a variety of value-added chemicals. An important ingredient in the chemicals used to produce resins, adhesives, plywood and particle board, insulation, and lubricants, formaldehyde is produced commercially by the catalytic oxygenation of methanol. The availability of shale gas in the United States has led to the development of several plants that produce methanol from natural gas. This provides the motivation to for techno-economic analysis of products made from methanol. In this research, a novel integrated plant is developed for the production of formaldehyde from methanol. The overall plant, which consists of evaporator, reactor and absorber sections, is simulated in the ASPENPlus environment and the predictive capabilities of this model are tested by comparing the results from the literature. Then, the production of formaldehyde is optimized by varying seeral process conditions. Heat-integration tools are utilized for energy-saving and capital cost reduction opportunities. A dynamic analysis is conducted to observe the time-varying behavior of the system due to disturbances in different scenarios. The dynamic behavior provides the necessary data for designing control loops to keep the system at the desired set-points.