Technology Unit

This reactant mixture heated in the furnace is fed to the adiabatic plug-flow reactor, where the homogeneous reactions take place in the range 600 to 700°C, and at a pressure of about 35 bar. Below this temperature the reaction rate is too slow, while above this temperature a significant amount of hydrocracking takes place. An excess of hydrogen to aromatic ratio (5:1) is needed to prevent coking. The toluene and hydrogen raw material streams are heated and combined with recycled toluene and hydrogen before they are fed to the reactor. The product stream leaving the reactor contains hydrogen, methane, benzene, toluene and the unwanted diphenyl. 

Source: Ye, Lingjian et al. “Control Reconfiguration to Improve HDA Process Optimality.” IFAC-PapersOnLine 51 (2018): 434-439.