Simulation and optimization on etherification of light gasoline in a process of two fixed-bed reactors and one distillation column

The reaction of FCC light gasoline, being rich in C5 and C6 alkenes, exhibited etherification reactivity with methanol over the cation-exchange resin for increasing octane number. An etherification process of light gasoline in two reactors coupled with one distillation column was proposed and simulated. The axial dispersion model and rigorous algorithm were employed to calculate both reactors operated adiabatically and distillation column at steady state, respectively. Validation of the simulation was examined by the experimental data from pilot plant. Multi-objective optimization for maximizing the final conversion and minimizing the equipment cost and energy consumption concluded that optimizing the reaction volume and circulation ratios could obtain Pareto optimal set for selecting preferred design parameters by using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II).