Application of response surface methodology for optimization of an industrial methylacetylene and propadiene hydrogenation reactor

This paper presents the application of a statistical model in the optimization of an industrial methylacetylene-propadiene (MAPD) hydrogenation reactor of domestic olefin plant. The effects of fresh feed flow rate, MAPD inlet concentration, the amount of diluent and hydrogen flow rates on the propylene gain were investigated using response surface methodology (RSM) by Minitab software. According to Multilevel factorial design a total of 192 experiments were carried out. To identify the significance of the effects and their interactions, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for each parameter on the outlet concentrations of propylene, MAPD and propane. The results indicate that the R2 values are more than 0.95 and adjusted R2 are in a reasonable agreement with R2. According to the optimal conditions, the maximum amount of propylene production, as the main goal of this study is gained in the lowest value of MAPD inlet concentration (2 mol%) and hydrogen flow rate and in the high values of fresh feed and diluent flow rates.