A Computer Simulator Model for Generating Sulphuric Acid and Improve the Operational Results, Using Operational Data from a Chemical Plant

Abstract

The integration of both sensors and simulation in some industrial processes has received a large increase in the recent years, thanks to results such as increase in production indices or improvement in economic indicators. This document describes the development and validation of a simulation-based computer process for generating sulphuric acid. For this process, the data generated by simulation between the fixed beds of a catalytic reactor versus the results obtained using real data from a sulphuric acid production plant in the Antofagasta Region, Chile, have been used. This sulphuric acid production plant is designed for producing 720,000 tons of sulphuric acid annually, with a production capacity of 26 MW, which is used for both its own consumption and the Big North Interconnected System (SING, for its acronym in Spanish) and a sulphur consumption of 240,000 tons/year. For the simulation process, converter input variables such as temperature and gas flow to later observe the oxidation behavior under different operational scenarios were considered. To do it, a working method has been proposed and the software Aspen HYSYS® was used for the simulation. The simulation result was validated using design operational data provided by the company. The real results show a 99.9% of adjustment concerning the values obtained using the simulation. Based on the findings, a new operational scenario was created, and the economic indicators of the simulator implementation were determined: NPV=CLP 161,695,000 and IRR=53% with a 6% monthly production increase.