Simulation Analysis And Optimization Of A Catalytic Distillation Process For Alkylation Desulfurization Of Fluid Catalytic Cracking Gasoline

In order to satisfy the increasingly stringent environmental requirements, a large number of technologies have been developed and applied to reduce the sulfur content of FCC gasoline. As a kind of novel desulfurization technology, the alkylation desulfurization attracted more and more attention. This technology based on the alkylation reaction of thiophene compounds and olefin in gasoline. Compared with the traditional hydrodesulfurization, it has many advantages, such as mild operating condition, needless of other reactants and small loss of octane number. Coupling with catalytic distillation which was widely used technology in chemical fields, the process of alkylation desulfurization can not only strengthen the effect of sulfur remove, but also can save the cost and energy. This article we studied on the catalytic distillation process for alkylation desulfurization of FCC gasoline, and carried out the steady state simulation, process analysis, optimization design. And the specific content is as follows:Firstly, on the basis of conceptual design, the ASPEN PLUS software was adopted for steady state simulation of the catalytic distillation process for alkylation desulfurization of FCC gasoline. The results show that the preliminary design of the catalytic distillation process is relatively reasonable, and the design and operation parameters settings can be used in the subsequent process analysis and optimization.Secondly, based on the initial design model, the ASPEN PLUS was employed for the sensitivity analysis of the catalytic distillation process for alkylation desulfurization of FCC gasoline. Meanwhile, an economic analysis was carried out. As a result, the value of the basic process design variables can be determined, but the operating conditions still need a further optimization design.Finally, the single objective and multi-objective optimization were carried out by using the hybrid algorithm of artificial neural network(ANN) and genetic algorithm(GA) method. And a group of optimum operation parameters was achieved with the sulfur content is not more than 1 ppmw and the lowest total cost as the objective. The hybrid algorithm of ANN- GA can offer the effective optimization to the catalytic distillation process for alkylation desulfurization of FCC gasoline.