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Determine feasibility of changing raw material while maintaining throughput (ref: case Rhone-poulenc2)

Project title Determine feasibility of changing raw material while maintaining throughput (ref: case Rhone-poulenc2)
User company name Aventis
User contact person Daniel J. Sleker, Cranbury, New Jersey
Industry sector Chemicals
Production process type Reaction and separation (batch distillation) and storage
Application area Product/Process Design Optimisation
Performance Analysis
Employees 2000+
Year the project started N/A
Tool(s) BATCHES
Vendor of the tool Batch Process Technologies Inc.
Pay-back time in months Exactly 6
Type of simulation used
 Batch Process
Short description of the project The plant wanted to start using inexpensive but low quality rawmaterial to boost the profits. Simulation was needed to ensure that the right modifications were made to maintain desired output while using lower quality raw material. The process includes reaction step, separation (batch distillation) and storage. In case of low quality raw material no right quality product can be acieved by first distillation. Therefore all material has to be recycled. Some cuts need to be redistilled and some reprocessed in the reaction step. All cuts are different and must be stored in storage tanks until reprocessing. The purpose of the study was to identify the bottlenecks in the storage process, distillation process and in the reprocessing of the byproduct. Simulation model enabled the project team to check how the system behaves when low quality raw material is used. Several new storage tanks needed to be installed. The optimal conditions for the distillation stage were found (cycle time & cut purities). The bottleneck due to processing of the byproduct were indentified and removed.
Soft Benefits Simulation enabled the design team identify and remove the bottlenecks and design the necessary process modifications to achieve desired output. The throughput of the distillation phase were increased by trying different distillation times and cut purities.
Public quantitative benefits Savings in raw material costs after implementing the changes $3,5 MM / year. Cost to modify the plant was $1,5 MM.
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