Acta Chimica Slovaca (ACS) publishes papers on fundamental and applied aspects of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical technology, chemical engineering and process control, biotechnology and food technology. Welcome are also topics which include chemical aspects of materials, physical chemistry and chemical physics, analytical chemistry, macromolecular chemistry and biomedical engineering.

Analysis of C3 fraction splitting system performance by mathematical modeling in MATLAB environment

Miroslav Variny *, Patrik Furda, Norbert Kováč a, Otto Mierka

Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
a SLOVNAFT, a.s. Vlčie hrdlo 1, 824 12 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

E-mail: * miroslav.variny@stuba.sk

Abstract: Propane-propylene mixture splitting by industrial conventional rectification incorporating a heat pump for energy intensity decrease was modeled in the Matlab environment. The constructed model was verified by comparing its results with operational data of a real C3 fraction splitting unit. As documented, increased product quality can be obtained at zero additional costs due to specific features of the system design. Process capacity and product purity limitations have to be considered in future C3 fraction production increase plans. Further compressor and its driving unit design features have to be incorporated in the calculation model to reliably assess the C3 fraction processing costs and provide a reliable tool for process operation optimization.

Keywords: C3 fraction, industrial heat pump, mathematical modeling, product purity

Full paper in Portable Document Format: acs_0335.pdf

Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2019, pp. 127—135, DOI: 10.2478/acs-2019-001