1.1 ALKYLATION PROCESS SUMMARY TABLE
Table 1.1: Hydrofluoric Acid (HF) Alkylation process summary table
PARAMETERS
Objective
DESCRIPTION
To form long chain highly branched isoparaffin by reacting alkyl
group with olefin
Operating
20-40°C
temperature
Operating pressure
7.8 bar
Catalyst
Liquid Hydrofluoric acid (82% to 90%)
Feedstock
Isoparaffin & Olefin
Feedstock ratio
5:1 (Isoparaffin to Olefin )
Product
Alkylate, n-Butane, Propane
By-product
Acid soluble oils
Major equipment
Impeller Reactor, Depropanizer, Deisobutanizer, Defluorinator, HF
Stripper, HF Rerun column, Drier
1.2 ALKYLATION PROCESS DESCRIPTION
1. The feed mixture (Olefin & Isoparaffin) from stream, S1 are first subjected to caustic wash to
remove any Sulphur compound
2. The feed mixture from S2 enters into drier, R-102 to remove any water content followed by
precooling in cooler C-103 to reduce the feedstock temperature before enters into reactor
3. Then, the mixture from S4 enters into impeller reactor, R-104 which consist of cooling tubes
to absorb the heat generated
4. The reaction takes place at temperature of 20 to 40°C & pressure of 7.8 bar with incoming
stream of acid catalyst from S18
5. The alkylate product produced from the reactor will be fed into phase separator S-105 via S5
where propane, recycled iso-butane, normal butane, and alkylate will be separated from HF
6. The alkylate rich stream, S6 from the separator will send to HF stripper S-107 to remove any
HF in lower quantities and recycled back into the reactor via S8.
7. The HF removed from the bottom of separator via S7 will be transported to HF Rerun column
R-106 to remove traces of oils from HF
8. The top product from the unit R-106 which is purified HF will be recycled back to the impeller
reactor through S16 whereas the bottom product generated from S17 will be acid soluble oils
9. The alkylate rich stream from bottom of unit S-107 is fed into the deisobutanizer, D-108 to
produce isobutane and propane mixture in S10 as top product and alkylate with n-butane in
S11 as bottom product.
10. Then the top product from S10 will be transported to depropanizer D-110 to separate the
propane as top product from stream S13 and isobutene as bottom product which will be
recycled to the feed via S14
11. The bottom product from S11 will fed into defluorinator D-109 to remove any excess fluorines
via caustic wash or adsorption to produce pure alkylate & n-butane as bottom product