Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Mathematical Model and System Article Info

Identification to Optimize Inputs
Conditions for Plant Design of Received: 10 February 2012
Accepted:22 February 2012
Cyclohexane Published online: 1st March 2012

Nor Suraya1, Ahmmed Saadi Ibrahem1*

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Chemical Engineering
Department -University40000-Shah Alam-Mlayasia

ahmmed_ibrahem@salam.uitm.edu.my

ISSN: 2232-1179 © 2012 Design for Scientific Renaissance All rights reserved

ABSTRACT
In this work, system identification method is used to capture the reactor characteristics of production rate
of cyclohexane based on mathematical model by using hysis software. The identification method is used
to measure the percentage effect on the production rate of cyclohexane by measuring the effect of input
factors of temperature of reaction, hydrogen concentration, and benzene concentration. Temperature of
reaction has big effects on the output of the system and. Also, hydrogen concentration has big effects on
the output of the system. Benzene concentration has big effect on the output of the system but less than
the reaction temperature and hydrogen concentration. All these results depend on model of hysis software
and these results are very important in industrial plants.

Keywords: Modeling, design, optimization, system identification, reaction

1. Introduction

Cyclohexane is a very important precursor for the production of nylon as it is the main raw
material for adipic acid and caprolactam as both adipic acid and caprolactam are the
intermediates for producing nylon . Figure 1 shows the mechanism of cyclohexane production
via hydrogenation of benzene. Benzene will react with hydrogen with the mol ratio of 1:3 to
form 1 mol of cyclohexane.
 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Fig. 1 Hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexane

Cyclohexane is said to be a clear liquid with pungent petroleum odor or sweet odor like
chloroform. Generally, it is not dissolved in water but soluble to certain organic liquids. Besides
that, cyclohexane is a non-corrosive organic compound, flammable and slightly less toxic than
its raw material, benzene (McKetta, 1982).
Global production and consumption of cyclohexane in 2010 were found out approximately to
be 4.6 million metric tonnes. The global capacity utilization of cyclohexane averaged 72% in
2010, which is a significant increase from 67% in 2009. Consumption of cyclohexane in 2010 is
estimated to have increased by almost 10% from 2009. It is expected to have average growth of
3.6% per year from 2010 to 2015, and then 2.3% per year from 2015 to 2020 (sriconsulting,
2011). According to the global production of cyclohexane, it is said that 63% of the cyclohexane
demand comes from caprolactam in the manufacturing of nylon 6 while the rest is consumed by
adipic acid for manucfacturing nylon 6,6 (27%), cyclohexanone (6%) and other applications
(4%) (ICIS, 2011).
There are two types of commercial processes (Gildert, 2001), multistage reactor vapour-
phase process and liquid and vapour-phase reactor process. Nonetheless, the existence of catalyst
deactivator such as carbon monoxide and sulphur may disturb the hydrogenation process in
reactor. Based on Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, the optimum operating
condition for the process is must not exceed 573 K because above this temperature, the
equilibrium begins to shift in favor of benzene. Therefore, high purity of cyclohexane cannot
achieve.
In this research, the main focused is on the production of cyclohexane via hydrogenation of
benzene using multistage of reactor of vapour-liquid. Fresh feed benzene and hydrogen will fed
to the reactor where the reaction will be take place. Then, the reactor effluent being cooled down
before being further separated in the separator. The bottom of the separator will produce the
desired product, cyclohexane while the top of separator containing un-reacted benzene and
hydrogen are recycling back with the fresh feed.
Recently, more researches has been developed using only single reactor or using
combination of a liquid and vapour phase reactor (B. Haut et al., 2002). It is very helping in
terms of reducing the capital cost and increase energy consumption of the process. Other than
that, through these latest developments, the production of cyclohexane can be set to the optimum
level with better yield and purity (McKetta, 1982). To carry out the mathematical model, few
assumptions have been made. The assumptions are classified as below:

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

1. Determine the flow rates of all stream component using material balances.
2. Determine the specific enthalpies of each component.
3. Solve the energy balance according to the desired one.
4. Assume no pressure drops during the calculation of enthalpy change from its reference
point in the units operations.
5. Assume all liquid is uncompressible.
6. Assume no heat loss around the unit operation and along the piping system.
7. Assume there is no kinetic or potential energy loss in the system.

Methodology

In this design project, after choosing the flow sheet of the process, the next step is to
calculate the mass balance. Mass balance is performed manually and verified using simulated
calculation, ASPEN HYSIS. The general mass balance is shown in Equation 1.

Input + Generation – Output – Consumption = Accumulation (1)

where Input = total mass enters through system boundary

Generation = total mass-produced within the system = 0
Output = total mass leaves though system boundary
Consumption = total mass consumed within the system = 0
Accumulation = total mass build up within the system = 0

Some assumptions are made to simplify the manual mass balance calculation.

1. Operating days for the plant is 330 days, 24 hours a day.

2. No leakage in pipe line and vessel in the system.
3. The entire components in the system behave as ideal gas and ideal solution.
4. No other impurities besides methane and nitrogen.

The basis is set to 100kmol/hr for benzene feed and 330kmol/hr for the hydrogen feed. The
recycled stream does not being considered when calculating the mass balance at first. After that,
the composition and the mass flow of the recycle stream can be obtained and the calculation is
continued for the recycle stream. Lastly, the value will be scaled up to achieve the desired mass
flow rate of 12626.26 kg/hr.
The required production rate of cyclohexane is 100,000 metric tonne per year. Thus the
amount of cyclohexane to be produced per hour is:

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Therefore, the target flow rate to be achieved at the end of the process is 150 kmol/hr. Figure 2
shows the mixer’s input and the output streams (stream 14).

Figure 2: Mass balance in mixer

Benzene balance:

Molar flow rate:

Mass flow rate:

Hydrogen balance:

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Molar flow rate:

Mass flow rate:

Methane balance:

Molar flow rate:

Mass flow rate:

Nitrogen balance:

Molar flow rate:

Mass flow rate:

Total molar flow rate balance:

n1+n3+n15=n4

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Total mass flow rate balance:

After performing the calculation on the mass balance using the equation, the collected data is
transferred into table for ease of reading. Table 1 and Table 2 show the mass flow rate and the
component composition in mixer.

Table 1 Summary of the mass balance at mixer

Stream 1 Stream 3 Stream 4
Component Mass Flow Mass Flow Mass Flow
(kg/hr) (kg/hr) (kg/hr)
Benzene 7811 - 7811
Hydrogen - 649.973 649.935
Methane - 105.823 105.884
Nitrogen - 46.256 46.222
Cyclohexane - - -
Total 7811 802.04 8613.04

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Table 2 Summary of composition at mass balance

Stream 1 Stream 3 Stream 4

Component Composition Composition Composition
(mol fraction) (mol fraction) (mol fraction)
Benzene 1 - 0.2326
Hydrogen - 0.975 0.7483
Methane - 0.02 0.1534
Nitrogen - 0.005 0.00384
Cyclohexane - - -
Total 1 1 1

The calculation is continued using the same method done for mixer for others equipment. The
summary of calculations is shown in the Tables 3 to 8 as shown below.

Table 3 Summary of the mass balance at reactor

Stream 6 Stream 7
Component Mass Flow Mass Flow
(kg/hr) (kg/hr)
Benzene 7811
Hydrogen 649.9734
Methane 105.8228 105.8838
Nitrogen 46.2557 46.2221
Cyclohexane -
Total 8613.04 8612.06

Table 4 Summary of composition in reactor

Stream 6 Stream 7
Component Composition Composition
(mol fraction) (mol fraction)
Benzene 0.2326
Hydrogen 0.7483
Methane 0.1534
Nitrogen 0.00384
Cyclohexane -
Total 1 1

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Table 5 Summary of the mass balance at separator

Stream 9 Stream 10 Stream 11
Component Mass Flow Mass Flow Mass Flow
(kg/hr) (kg/hr) (kg/hr)
Benzene 146.3212 2.8689
-16
Hydrogen 1.5172x10 55.5096
Methane 105.8838 2.0415 103.8423
Nitrogen 46.2221 0.05994 46.1622
Cyclohexane 8096.0620 159.1924
Total 8613.06 8244.4846 367.5754
Compare 8613.06 8612.06

Table 6 Summary of composition in the separator

Stream 9 Stream 10 Stream 11

Component Composition Composition Composition
(mol fraction) (mol fraction) (mol fraction)
Benzene 0.01916 0.0009677
Hydrogen 7.6820x10-19 0.7240
Methane 0.001301 0.1705
Nitrogen 2.1883x10-5 0.0434
Cyclohexane 0.9839 0.04984
Total 1 1 1

Table 7 Summary of the mass balance at tee

Stream 11 Stream 12 Stream 13
Component
Mass Flow (kg/hr) Mass Flow (kg/hr) Mass Flow (kg/hr)
Benzene 2.8689 2.2951 0.574
Hydrogen 55.5096 44.4077 11.1019
Methane 103.8423 83.0739 20.7685
Nitrogen 46.1622 36.9297 9.2324
Cyclohexane 159.1924 127.3539 31.8385
Total 367.5754 294.3539 73.5151

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Table 8 Summary of composition in the tee

Stream 12 Stream 13 Stream 14

Component Composition Composition Composition
(mol fraction) (mol fraction) (mol fraction)
Benzene 0.0009677 0.0009677 0.0009677
Hydrogen 0.7240 0.7240 0.7240
Methane 0.1705 0.1705 0.1705
Nitrogen 0.0434 0.0434 0.0434
Cyclohexane 0.04984 0.04984 0.04984
Total 1 1 1

After obtaining the new value for the value for the fresh benzene feed and hydrogen is
inserted into the Aspen HYSIS software to compare with the calculated value. Value of recycled
stream can be obtained. There was a difference on the input mass flow rate based on manual
calculation and hysis software. Thus, value for recycled stream can be obtained. Error that exists
between manual calculation and simulation is;

The basis of 100 kmol/hr of fresh benzene feed produces 99.03 kmol/hr of cyclohexane from
HYSIS. The scale up factor is:

Table 9 show the summary of mass balance after scale up with recycle stream.

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Table 9 Summary of mass balance after scale up with recycle stream

Molar Mass Mole fraction

Stre-
flow rate flow rate
am Benzene Hydrogen Methane Nitrogen Cyclohexane
(kmol/hr) (kg/hr)

1 151.5 11834 1 0 0 0 0
2 151.5 11834 1 0 0 0 0
3 500.0 1212 0 0.975 0.02 0.005 0
4 664.6 13181 0.2279 0.7478 0.185 0.0047 0.0011
5 664.6 13181 0.2279 0.7478 0.185 0.0047 0.0011
6 664.6 13181 0.2279 0.7478 0.185 0.0047 0.0011
7 216.2 13181 0.0093 0.2245 0.0569 0.0144 0.6950
8 216.2 13181 0.0093 0.2245 0.0569 0.0144 0.6950
9 216.2 13181 0.0093 0.2245 0.0569 0.0144 0.6950
10 150.0 12511 0.0130 0.0038 0.0053 0.0005 0.9775
11 66.1 670 0.0008 0.7253 0.1741 0.0460 0.0539
12 52.9 536 0.0008 0.7253 0.1741 0.0460 0.0539
13 13.2 134 0.0008 0.7253 0.1741 0.0460 0.0539
14 13.2 134 0.0008 0.7253 0.1741 0.0460 0.0539
15 13.2 134 0.0008 0.7253 0.1741 0.0460 0.0539
16 13.2 134 0.0008 0.7250 0.1743 0.0460 0.0539

In a process, it is very important to determine the overall energy balances that come in and
out of the process or else, the heat requirement for the process. To perform energy balances, the
method is almost the same as performing the mass balances. Typical problem that can be solved
by energy balances such as power required by the pump to pump the desired fresh benzene flow
rate, 150.8 kmol/hr and rate of energy that must be transferred from reactor to keep the contents
maintain at constant temperature. Energy balances within the process is the basic for plant
design. All the manual calculation is calculated using a spreadsheet computer program,
Microsoft Excel 2000. This spreadsheet software ensures the compatible and easy way for fast
editing of calculation and formula.
The First Law of Thermodynamic is referred to energy that cannot be created or destroyed. It
is used extensively in the discussion of heat engines. The standard unit for all these quantities
would be the joule although they are sometimes expressed in calories or BTU. Typically the first
law is writing as;

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

(2)

In other word,

(3)

Equations that will be utilized to calculate the enthalpy and heat in energy balance are as follow;

1. General Equations

(4)

Based on the assumptions stated above,

Hence, equation 4 can be reduced to

(5)

2. Equation for Reactive Process

(6)

3. Equation for Process with Phase Changes

(7)

4. Equation for Non-reactive Process

(8)

5. Equation for Heat Capacity, Cp

(9)

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Hence for sensible heat,

6. Total Heat for the Energy Balance (for non-reactive process):

(10)

All of the information relating to the calculation of the energy balance must be clearly shown in
the flow chart. State all of the enthalpy of each stream component together with the unknown
temperatures and pressures.

Steps:

1. Determine the flow rates of all stream component using material balances.
2. Determine the specific enthalpies of each component.
3. Solve the energy balance according to the desired one.

However, there are few considerations that must be considered into account:
1. Assume no pressure drops during the calculation of enthalpy change from its reference
point in the units operations.
2. Assume all liquid is uncompressible.
3. Assume no heat loss around the unit operation and along the piping system.
4. Assume there is no kinetic or potential energy loss in the system.

For energy balance, example of calculation will be done on the reactor.

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Inlet enthalpy:

: Benzene

: Hydrogen

: Methane

: Nitrogen

: Cyclohexane

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Outlet enthalpy:

: Benzene

: Hydrogen

: Methane

: Nitrogen

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: Cyclohexane

Total energy balance

The total heat for the energy balance in the reactor is:

The individual energy balance for each type of units in the system is calculated by using the
Equation 2 to Equation 10.

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

In this paper, modern system is introduced, system identification of the process by

manipulating the variable on the system with purpose of defining of the output effect and the
interaction between them (Ahmmed S. Ibrehem, 2011). The first step to do the system
identification is to model the process using hysis software. But, before the process can be
modeled out, mass and energy balance is done in order to design the cyclohexane system. Figure
2 below shows the process flow diagram of the production of cyclohexane.

Fig. 2 Process flow diagram of cyclohexane production

As have been highlighted in the first paragraph, this paper is done purposely to study on the
effect of the reactor output conditions by manipulating reactor variables; benzene feed flow rate
and the hydrogen feed concentration using system identification method. System identification
involves building a dynamical model from an input/output data without using any law and the
properties of the non linear system. The variables are chosen based on the most astonishing
effect that may affect the process performances. Depending on work by Ahmmed S. Ibrehem
(2011), the most active input parameters that give effect on the system can be verified. Hence
new identification method to specify the percentage effect of the cyclohexane production can be
known. Figure 3 below shows the variables that take part in the system identification of the
production of cyclohexane.

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Fig. 3 Variables in the production of cyclohexane

The main objective of system identification method is to calculate the average slope, θ. The
average slope represents the overall effect of the parameters on the measured output. θ1 represent
the effect of reactor temperature, θ2 represent the effect of benzene feed flow rate and θ3
represent the effect of hydrogen concentration on the system.

By following Ahmmed S. Ibrehem, preliminary partitioning of estimating groups can be

identified as follows:

(θ)≥200 : Give large effects on the system

200 >(θ) >150 : Give middle effects on the system
150 ≥ (θ)≥100 : Give weak effects on the system
100 <(θ):Cannot be establish
Equations below are the equation that used to calculate the optimum value of .

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Result and discussion

In system identification method, the relation between reactor temperatures, benzene feed
flow rate and hydrogen concentration can be seen after performing the calculation (Ahmmed S.
Ibrehem, 2011). The variables are being manipulated by changing the step size. For an example,
using a step change of 10, the optimum temperature for the process is at 500 K. hence, the effect
of the output must be measured in between 400-600 K.
The relationship between the reactor temperature and output profile is shown in Table 1. The
θ average between the reactor temperature and output profile is 58.260 at the optimum condition. It
shows that the percent effect of the reactor temperature give large effect towards the system,
64.73%. As being stated in Table 2, the kaverage is 2.81 and the θ average is 70.390 for the
relationship between benzene feed flow rate and the output profile at the optimum condition of
151.5 kmol/hr. It shows that benzene feed flow rate has the largest effect on the system, 78.21 %
compared to reactor temperature. Based on Table 3, the kaverage is 1.27 with the θ average is 51.820.
This means that hydrogen concentrations do give effect to the system by 57.58%. detailed
calculation can be seen in Table 1,2 and 3.

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 Journal of Purity, Utility Reaction and Environment 1 (2012) 1-23

Table 1 Calculation of the percent different between reactor temperatures against output profile.
a, |((Xi- b, |((yi-
Temperature, x Product Concentration, y slope (b/a)
Xni)/Xni)| yni)/yni)|
400 0.6801 0.2 0.003689492 0.0184475
410 0.6799 0.18 0.003394333 0.0188574
420 0.6796 0.16 0.002951594 0.0184475
430 0.6794 0.14 0.002656434 0.0189745
440 0.6791 0.12 0.002213695 0.0184475
450 0.6787 0.1 0.001623377 0.0162338
460 0.6785 0.08 0.001328217 0.0166027
470 0.6783 0.06 0.001033058 0.0172176
480 0.6781 0.04 0.000737898 0.0184475
490 0.6778 0.02 0.000295159 0.014758
500 0.6776 0 0 0
510 0.6773 0.02 0.000442739 0.022137
520 0.6771 0.04 0.000737898 0.0184475
530 0.6768 0.06 0.001180638 0.0196773
540 0.6766 0.08 0.001475797 0.0184475
550 0.6764 0.1 0.001770956 0.0177096
560 0.6759 0.12 0.002508855 0.0209071
570 0.6756 0.14 0.002951594 0.0210828
580 0.6754 0.16 0.003246753 0.0202922
590 0.6751 0.18 0.003689492 0.0204972
600 0.6748 0.2 0.004132231 0.0206612
Kavg 0.0179187
slope avg,θ 58.26
% effect, (θ avg x
100)/900 64.733333

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Table 2 Calculation of the percent different between benzene feed flow rate against output
profile.
Product a, ((Xi- b, ((yi-
Flow rate,x Concentration,y Xni)/Xni) yni)/yni) slope (b/a)
142.5 0.5717 -0.05941 -0.15629 2.6308294
143.5 0.5823 -0.05281 -0.14064 2.6634353
144.5 0.5932 -0.0462 -0.12456 2.695775
145.5 0.6044 -0.0396 -0.10803 2.7277155
146.5 0.6158 -0.033 -0.0912 2.7634888
147.5 0.6275 -0.0264 -0.07394 2.80038
148.5 0.6396 -0.0198 -0.05608 2.8320543
149.5 0.6519 -0.0132 -0.03793 2.8730446
150.5 0.6648 -0.0066 -0.01889 2.8618654
151.5 0.6776 0 0 0
152.5 0.6909 0.006601 0.019628 2.973657
153.5 0.7047 0.013201 0.039994 3.0295528
154.5 0.7188 0.019802 0.060803 3.0705431
155.5 0.7334 0.026403 0.082349 3.1189861
156.5 0.7483 0.033003 0.104339 3.1614669
157.5 0.7638 0.039604 0.127214 3.2121458
158.5 0.7796 0.046205 0.150531 3.2579271
159.5 0.796 0.052805 0.174734 3.3090319
160.5 0.8129 0.059406 0.199675 3.3612013
Kavg 2.8075316
θ avg 70.39
% effect, (θ avg x
100)/900 78.21

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Table 3 Calculation of the percent different between hydrogen concentrations against

output profile.
Hydrogen Product a, ((Xi- b, ((yi-
concentration,x Concentration,y Xni)/Xni) yni)/yni) slope (b/a)
- -
0.075 0.0177 1.0550349
0.923076923 0.973878394
- -
0.175 0.0451 1.1376319
0.820512821 0.933441558
- -
0.275 0.0778 1.2329335
0.717948718 0.885182999
- -
0.375 0.1178 1.3424956
0.615384615 0.826151122
- -
0.475 0.1681 1.4662411
0.512820513 0.751918536
-
0.575 0.3264 -0.41025641 1.263356
0.518299882
- -
0.675 0.3206 1.7122934
0.307692308 0.526859504
- -
0.775 0.4455 1.6698458
0.205128205 0.342532468
- -
0.875 0.6383 0.5654885
0.102564103 0.057998819
0.975 0.6776 0 0 0
Kavg 1.2717023
θ avg 51.82
% effect, (θ avg x
100)/900 57.58

Therefore, from the above calculation, the θ avg for the variables are:

Using Equations 11, 12 and 13, the optimum and can be identified.

Then, using equation 14 and 15, we can simplified the equation into;

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The calculation is completed using MATHLAB software. Table below shows the result for the
percent effect between inside the system and the outputs interactions.

Table 5: Percent effect for the inside the system and interaction between the inputs variables

Action Reactor Benzene feed flow Hydrogen

temperature rate concentration
Percentage effects in 51.8321 38.1679
the system (%)
Percentage 18.5579 13.6521
interaction effects
(%)

Conclusion

From Table 5, the most active input is benzene feed flow rate compared to hydrogen
concentration. It affected 51.83% in the system for the production of cyclohexane with 18.56%
for the interaction effect between the two factors. Despite of that, still hydrogen concentration do
give huge effect to the system. The percentage effect in the system is 38.18% while the
interaction effect between the two factors is 13.65%. Based on the result gained, both of the
variables; benzene feed flow rate and hydrogen concentration affect the overall active process.
They may affect the active side of the catalyst surface reaction by deciding which variables do
give the largest effect on the system. These findings are absolutely very important in the
industries for increasing the rate of cyclohexane production.

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References
McKetta, J.J. (1982). Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing and Design. New York and
Basel. Marker Dekker Inc.
Wolfgang, G (1986). Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. Fifth, Completely
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Gildert, (2001). Hydrogenation of Benzene to Cyclohexane. (U.S. Patent 6, 187, 980).
Ahmmed, S. Ibrehem (2011). System Identification for Experimental Study for Polymerization
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Article in Press.
Ahmmed, S.Ibrehem, & Hikamt SI. (2009). New Dynamic Analysis and System Identification of
Biodiesel Production Process From Palm Oil. Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering &
Catalysis 4(2), 61-68.
Haut, B., Halloin, V. and Ben Amor, H. (2002). Development and analysis of multifunctional
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