Optimization of ammonia production unit using polymeric membrane: Re-design of ammonia synthesis reactor feeding strategy and methane removal

Abstract

The optimization of an industrial-scale ammonia production reactor is studied in the present work by re-designing the ammonia synthesis reactor and using a membrane. After simultaneous modeling and simulation of the ammonia synthesis reactor and the membrane unit, the maximization of ammonia production rate was investigated. The simulation results for a single pass through the reactor showed that removing methane, increasing the nitrogen flow, and combining these two cases increased ammonia production efficiency by 1 %, 15 %, and 19 %, respectively. Furthermore, for the reactor with the recycle stream, the efficiency of ammonia production can be increased by 2.74 % by re-designing the feeding strategy and optimization of the reactor. For this purpose, the PFMMD–CTFE copolymer membrane with a total area of 1550 m2 is required to separate methane, and the cellulose acetate membrane with a total area of 1343.9 m2 should be used to provide the required amount of nitrogen injection.