Cracking furnace reactor

It has been suggested that the design and operational practices for cracking furnace reactors can be put to use for heat supply to inorganic membrane reactors [Tsotsis et al., 19931. Having sufficient electrical conductivity at typical reaction temperatures for dehydrogenation reactions, ceramic membranes allow the use of electric current through... 

The actual configuration of the reactor may take various forms depending on the precise requirements of the process. For example, for a high-temperature homogeneous gas-phase reaction such as naphtha cracking, the reactor may be simply a long tube in a furnace [Fig. 6(a)]. In other cases, the single tube is replaced by a number of tubes in parallel as shown in Fig. 6(b). 

Figure 17.15. A fired heater as a high temperature reactor, (a) Arrangement of tubes and burners (1) radiant tubes (2) radiant panel burners (3) stack (4) convection chamber tubes (Sukhanov, Petroleum Processing, Mir, Moscow, 1982). (b) Radiant (surface-combustion) panel burner (1) housing (2) ceramic perforated prism (3) tube (4) injector (5) fuel gas nozzle (6) air throttle Sukhanov, Petroleum Processing, Mir, Moscow, 1982). (c) Fired tubular cracking furnace for the preparation of ethylene from naphtha.

At PPG Industries in Lake Charles, Louisiana, numerous instrument loops provide critical safety, alarm, and shutdown functions. These protective instruments are located on reactors, oil heaters, incinerators, cracking furnaces, compressors, steam-heated vaporizers, kettles, distillation columns, boilers, turbines, and other critical equipment. Process analyzers and flammable vapor detectors also enhance the overall process safety environment. [8]... 

Cyclization of 2 in concentrated sulphuric acid [14-16] predominantly leads to p-ionone (17). The reaction proceeds rapidly even below room temperature and, to avoid secondary reactions, is carried out continuously. The precooled streams of sulphuric acid and the solution of 2 in petroleum ether or liquid CO2 are mixed in a reactor and then quenched with cold water. Small amounts of a-ionone (18) can be separated off by distillation during isolation of the product. In the cyclization step large amounts of approximately 40% aqueous sulphuric acid are produced. Treatment to deal with this is expensive but is essential for environmental reasons. Organic impurities are broken down to carbon dioxide in a cracking furnace with heavy oil burners. In the course of this process, sulphuric acid is thermally converted into sulphur dioxide, which is reoxidized in the contact plant. 

Steam cracking is an endothermic, radical, high-temperature reaction that is carried out in a tubular reactor, the cracking furnace. 

Side and top view of a thermal cracking furnace with straight parallel reactor tubes. 

Ethylene is produced using ethane in a steam cracking furnace at 800°C. Assume that the reaction takes place in an isothermal conversion reactor where ethane single-pass conversion is 65%. Develop a process flow sheet for the production of ethylene from pure ethane. Use existing software package in your university to perform the material and energy balance of the entire process. 

Figure 14.8a shows a simplified flowsheet for the manufacture of acetic anhydride as presented by Jeffries. Acetone feed is cracked in a furnace to ketene and the byproduct methane. The methane is used as furnace fuel. A second reactor forms acetic anhydride by the reaction between ketene from the first reaction and acetic acid. 

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