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ABSTRACT
In this study, the reformate stabilizer tower of a petrochemical plant has been investigated for the first time. The main goal of this distillation tower is to separate light components and liquid gas from the reformate product. In order to simulate and optimize the distillation tower and determine the optimum reflux ratio, Aspen HYSYS was used. In order to study the characteristics of non-ideal multicomponent mixture in a stabilizer distillation tower, a stable simulation model was used. Peng–Robinson equation of state was used as the suitable equation of state for this separation that has high accuracy for hydrocarbon systems. The comparison between results and real values proves the validity of the model. The effect of reflux ratio as an independent variable on flow parameters of reformate product, penthane’s flow rate in liquid gas product, and energy consumption in reboiler and condenser was studied, and it was found that the optimum amount of reflux ratio for the stabilizer tower is equal to 4.8. However, the reflux ratio in the current procedure is 6.96. The stabilizer tower was re-simulated with optimum reflux ratio, and the results were promising. Energy consumption of reboiler was reduced by 12.67 percentage, and for condenser, it was reduced by 27.05 percentage.