Simulation of a reactor considering the Stamicarbon, Snamprogetti, and Toyo patents for obtaining urea

Abstract

In the present work, the plug flow reactor of a urea production plant from ammonia produced from natural gas of the Camisea fields (Peru) was designed, comparatively analyzing three commercial processes currently in operation: Stamicarbon, Snamprogetti, and Toyo. ASPEN PLUS software was used as a simulation tool. To carry out the simulation and subsequent comparison of the three urea production patents, it will start from the same feed of ammonia (37,851 kmol/day) and carbon dioxide (18,989 kmol/day) for the three cases. For the design of urea synthesis reactors, reactors of the same size (2.3 m diameter and 29 m length) were designed. The results are graphs that illustrate the variation of the length of the reactor with the reaction temperature, the variation of the length of the reactor with the residence time, and the variation of the conversion with the time for each patent.