Decreasing Fuel Gas Consumption of a Propane Dehydrogenation- Polypropylene Complex

Polypropylene is one of the key polymer products that has begun to expand in a variety of applications. The reason for this is that polypropylene can effectively replace a number of materials in terms of cost and performance. The Propane Dehydrogenation-Polypropylene Complex is an integrated complex comprised of a propane dehydrogenation plant (PDH Plant), and a polypropylene plant (PP Plant). This petrochemical complex is designed to convert low-cost propane into polypropylene, an easily transported plastic used in the manufacturing of a wide range of finished products. It produces a wide range of polypropylene products suitable for a wide variety of applications and industries. Many industrial waste gasses, especially those from petrochemical processes, contain combustible substances enabling their utilization as a promising energy source. In this paper, considering the importance of hydrogen production as a modern energy carrier, a real case study was performed to find a suitable method to recover and exploit the waste gases produced by the hydrogen pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit using a modified scheme at one of the PDH-PP complex sites. The modified scheme aims to minimize the external energy demand. The energy savings are estimated for the modification of the PSA unit. A model was developed for estimating the waste gas recovery potential, including fuel gas consumption analysis, to establish realistic fuel gas savings. Overall, the study has indicated significant energy savings with good financial indicators for the proposed recovery scheme.