| dc.description.abstract | The preliminary design of a para-xylene production plant from toluene and
hydrogen has a production capacity of 200,000 tons per year and operates for 330
days annually. The raw materials required to achieve this production capacity are
150,793.710 kg/h of toluene and 9,893.075 kg/h of hydrogen. The overall process
in this plant design consists of three main stages, namely feed preparation, reaction,
and purification. In the feed preparation stage, the mixture of toluene and hydrogen
gases is passed through a compressor to increase the pressure to 24 atm and then
heated in a furnace to 425 °C before being fed into the reactor. In the reaction stage,
the disproportionation reaction takes place inside a fixed-bed multitube reactor
under conditions of 425 °C and 24 atm. The reaction employs ZSM-5 catalyst with
a total mass of 18,705.574 kg, distributed collectively within 1,091 reactor tubes.
In the purification stage, two distillation columns are used to separate toluene and
benzene from the xylene mixture, followed by an adsorption process to obtain high
purity para-xylene. The main product, para-xylene, is stored in a storage tank at 32
°C, while benzene and mixed xylene are stored at the same temperature as by
products, and toluene is recycled back to the reactor feed. The plant is planned to
be located in Cilegon City, Banten Province, Indonesia, specifically in Area G4,
Krakatau Industrial Estate Cilegon (KIEC), with a total land area of 6.680 m². The
company will operate as a Limited Liability Company (PT) using a line and staff
organizational structure, employing 196 workers. The economic evaluation of the
para-xylene production plant from toluene and hydrogen shows a total capital
investment of Rp7.787.925.224.416, total production cost of Rp7.045.094.570.500,
annual sales revenue of Rp8.810.798.334.147, and net profit after tax of
Rp1.363.476.446.288. The economic feasibility analysis yields a profit margin
(PM) of 15.48%, break-even point (BEP) of 48.08%, return on investment (ROI) of
17.51%, return on network (RON) of 35,02%, pay-out time (POT) of 5 years and 9
months, and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 16,658%. Therefore, the para-xylene
production plant from toluene and hydrogen via disproportionation process is
economically feasible to be established. | en_US |
