Design and Control of a Novel Plant-Wide Process for Epichlorohydrin Synthesis by Reacting Allyl Chloride with Hydrogen Peroxide

A novel plant-wide process is designed for epichlorohydrin synthesis by the epoxidation of allyl chloride with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of titanium silicate 1 catalyst and methanol solvent. The design targets are to satisfy the requirements of product purities and address gas-phase safety concerns caused by the exothermic and violent decomposition potential (to oxygen and water) of hydrogen peroxide. There is a risk of oxygen/allyl chloride and oxygen/methanol systems exploding in the gas phase. A plant-wide process that includes one packed bed reactor, one distillation column, one decanter, and two strippers is proposed to meet the design targets and is optimized with minimum total annual cost. The strategies of feeding excess allyl chloride into the packed bed reactor and feeding two nitrogen gas streams into the column top and gas vent of a partial condenser in the distillation column, respectively, are used to prevent explosion in the gas phase. High-purity epichlorohydrin and water can be pr...