MONTE CARLO SIMULATION TO PROPOSE

I.P.N.
IMPROVEMENTS OF AN ALKYD RESIN
PROCESS

Enrique Arce Medina

Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Química e industrias Extractivas

INSTITUTO POLITECNICO NACIONAL

MEXICO 1
AGENDA
AGENDA
1. Objectives
1. Objectives

2. Introduction
2. Introduction

3. Statement
3. Statement of
of the
the problem
problem

4. The
4. The modeling
modeling task
task

5. Results
5. Results

6. Conclusion
6. Conclusion
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 Objectives

To propose improvements that could increase

productivity of a batch chemical process by building
a probabilistic model and simulating its performance
using a Monte Carlo technique.

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 Introduction
Concepts of Discrete Event Simulation

• Will focus on the simulation of discrete event

systems.
• Discrete event system – A system whose state
changes only a specific time instances.
• Duration of an activity could be constant or a random
value from a probabilistic distribution.
• State – A collection of variables that are used to
describe the system at a particular time.
• A simulation that uses models with random variables
is a stochastic simulation.
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Simulation of batch manufacturing processes

•Problems in batch processing are due to the

uncertainty of occurrence of an event.
•Since the probabilistic nature of each activity, it is
common to find delays and bottlenecks.
•The main purpose of simulation is to pinpoint what
causes the delays and bottlenecks, and test possible
modifications to cancel out its effect and to increase
the productivity and/or to improve the use of
resources.

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 The alkyd resin process

•Alkyd resins are used for preparation of varnishes and

lithograph printing ink.
•The manufacturing of alkyd resins is essentially an
estherification process.
•The main ingredients of the alkyd resin are pine tar,
anhydride maleic and pentaerythritol.
•Reactions are carried out at elevated temperature in a
single reaction kettle.

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 Statement of the Problem
Batch Inner gas is Estherification
preparation reaction takes
bubbled through a place and the
perforated ring reactor content is
below the surface Waiting until
agitated. Waiting to Waiting to
inert determine the determine the
of the liquid atmosphere acid No. acid No.
is obtained

Loading and Bubbling of Addition of Homogenizing Addition of 1st Addition of

melting of inert gas Maleic the mixture part of 2nd part of
pine tar anhydride pentaerytrhitol pentaerytrhitol

Waiting to Waiting for Test if Test if

determine the reaching specification specification
acid No. 270º C is obtained is obtained

Addition of 3rd Temperature Homogenizing Produce First sample Second

part of elevation to the mixture vacuum
sample
pentaerytrhitol 270 ºC

Reactor is
cooled and Discharge
shut down

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 Building the Model

Activities of the process

Activities Code duration
Batch preparation & tar melting - 240 min
Bubbling inert gas A variable
Addition of maleic anhydride B variable
Homogenizing the mixture C 60 min
First addition of pentaerytrhitol D 15 min
Second addition of pentaerytrhitol E 15 min
Third addition of pentaerytrhitol F variable
Temperature elevation to 270 ºC G variable
Homogenizing the mixture H 60 min
Vacuum the reactor I variable
First sample J variable
Second sample K variable
Reactor shutdown L variable
Reactor discharge M 15 min

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 The modeling task

Cumulative Frequency Distribution

Activity A
Time (min) 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 125 130 190 230
Frequency 2 7 13 62 80 84 89 91 93 96 98 100
Activity F
Time (min) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 60
Frequency 12 23 55 67 83 90 93 95 98 100
Activity I
Time (min) 30 45 50 60 65 70 75 80 90 105
Frequency 4 9 11 84 87 89 91 96 98 100
Activity L
Time (min) 5 10 15 20 25 26 30 35 40 55 60 80
Frequency 5 7 17 37 54 56 78 88 93 95 98 100
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 Monte Carlo method
The Monte Carlo method is based on the generation of multiple trials to determine the
expected value of a random variable.

Frequency/Cumulative Chart

100 1
90 0.9
80 0.8
70 0.7

Probability
Frequency

60 0.6
50 0.5
40 0.4
30 0.3
20 0.2
10 0.1
0 0
55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 125 130 190 230
Time, min

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 Results

Table 3
Results of process simulation, time in min.
Batch A B C D E F G H I J K L M
1 370 380 440 455 470 495 910 970 1030 1090 1150 1205 1220
2 1525 1535 1595 1610 1625 1630 2030 2090 2150 2210 2240 2270 2285
3 2580 2585 2645 2660 2675 2685 3090 3150 3210 3295 3325 3355 3370
4 3685 3700 3760 3775 3790 3815 4245 4305 4365 4425 4445 4480 4495
5 4805 4815 4875 4890 4905 4935 5325 5385 5430 5490 5495 5525 5540
6 5850 5870 5930 5945 5950 5985 6335 6395 6455 6515 6540 6565 6580
7 6950 6960 7020 7035 7050 7060 7490 7550 7610 7680 7700 7720 7735
8 8045 8050 8110 8125 8140 8155 8530 8590 8650 8710 8715 8735 8750
9 9065 9070 9130 9145 9160 9175 9555 9615 9685 9745 9775 9790 9805
10 10120 10170 10230 10245 10260 10270 10645 10705 10765 10825 10840 10875 10880

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 Larger delays

When waiting for the temperature to elevate to 270 ºC

When waiting for the samples to be tested in the lab, and

When waiting to discharge

The time required to elevate the temperature can be reduced by adding extra area of
heating or using a vapor with greater temperature and pressure.
It is proposed to recirculate the reactor mixture throughout an external heat exchanger.

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 Simulation of the modifications

Several simulations were run to include a reduction of the heating time, the residence
time of the activity G was reduced by 38 %.

Table 4.
Results of process simulation after modifying activity G duration.

Batch A B C D E F G H I J K L M
1 370 379 439 454 469 494 774 834 894 954 1014 1069 1084
2 1389 1406 1466 1481 1496 1501 1772 1832 1892 1952 1982 2012 2027
3 2322 2328 2388 2403 2418 2428 2703 2763 2823 2898 2928 2958 2973
4 3288 3305 3365 3380 3395 3420 3705 3765 3825 3885 3905 3940 3955
5 4265 4278 4338 4353 4368 4398 4663 4723 4768 4828 4833 4863 4878
6 5188 5206 5266 5281 5296 5321 5572 5632 5692 5752 5777 5802 5817
7 6187 6198 6258 6273 6280 6298 6582 6642 6702 6772 6792 6812 6827
8 7137 7142 7202 7217 7232 7247 7509 7569 7629 7689 7694 7714 7729
9 8044 8050 8110 8125 8140 8155 8418 8478 8548 8608 8638 8653 8668
10 8983 9002 9062 9077 9092 9102 9364 9424 9484 9544 9559 9584 9599

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 Results

Overall process time

Original process: 10,880 min
Modified process: 9,599 min

An increase of 10 % in productivity

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 Conclusion

Implementation of process improvement could increase

productivity by eliminating delays of the most critical
activity in the reactor, which could save thousand of
dollars a week.

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Thank you very much

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