Exergy and exergoeconomic analyses for integration of aromatics separation with aromatics upgrading

Methanol to aromatics produces multiple products, resulting in a limited selectivity of xylene. Aromatics upgrading is an effective way to produce more valuable xylene product, and different feed ratios generate discrepant product distributions. This work integrates the aromatics separation with toluene disproportionation, transalkylation of toluene and trimethylbenzene, and isomerization of xylene and trimethylbenzene. Exergy and exergoeconomic analyses are conducted to give insights in the splitting ratios of benzene, toluene and heavy aromatics for aromatics upgrading. First, a detailed simulation model is developed in Aspen HYSYS. Then, 300 splitting ratio sets of benzene and toluene for conversion are studied to investigate the process performances. The results indicate that there are different preferences for the splitting ratios of benzene and toluene in terms of exergy and exergoeconomic performances. The process generates lower total exergy destruction when the splitting ratio of toluene varies between 0.07 and 0.18, and that of benzene fluctuates between 0.55 and 0.6. Nevertheless, the process presents lower total product unit cost with the splitting ratio of toluene less than 0.18 and that of benzene fluctuating between 0.44 and 0.89. Besides, it is found that distillation is the biggest contributor to the total exergy destruction, accounting for 94.97%.