Process Stability Identification Through Dynamic Study of

Single-bed Ammonia Reactor with Feed-Effluent Heat

Exchanger (FEHE)
Tri Partono Adhi1,* and Muhammad Iqbal Prasetyo1
1Institut Teknologi Bandung, Chemical Engineering Department, Bandung 40132, Indonesia

Abstract. In ammonia reactor system, a feed-effluent heat exchanger (FEHE) is typically installed to
utilize reaction-generated heat to heat the reactor’s feed. Utilizing energy from exothermic reaction
to the incoming feed stream is often called “autothermal operation”. Despite the advantage of
FEHE, there is a risk of utilizing FEHE in a reactor system such as instability of process
temperature or known as hysteresis. Hysteresis phenomena in chemical process could cause
operational problems, for example it could damage the integrity of the equipment’s material. This
paper aims to evaluate the dynamic behavior of a single-bed ammonia reactor with FEHE,
particularly to propose a way to prevent instability within the system. The dynamic simulation of the
single-bed ammonia reactor with FEHE was performed with Aspen HYSYS v8.8. The result of the
simulation result shows that hysteresis phenomenon in the ammonia reactor system occurs when
the feed’s temperature is below a certain value. If the feed temperature reaches that value, the
temperature of the reactor’s outlet oscillates. One of the solution to keep the feed temperature
above that critical value is by installing a trim heater within the system. Based on the simulation,
trim heater installation within the system is able to prevent hysteresis in the system evaluated.

1 Introduction reaction to the incoming reactant stream is often

called “autothermal operation” [4].
Ammonia production process is the one of the most In steady-state study, designing heat integration
important industrial-scale chemical process. Mostly, in reaction system using FEHE is likely seen as
ammonia is used commercially in fertilizer and its interesting way to reduce energy consumption.
remainder could be used as raw material for variety However, some dynamic study shown that heat
product, such as plastics, synthetic fibers and resins, integration that involved FEHE could potentially lead
pharmaceuticals, explosives, papers and refrigeration to process instability in certain condition [5,6]. The
[1]. Despite of its importance, one part of the ammonia example of process instability is the oscillation of
synthetic process, catalytic reforming reaction of ammonia reactor outlet temperature that lead to
nitrogen and hydrogen is the most energy consuming operation failure. The oscillation of ammonia reactor
process that requires massive amount of heat to ensure outlet temperature is shown in figure 1. Because of
the reaction is presented [2]. Therefore, the catalytic sudden pressure decreasing caused by decrease of fresh
reforming reaction is usually supported by feed- feed stream, oscillation of operation temperature in
effluent exchanger (FEHE) to make energy usage more ammonia reactor occurred with the period of 6
efficient [2]. minutes and range within 200°C. This oscillation
Feed-effluent heat exchanger (FEHE) is a kind of condition could be damaging the catalyst in the
heat exchanger that widely used to utilize reaction- reactor and harmful to the process. Therefore, we
generated heat carried by reactor outlet as reactor could investigate the dynamic behavior of ammonia
inlet heating media. The hot reactor effluent is reactor with the aid of simulation application such as
recycled back to feed preheater to provide all or a Aspen HYSYS.
portion of the energy required to preheat the reactor
feed [3]. Using FEHE is the one of the practical ways
to optimize energy consumption in chemical plant.
This system could be implemented in the process that
involve exothermic reaction such as ammonia and
methanol synthesis. Releasing energy from exothermic

*
Corresponding author: [email protected]
 N2 75.6 %
H2 16.3 %
NH3 8.1 %

Heated feed then entered the ammonia reactor.

The reaction undergoes in this reactor is assumed
perfectly adiabatic. Reactor effluent that carried heat
Fig. 1. Example record of industrial-scale ammonia synthesis from exothermic reaction then flows through FEHE.
reactor outlet temperature oscillation (Appl, 1999).
Specification of single-bed ammonia reactor used in
this study is based on [6] and presented in table 3.
2 Methodology
Ammonia reactor system is modelled using Aspen
HYSYS v8.8 for steady state simulation and then
converted to dynamic simulation. Peng-Robinson as
fluid package is used for whole simulation. Process Table 2. FEHE specification.
flow diagram scheme of the process is shown in figure
TEMA Type BEM
2 while simulation of the reactor system scheme is
Tube No. 379
shown in figure 3.
Tube OD 19.05 mm
Tube Thickness 4.19 mm
FEHE
Tube Pitch 23.08 mm
Effluent
Tube Pattern 30-Triangular
Baffle Type Double segmental
Baffle Cut Orientation Vertical
Feed Shell ID 600 mm
REACTOR
Shell OD 700 mm
Tube length 3500 mm
Fig. 2. Process flow diagram of single-bed ammonia reactor
Baffle spacing 600 mm
system with feed-effluent heat exchanger (FEHE)
Baffle No. 4
Shell in series 1
Shell in parallel 4

Table 3. Ammonia Reactor Specification.

Total Volume 30 m3
Length 6.11 m
Fig. 3. Simulation scheme of autothermal single-bed ammonia
reactor system with Aspen HYSYS v8.8. Diameter 2.50 m
Wall Thickness 5.00 × 10-3 m
Reactor feed is consisted of nitrogen, hydrogen Void Fraction 0.40
and slightly amount of ammonia which specification is
shown in table 1. Feed stream split into two part, one Reaction equilibrium and kinetics parameter are
part which consist of 75% from total reactor feed shown in equation (1) and table 4 respectively.
amount is transferred to FEHE to be heated by reactor
effluent and the other goes directly to the reactor after (1)
mixed with heated stream from FEHE. Specification of
heat exchanger used as FEHE is shown in table 2.
Table 4. Reaction Kinetics Parameters.
Table 1. Ammonia reactor system feed stream specification.
Parameters Forward Reverse
Temperature 250°C N2 Order 1.0 0
Pressure 163.5 bar H2 Order 1.5 -1.5
Mass Flow 200 ton/hr NH3 Order -1.0 1.0
Composition A 23.62 3.40 × 1013
 E 87090 kJ/kmol 198464 kJ/kmol
Fig. 5. Ammonia reactor feed-outlet temperature profile.
A = Arrhenius Constant
E = Activation Energy Based on study case result in figure 4, there are
three main information that could be obtained. First,
from feed-outlet temperature profile generated by
3 Result and Discussion forward step (line 3), the reaction was activated when
the feed temperature is above 290°C. Therefore, when
3.1 Instability phenomenon of single-bed doing the start-up, feed temperature must be set above
ammonia reactor 290°C to initiate the reaction. This temperature is
often refered as “ignition temperature”. Second, from
The stability behavior of the ammonia reactor could
feed-outlet temperature profile generated by backward
be represented by outlet-feed temperature profile.
step (line 1), it is shown that the reaction extinguished
Feed temperature is varied to obtain outlet
when feed temperature is below 230°C. The
temperature by using study case feature in Aspen
temperature value when the reactor extinguished
HYSYS in forward step and backward step. Varying
often reffered as “extinction temperature”. In
reactor inlet temperature is also performed to identify
correlation of reaction’s conversion profile shown in
the feed-outlet temperature profile. Feed-outlet
figure 5, it is better to keep feed temperature low as
temperature profile is shown in figure 4. Relation
the conversion is higher in lower temperature and
between reactor conversion and feed temperature also
conserving the energy for heating the feed stream.
shown in figure 5. This relation was generated by
However, feed temperature must remain above the
varying reactor inlet temperature in such way to get
extinction temperature to make sure the reactor not
the value of feed temperature and reactor conversion.
extinguished. Third, from feed-outlet temperature
profile generated by varying reactor inlet temperature
(line 2), it is shown that there is a transition zone
between ingnition temperature and extinction
temperature. When reactor operated in the “upper
outlet temperature” of the trasition zone, once feed
temperature goes below the extiction temperature, the
outlet temperature would dramatically fall to “lower
outlet temperature”. After that moment, increasing
the feed temperature back to its original value could
not restore outlet temperature directly to “upper
outlet temperature” path. However, the outlet
temperature would follow “lower outlet temperature”
path until feed temperature reach the ignition
temperature. This transition zone that has non-
Fig. 4. Ammonia reactor feed-outlet temperature profile. revesible behavior could result instability of the
process, known as hysteresis.
Furthermore, hysteresis phenomenon could be
identified from dynamic simulation. Feed temperature
was set at 250°C in steady operation condition and
then suddenly dropped down to several temperatures
around the extinction temperature which value is
230°C, reffered as TE. The temperature drops
performed with a step function after the reactor
operated in 1200 seconds. In this simulation, the final
feed temperature would be TE + 5°C, TE and TE - 5°C.
Result of dynamic simulations to identify the
instability behavior are presented in figure 6.
Reactor still in stable condition when feed
temperature dropped from 250°C to TE + 5°C (235°C)
as shown in figure 6(a), although the outlet
temperature was slightly oscillating in the beginning
of temperature drop. Instability phenomenons could
be observed when feed temperature dropped to TE and
TE - 5°C, as shown in figure 6(b) and 6(c) respectively.
After temperature have been dropped, outlet
temperature was roughly oscillating in range of 300 –
570 °C before finally extinguished the reaction. As
shown in the figure 6(b) and 6(c), the obvious
difference of these two instability phenomena is the
duration of outlet temperature oscillating behavior.
Reactor with final temperature of TE had experienced
ocsillating behavior for roughly 9000 seconds, while
the other one was only 5000 seconds.
Huge difference of oscillating temperature could
damage equipment material because of temperature (b)
sudden change that could decrease equipment material
integrity. Unstable operation condition could also
cause problem to the next process; the uncertainty of
the outlet stream specification from the reactor system
may cause problems to the further process.

3.2 Prevention of hysteresis phenomenon in

single-bed ammonia reactor by installing trim
heater

Hysteresis phenomenon indicated by the oscillation of

outlet temperature value is a dangerous event that
could even causing loss or equipment failure to
ammonia plant. One of the solution that proposed to
prevent this phenomenon is installing trim heater in (c)
the reactor system. Trim heater used in ammonia
reactor system is a kind of heat exchanger that keep Fig. 6. Reactor temperature dynamic behavior of ammonia
reactor feed temperature above hysteresis temperature reactor system when feed temperature suddenly dropped
from 250°C to (a) TE + 5°C, (b) TE and (c) TE - 5°C
during the operation. Trim heater could be installed
whether at the feed stream line or reactor inlet stream
line. Each of this trim heater scenario illustrated in
FEHE
figure 7.
Effluent

P-28
Feed

TRIM HEATER REACTOR

(a)

FEHE

Effluent

Feed
(a)
TRIM HEATER REACTOR

(b)
Fig. 7. Trim heater installation scenario (a) at feed stream line, Fig. 8. Trim heater installation simulation schemes, (a) trim
(b) at reactor inlet stream line heater before the reactor and (b) trim heater before FEHE.

The advantage of installing trim heater right

before stream entered the reactor is the temperature of
reactor inlet directly controlled and hysteresis zone
could definitely be prevented, regardless whatever
happens with stream in FEHE or its feed temperature.
Conversely, installing trim heater before the FEHE
only ensure the feed temperature to meet the feed
temperature requirement. The inlet temperature still
depends on FEHE performance. However, the
advantage of installing trim heater before FEHE over
before the reactor is that less heat requirement
because of lower temperature target. Based on figure 4,
to avoid the occurance of instability behavior,
Fig. 9. Design case ammonia reactor temperature
minimum feed temperature required is 230°C, along
profile result.
with minimum inlet temperature requirement which
is 400°C.
Usage of trim heater as unit that prevented
hysteresis phenomenon is shown in dynamic
simulation using Aspen HYSYS v8.8. Two simulation
schemes, trim heater before the reactor and trim
heater before FEHE, are presented in figure 8. Based
on hysteresis zone data on figure 4, temperature
control that govern the trim heater are set in 400°C
and 240°C, respectively. Simulation was performed
with initial feed temperature 250°C and gradually
decreased to 200°C in 250 minutes with ramp
function. Dynamic simulation without the trim heater
also performed as a comparison. Result of dynamic Fig. 10. Trim before the reactor case ammonia reactor
simulation of design case, installing trim heater before temperature profile result.
the reactor and installing trim heater before FEHE are
presented in figure 9, 10 and 11, respectively.

Fig. 11. Trim before FEHE case ammonia reactor

(a) temperature profile result.

Based on figure 10 and 11, trim heater is proven

to prevent hysteresis phenomenon also avoid the
reactor system to become extinguished as if design
case in figure 9. Through the regulation of the feed or
(b) inlet temperature which value above the hysteresis
temperature, the ammonia reactor should remain to
work in stable condition without significant 1. M. Appl, Ammonia: principles and industrial
temperature fluctuations. practice (Wiley-VCH, 1999)
Energy usage of the trim heater from each 2. T. A. N. Nguyen, T. A. Nguyen, T. D. Vu, K. T.
scheme are analyzed with steady-state condition with Nguyen, T. K. T. Dao, Mater. Sci. Eng., 206 (2017)
feed temperature range of 150-220°C. The result of the 3. W. L. Luyben, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 51, 8566-
energy analysis is presented in figure 12. From that 8574 (2012)
figure, it is shown that case of installing trim heater 4. C. G. Hill, An introduction to chemical
before the reactor required less energy supply than engineering kinetics & reactor design, 365 (John
installing trim heater before FEHE. However, trim Wiley & Sons, 1997)
heater that installed before the reactor should require 5. J. C. Morud, S Skogestad, AIChE J., 44, 888-895
more complex utility and tougher material since the (1988)
stream must be heated until the temperature reach 6. G. R. Setyadi, T. P. Adhi, Simulasi dinamik sistem
400°C. reaktor eksothermal adiabatik dengan alat
penukar panas umpan-keluaran (FEHE), 1-6
(Departemen Teknik Kimia ITB, 2005)

Fig. 12. Energy analysis of trim heater installation in

ammonia reactor system.

4 CONCLUSION
Reactor that implemented autothermal configuration,
like ammonia reactor, is at risk to become unstable
when the reactor is operating. The instability often
appears as hysteresis, the oscillation of operating
parameter that could lead reactor to extinguish.
Hysteresis could be occurred when reactor inlet
temperature reached certain value that made
conversion of the reactor fall down. Hysteresis in
single-bed ammonia reactor could be prevented by
installing trim heater before stream entered the
reactor or in the reactor system feed stream, before
entering FEHE.

REFERENCES