Published July 2024
Hydrodealkylation (HDA) is a technology that converts toluene or higher aromatics into higher-purity benzene. However, this method is intentionally employed as a leverage to maximize the overall yield of benzene because to the constantly varying price differential between the feedstocks and output. Toluene can be dealkylated in the presence of catalyst called catalytic hydrodealkylation process, or thermally in the absence of catalyst called thermal hydrodealkylation process. This review covers the detailed techno-economic evaluation and process economics for the Axens Thermal HDA process to produce benzene from toluene.
Our plant design and production economics is based on US Gulf Coast location for a 645 million lb/y capacity plant, converting medium-purity toluene to high-purity benzene (more than 99.5 wt%) product. This Process Economics Program (PEP) review provides a comprehensive techno-economic assessment review of the hydrodealkylation process. It comprises of the process flow diagram, the sizes and specifications of the main equipment, and the material balance. Cost information is also provided, including battery restrictions and off-sites, variable costs, capital and operational expenses, and overall process costs.
The techno-economic assessments of the hydrodealkylation process are PEP’s independent interpretation of the commercial process based on data from publicly available sources like patents and technical journals. We believe that our analysis and process economics are sufficiently representative of the range of accuracy required for a conceptual process design assessment, although it might not fully or partially reflect the actual plant configuration. An interactive iPEP™ Navigator tool for the processes included with the review that provides a snapshot of the process economics and allows the users to select the units and global regions of interest.