Hello, I'm a master chemical engineering student from Portugal and i'm taking a course that consists on doing a low density polyethylene factory engineering design ( flowsheet, mass and energy balance, etc) and i came across some questions, mainly on the ethylene storage:
1) Which tank should i choose to storage liquefied ethylene, taking into account that LDPE production is 400kt/year? I know that ethylene is mainly stored in three types of tanks: bullet cylindrical, sphere and fixed roof tank at atmospheric pressure, but which one is the most suitable and the easiest for such high capacity needs?
2) I'm assuming that the ethylene transportion to the factory is via pipeline from a close-by cracker, but which are the pressure and temperature of such transportation by pipeline?
3) Should i do purification steps to the ethylene? I know that for polymerization, the ethylene specifications are very tight, like for example 2ppm of water and 5 ppm of oxygen, but should i assume that the ethylene from the foreign cracker fulfill this specifications, or should i add some purification steps, and which?
Thank you.
Edited by RicardoPT, 03 October 2020 - 06:33 AM.