Subject: the Sun Oil alkylation plant

From: Bob Chassell <bob>
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 86 16:23:39 est

This is a brief description of the Sun Oil alkylation plant as Rich
Wallace described it.

Sun Oil has a gasoline alkylation plant at Marcus Hook, PA.  The
operation takes light molecules of isobutane and butylene and binds
them together to make heavier molecules of gasoline.  The light
molecules come as a by product of the Cat Cracker.  The isobutane and
butylene first have sulfur or other contaminants removed, then they
are mixed with highly concentrated sulfuric acid which is used as a
catalyst.  The gasoline that is formed sinks to the bottom and the
rest boils off and is redistilled and recycled back.  Since the
butylene has double bonds, no extra hydrogen is need for the process.
The reaction occurs at 40 - 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so sometimes
refrigeration is necessary.  The operating pressure is about 15 lbs/sq
in.

The whole system has a great deal of inertia; changes in the reaction
are slow and once a change starts, it takes a long time to correct it.
Molecules take several hours to pass through the system; they spend a
lot of time in settling tanks in which contaminants or cleaning fluids
settle out.

The operators get into trouble when they don't pay attention to the
isobutane to butylene ratio.  Corrections take a long time before they
take effect.  A change in this ratio increases the rate at which
sulfuric acid is lost during the process and is expensive.

The data from the plant is sent to a PDP.  Rich could not remember
what number it is; he thinks it is a PDP 44.  He wants RTIME
to gather data from the PDP every 10 minutes and give it to PICON.
Also, PICON needs to send messages back to the PDP which in turn will
pass the messages on to the color monitor.

Besides this, Sun Oil wants to run simulations.