EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Acetic acid (CH3COOH) is very useful for industry, especially to support other
petrochemicals industries. Acetic acid as raw material is used in acetic anhydride, acetic
vinyl, salt, and pharmaceutical production, as well as in PTA (pure terephtalic acid) solvent.
Domestic demand of acetic acid as raw chemical for other chemical productionsis very high.
In 2014, Indonesia imported 111,864 tonnes ofacetic acid or equals to US$ 63,650,018 (US$
568.99 per ton). Other promising opportunity is to take advantage of using methanol as the
raw material in acetic acid production. The advantages are Indonesia has a large amount of
methanol and the export price of methanol is cheaper than the import price of acetic acid. In
2015, Indonesia exported 422,884 tonnes or equals to US$ 75,434,211 (US$ 178.38 per ton).
The number of acetic acid imported in Indonesia in 2018 can be predicted reach to
117,788 tonnes based on the trend in recent years. Its important to have a location close to
the raw material. The most potential methanol supplier is PT Kaltim Methanol Industri with
660,000 tonnes per year of production capacity, which is located in Bontang, East Kalimantan
province. Carbon monoxide is produced from steam generator by methane which supplied
from PT.Badak in the form of CNG.
There are plenty of process alternatives from each of the steps in the processing of
methanol into acetic acid such as catalytic carbonylation in BASF, Monsanto process, Cativa
process, low pressure nickel carbonylation, CT-Acetica, and hydrocarboxylation. From the
comparison process in those methods, the best process in terms of product quality, catalyst
avaibility, feasible operating condition, and simpler steps in purification stage in the
production of acetic acid plant is the process of methanol carbonylation with rhodium
heterogeneous catalyst. In our process, we trace every step and equipment to reach the high
conversion of product with the basic theory in the carbonylation patent.
The carbonylation reaction takes place at a temperature of 175C and a pressure of 3.5
MPa (35 atm). Byproducts in this process are methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, water, and
excess of methanol. The products will undergo the process starts from raw material
preparation, chemical reaction, flash vaporization, until distillation. The by-products, such as
hydrogen and methane, are removed from the process by separating them in flash tank. The
top of flash tank emits the domination of methane and hydrogen. While the main products
(liquid phase) in the form of crude acetic acid is discharged from the flash tank to undergo
purification in the distillation column. Products derived from the flasher undergo a process of
purification in the distillation to remove dissolved fluids such as methanol and water. The

result of acetic acid from this process reach 99,9% weight purity with flow rate 10,000 tonnes
per year (30.6250 tonne/day).
The product conversion efficiency is 52%. Product yield based on methanol is 0.54 and
from methane is 0.35. It means to get 1 ton of acetic acid, we need 0.54 tons of methanol and
0.35 tons of methane. The energy required to get acetic acid in this process is 191.7 kJ/kg
acetic acid.
We need optimization in our process. One of optimization can be done is energy
optimization which relates to optimization utility needed. Energy and utility has to be
optimized in order to reduce the cost production of our plant. This energy optimization can be
done by using heat exchanger network.
Heat Exchanger Network (HEN) is used to achieve an optimal energy economization.
Based from identification been done, we know that our plant have two cold stream and three
hot stream. HEN based on the calculation we need minimum hot utility around 0.0457 MW
with no cold utility. Cold stream need heating to raise the supply temperature to specified
target temperature, while the hot stream require cooling to lower the supply temperature to
desired target temperature. The hot stream is cooling process and the cold stream is heating
process.
We also design the utility system based on the plant necessity. Utility is divided into
three group included water, electricity, and power generation. The water utility we need for
cooling is 855,478.8 tons per year in before HEN, but reduce significant in after HEN,
318,780 tons per year.
Besides water, we need electricity. The electricity that we calculated here focus for
process equipment which dominated by centrifugal pumps and compressors. In the after HEN
we need electricity around 698,254 kWh per year with working in 24 hours as long 330 days
in a year. In after HEN, the electricity can be more efficient, because it just need 536,769
kWh compared with before HEN. By designing the heat exchanger network, regarding to
PLN industry price, IDR 971.01 per kWh, we can save around IDR 156,803,950 per year if
using all the setting in after HEN.
To operate reboiler and heater that we used, we produced the energy from fuel
combustion. We need aroun 272,542 L/day for our process in before HEN, and 202,332 in
after HEN. By doing the after HEN, the diesel that we used for fuel can be saved around IDR
530,089,005 per year.