The Techno‐Economic Analysis and Description of the Hydrodealkylation Process for Benzene Production From Toluene

The hydrodealkylation (HDA) is a petrochemical process widely used in industry to produce benzene from toluene. This work aimed to improve a simulation design and investigate the techno‐economic analysis (TEA) of the HDA process for treating toluene to produce benzene, considering different purchasing prices of toluene using SuperPro Designer. The benzene production capacities (50,000–110,000 MT/year) were also simulated to determine the effect on payback time (PBT). The toluene prices between 690 and 790 USD/MT were used to determine the production costs of benzene for a 70,000 MT/year capacity. The costs of the raw materials (86.372%) and labor‐dependent (6.796%) were defined as the most significant expenses for a capacity of 70,000 MT/year. The HDA process’s total capital investment and annual operating costs are 22.02 million USD and 99.94 million USD for a 70,000 MT/year capacity, respectively. The production cost of benzene is 1427.800 USD/MT for the benzene production of 70,000 MT/year based on a 735 USD/ton purchase cost for toluene. An acceptable payback period is 5.010 based on the TEA. TEA and description of the HDA process using SuperPro Designer add value to this research by supplying practical guidelines for researchers and process analysts/engineers.