Simulation and Optimization of an Ammonia Synthesis Reactor Using Genetic Algorithm

In this study, an ammonia synthesis packed bed reactor is simulated by developing a one-dimensional homogeneous mathematical model. The resulted mass balance, energy balance, and pressure drop equations which are of the ordinary type (ODE) are solved by the 4th order Runge-Kutta method. Afterward, the molar fractions, conversion of nitrogen and temperature at the reactor’s outlet are compared with Khorasan petrochemical plant data and acceptable agreement is achieved. Furthermore, the genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to maximize the ammonia production by considering three decision variables including the inlet temperature and inlet molar flow rates of nitrogen and hydrogen which resulted in 12.67% increase in ammonia production compared with the non-optimized conventional reactor