Abstract: Coal tar is widely used, but its composition is extremely complex. The complex coal tar system was characterized by combining real components with virtual components as model system, and the atmospheric and vacuum distillation process of coal tar was simulated and calculated by using chemical process simulation software Aspen Plus V9.0. The effects of reflux ratio, number of theoretical trays, side position of extraction, and feeding position on product quality were analyzed. The results showed that under the optimized process conditions, the mass fraction of phenol in light oil fraction reduced to 0.5%; the mass fraction of phenol in the phenol oil fraction reached 42.4%, while the mass fraction of naphthalene decreased to 9.5%. The mass fraction of naphthalene in naphthalene oil fraction reached 85.0%. The mass fractions of phenol and naphthalene in the wash oil fraction decreased to 0.11% and 2.6%, respectively, and the product quality was significantly improved.

Key words: coal tar, atmospheric and vacuum distillation, simulation optimization, phenol, naphthalene