Batch Operations Heating and Cooling of Vessels

Heating or cooling of process fluids in a batch-operated vessel is common in the chemical process industries. The process is unsteady state in nature because the heat flow and/or the temperature vary with time at a fixed point. The time required for the heat transfer can be modified, by increasing the agitation of the batch fluid, the rate of circulation of the heat transfer medium in a jacket and/or coil, or the heat transfer area. Bondy and Lippa [45] and Dream [46] have compiled a collection of correlations of heat transfer coefficients in agitated vessels. Batch processes are sometimes disadvantageous because ... 

In a typical batch operation, carbon disulfide is added to four molar equivalents of 25—30 wt % aqueous ammonia in a stirred vessel, which is kept closed for the first one to two hours. The reaction is moderately exothermic and requires cooling. After two to three hours, when substantially all of the disulfide has reacted, the reaction mixture is heated to decompose dithiocarbamate and trithiocarbonate and vented to an absorption system to collect ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and any unreacted carbon disulfide. 

Heated or cooled chemicals can be sent to reactors that are designed to combine chemicals and form new products. Reactors come in a variety of shapes and designs, such as stirred, fluidized, fixed-bed, and tubular (Figure 10-1). Reaction technology can be described as batch, semi-batch, or continuous operation. Reactors are vessels designed to allow a reaction to occur as two or more... 

Furnaces are constructed using an induction heated crucible of graphite or silicon carbide, contained within a refractory lined vacuum vessel. The zinc condenser may be external, in the vacuum train, or may be contained within the lid of the containment vessel. Seals are by rubber O rings in water-cooled flanges and the ability to maintain vacuum is a critical aspect of efficient operation. Target operating pressure is around 80 mbar absolute. The final temperature of the retort bullion (impure silver) formed within the retort at the end of a batch is in the range of 1100 to 1200°C. The detection of the end point of the batch distillation is also an important aspect of operation and usually is determined by the vacuum pressure and the temperature of the residual metal. Typical performance is shown in Table 12.2. 

Manufacture. Aqueous sodium hydroxide, sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, or sodium sulfite solution are treated with sulfur dioxide to produce sodium metabisulfite solution. In one operation, the mother Hquor from the previous batch is reinforced with additional sodium carbonate, which need not be totally in solution, and then is treated with sulfur dioxide (341,342). In some plants, the reaction is conducted in a series of two or more stainless steel vessels or columns in which the sulfur dioxide is passed countercurrent to the alkaH. The solution is cooled and the sodium metabisulfite is removed by centrifuging or filtration. Rapid drying, eg, in a stream-heated shelf dryer or a flash dryer, avoids excessive decomposition or oxidation to which moist sodium metabisulfite is susceptible. 

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