Batch process advantages

On a land site where space and weight are not normally constraints, advantage can be taken of tank type separation equipment such as wash tanks and settling tanks, and batch processing methods. Such equipment is generally cheaper to maintain than continuous throughput vessels, though a combination of both may be required. 

The majority of thermal polymerizations are carried out as a batch process, which requires a heat-up and a cool down stage. Typical conditions are 250—300°C for 0.5—4 h in an oxygen-free atmosphere (typically nitrogen) at approximately 1.4 MPa (200 psi). A continuous thermal polymerization has been reported which utilizes a tubular flow reactor having three temperature zones and recycle capabiHty (62). The advantages of this process are reduced residence time, increased production, and improved molecular weight control. Molecular weight may be controlled with temperature, residence time, feed composition, and polymerizate recycle. 

Continuous processes have lower labor costs but have higher failure risk. Batch processes can be started back up in a shorter period of time than can a complex continuous process. Batch processes are easier to take through the regulatory process than are continuous processes. Thus batch processes are often chosen for mammalian ceU culture systems, even though continuous processes can offer significant cost advantages. CeU culture costs constitute only a smaU (10—30%) fraction of the overaU cost of making a product. 

The culture can be used directly for the conversion of phenylpyruvic add to resting cells L-phenylalanine. Therefore, a batch process with resting cells can be carried out, with some glucose added for maintenance (fed-batch fermentation). Another approach is to harvest the cells from the fermentation broth and to use them in a separate bioreactor in higher concentrations than the ones obtained in the cell cultivation. An advantage of the last method can be that the concentration of compounds other than L-phenylalanine is lower, so that downstream processing may be cheaper. 

The advantages of the continuous process over the batch process are ... 

Due to these advantages the overall production costs for the immobilised continuous process were found to be 40% lower than that of the batch process. In Figure A8.6 a comparison is given between the batch process costs and the continuous production costs. 

Both batch and continuous adsorption processes are used. In a batch process, the adsorbent bed is allowed to become saturated with adsorbed material and is subsequently regenerated in a cyclic manner. In a continuous process, usually the counter-current mode is adopted for adsorption and desorption, either in time form or in simulated mode. Continuous operation offers many advantages with respect to the efficiency of adsorbent utilization. Thus, for... 

In this chapter, state sequence network (SSN) representation has been presented. Based on this representation, a continuous-time formulation for scheduling of multipurpose batch processes is developed. This representation involves states only, which are characteristic of the units and tasks present in the process. Due to the elimination of tasks and units which are encountered in formulations based on the state task network (STN), the SSN based formulation leads to a much smaller number of binary variables and fewer constraints. This eventually leads to much shorter CPU times as substantiated by both the examples presented in this chapter. This advantage becomes more apparent as the problem size increases. In the second literature example, which involved a multipurpose plant producing two products, this formulation required 40 binary variables and gave a performance index of 1513.35, whilst other continuous-time formulations required between 48 (Ierapetritou and Floudas, 1998) and 147 binary variables (Zhang, 1995). 

A mathematical formulation based on uneven discretization of the time horizon for the reduction of freshwater utilization and wastewater production in batch processes has been developed. The formulation, which is founded on the exploitation of water reuse and recycle opportunities within one or more processes with a common single contaminant, is applicable to both multipurpose and multiproduct batch facilities. The main advantages of the formulation are its ability to capture the essence of time with relative exactness, adaptability to various performance indices (objective functions) and its structure that renders it solvable within a reasonable CPU time. Capturing the essence of time sets this formulation apart from most published methods in the field of batch process integration. The latter are based on the assumption that scheduling of the entire process is known a priori, thereby specifying the start and/or end times for the operations of interest. This assumption is not necessary in the model presented in this chapter, since water reuse/recycle opportunities can be explored within a broader scheduling framework. In this instance, only duration rather start/end time is necessary. Moreover, the removal of this assumption allows problem analysis to be performed over an unlimited time horizon. The specification of start and end times invariably sets limitations on the time horizon over which water reuse/recycle opportunities can be explored. In the four scenarios explored in... 

Corwen [58] used this method for the analysis of ketones and aldehydes in seawater. Halocarbons were similarly separated from environmental samples by Kaiser and Oliver [59]. There have been many other applications of the technique [60-69]. The major advantage of the headspace method is simplicity in handling the materials. At most, only one chemical, the salt used in the salting-out procedure, needs to be added and in most cases the headspace gas can be injected directly into a gas chromatograph or carbon analyser. On the other hand the concentration of organic materials present is limited by the volume of seawater in the sample bottle. This is very much a batch process. 

Unlike other industries, bread making is moving away from continuous bread making processes and towards batch processing. Continuous processing never has the advantages in the food industry that it has in the chemical industry. 

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