Chemical and petrochemical industries

Water required for pharmaceutical purposes has to satisfy two different requirements water for injection (WFI) and purified water (WPU). Water satisfying the requirements for 

WPU is subjected to the additional step of distillation (evaporation) in order to quality as WFI. However, the requirements for WPU are less stringent than those for UPW. For example, the TOC level may be as much as 500 ppb there are no requirements for dissolved oxygen as such (in UPW it is 1 pph) water resistivity can be as low as 0.77 megohm-cm the bacteria level in WFI can be 10 coliform units per 100 ml, etc. (Baird and Williams, 2005). Plants producing WPU are much smaller than UPW units and typically have a capacity of 10 000 to 50 000 gallons per day. 

The process sequence employed to produce WPU grade water in the pharmaceutical industry typically comprises the following steps multimedia filtration, water softening, activated carbon filtration, prefiltration, UV disinfection, reverse osmosis, continuous electrodeionization (CEDI). For WFI, as mentioned earlier, the WPU water is subjected to a distillation process, and may be supplied hot if needed. 

In terms of the physical dimensions of the separation equipment employed, the footprint and the volume of product produced, chemical and petrochemical operations are huge, much larger than the previous two process categories 

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Benzene, toluene and xylenes are used either as solvents or as basic intermediates for the chemical and petrochemical industries. 

Center for Chemical Process Safety. In 1985, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers estabHshed the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) (New York). The objective of the CCPS was to help prevent catastrophic chemical accidents by compiling information on the latest scientific and engineering practices, safety programs, and adininistrative procedures of the larger members of the chemical industry, so that they can be shared with other (and particularly the smaller) members of the chemical and petrochemical industries. 

Extractive distillation is defined as distillation in the presence of a miscible, high boiling, relatively nonvolatile component, the solvent, that forms no azeotropes with the other components in the mixture (23). It is widely used in the chemical and petrochemical industries for separating azeotropic, close-boiling, and other low relative volatiUty mixtures, including those forming severe tangent pinches. 

The processing industry has given operations involving heat transfer to a boiling liquid the general name of evaporation. The most common application is the removal of water from a processing stream. Evaporation is used in the food, chemical, and petrochemical industries, and usually it results in an increase in the concentration of a certain species. 

This type of pump (Figures 3-1, 3-2, 3-3) is the workhorse of the chemical and petrochemical industry. It also... 

Capacity the rate of liquid or slurry flow through a pump. This is usually expressed as gallons per minute (GPM) by pump manufacturers and design engineers in the chemical and petrochemical industries. A few convenient conversions are ... 

Tank vent equipment ratings are expressed as free air capacity at 14.7 psia and 60°F, and in order to handle vapors from liquids of the chemical and petrochemical industry, corrections must be made. Likewise corrections are required to recognize temperatures other than 60°F, refer to Table 7-16. 

This chapter gives primary attention to the commonly used general-purpose alternating current motors, although others are noted to acquaint the engineer with the variety of motors, motor enclosures, and mechanical drive turbines available and sometimes used in the chemical and petrochemical industries. Because direct-current motors are not frequently used in the process industries (other than in heavy-duty processes), they are not examined further in this chapter. 

The chemical and petrochemical industries specify continuous duty service. This means that the motor can operate indefinitely when handling the specified horsepower (rated) load at the proper voltage. To specify less than continuous duty is uneconomical and not good design practice. 

Corrosion reactions in aggressive organic solvents are becoming a more frequent occurrence owing to developments in the chemical and petrochemical industries, and these reactions can lead to the deterioration of the metal and to undesirable changes in the solvent. This aspect of corrosion has recently been the subject of an extensive review by Heitz who has considered the mechanisms of the reactions, the similarities between corrt ion in organic solvents and in aqueous solutions, the methods of study and the occurrence of the phenomenon in industrial processes. 

The chemical and petrochemical industries are highly capital intensive and this has two important implications for the plant designer. Before the expenditure for any plant is approved, a discounted cash flow (DCF) return on capital invested is projected (Section 9.1). The capital cost of the plant is a key factor in deciding whether the DCF return is above or below the cut-off value used by a company to judge the viability of projects. Thus, there is always strong pressure on the materials engineer not to overspecify the materials of construction. 

Nevertheless, accidents and unintended chemical releases pose serious financial risks to the chemical and petrochemical industry. In 1984 there were five major accidents in the hydrocarbon-chemical industries, totaling an estimated loss of 268 million. Hundreds of lesser accidents occur yearly. The total annual cost to the industry of accidents and unintended chemical releases is difficult to quantify. It includes significant costs owing to interruption... 

In heterogeneous catalysis, solids catalyze reactions of molecules in gas or solution. As solids - unless they are porous - are commonly impenetrable, catalytic reactions occur at the surface. To use the often expensive materials (e.g. platinum) in an economical way, catalysts are usually nanometer-sized particles, supported on an inert, porous structure (see Fig. 1.4). Heterogeneous catalysts are the workhorses of the chemical and petrochemical industry and we will discuss many applications of heterogeneous catalysis throughout this book. 

Between 1938 and 1958, the chemical and petrochemical industry could do nothing wrong. These were years of rapid expansion when the demand quickly exceeded the supply. The philosophy of the era was to build a plant that the engineer was sure would run at the design capacity. If it ran at 20,30, or even 50% over the nominal capacity this was a feather in the superintendent s cap. There were proud boasts of a plant running at 180% of capacity. Anybody who could produce this was obviously in line for a vice-presidency. He was a manager s manager. 

Ritter, J.A. and A.D. Ebner, Separation technology R D needs for hydrogen production in the chemical and petrochemical industries, U.S. DOE Office of Industrial Technologies Program Report, December 2005. 

Typical C02 separation techniques that have been extensively used in chemical and petrochemical industries, particularly during the synthesis of ammonia and methanol, involve... 

Dnepropetrovsk Region has numerous toxic industrial industries. The main pollutant sources are facilities of metallurgy, power generation, mining, as well as chemical and petrochemical industries. These managed... 

In addition to the man-made environmental problems that have affected the Caspian adversely, the sea has exhibited a curious natural variation in its water level that has created additional problems and has wrought havoc on coastal infrastmcture. Since 1978, the sea level has risen almost 7.5 feet. Flooding in coastal zones has inundated residential areas, transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructure, chemical and petrochemical industries, croplands and hatcheries, forcing thousands of residents to be evacuated from flooded homes. In Turkmenistan, the town of Dervish, which is detached from the western part of the mainland, is turning into an island due to the rise in sea level, and Cheleken and Karakul are sinking into the water as well. 

Olefins are hydrocarbon compounds with at least two carbon atoms and having a double bond. Their unstable nature and tendency to polymerize makes them one of the very important building blocks for the chemical and petrochemical industry (Gary and Handwerk, 1994). Although olefins are produced by fluid catalytic cracking in refineries, the main production source is through steam cracking of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha or gas oils. 

Davenport (Ref 10) states Vapor cloud explosions have in recent years been the predominant cause of the largest losses in the chemical and petrochemical industry. Because of trends toward plants of larger capacity, higher pressures, higher temperatures and greater inventory holdup, these losses have been increasing both in frequency and severity ... 

As mentioned earlier, nickel carbonyl is a volatile intermediate in the Mond process for nickel refining. This compound also is used for vapor plating of nickel in the semiconductor industry, and as a catalyst in the chemical and petrochemical industries. The toxicity of the compound has been known for many years Exposure of laboratory animals to the compound has induced a number of ocular anomalies, including aiioplidialiiiiaandinicrophtlialmia, and has been shown to be a carcinogenic for rats. 

Zeolites and clays are extensively used as catalysts in the bulk chemicals and petrochemicals industries. Typically, reactions are carried out in the gas phase at high temperatures. Such conditions become unreasonable when finer chemicals are involved. Instead, low temperatures and liquid phase reactions become necessary. The costs of the reagents and catalyst are also less important as the product values increase, but product selectivity and good yields are more important. Thus, there is considerable interest in the development of mild, selective, liquid phase reactions such as those described here. Although this review has concentrated particularly on the work of our own group, many others are working in the field and their contributions are referred to in the review articles cited. 

The chemical and petrochemical industries have utilized distillation, freezing, ion exchange, electrodialysis, selective membrane, and hydrate processes for a number of years to separate certain species or components from a multicomponent solution in their refining operations. Recent emphasis has been placed on developing and modifying these basic processes to obtain fresh water from brackish and sea water supplies. 

Gas-liquid bubble columns and gas-liquid-solid slurry bubble columns are widely used in the chemical and petrochemical industries for processes such as methanol synthesis, coal liquefaction, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and separation methods such as solvent extraction and particle/gas flotation. The hydrodynamic behavior of gas-liquid bubble columns and gas-liquid-solid slurry bubble columns are of great importance for the design and scale-up of reactors. Although the hydrodynamics of the bubble and slurry bubble columns has been a subject of intensive research through experiments and computations, the flow structure quantification of complex multi-phase flows are still not well understood, especially in the three-dimensional region. In bubble and slurry bubble columns, the presence of gas bubbles plays an important role to induce appreciable liquid/solids mixing as well as mass transfer. The flows within these systems are divided into two... 

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