Chemical industry data exchange

The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated on two rqjresentative NDT techniques intapretation of data acquired with an ultrasonic rail inspection system and interpretation of eddy-current data from heat exchangers in (petro-)chemical industry. The results show that it is possible to provide a high level of automation in combination with efficient operator support for highly variable NDT measurements where up to now use of automated interpretation was only limited. 

The formulation of objective functions is one of the crucial steps in the application of optimization to a practical problem. As discussed in Chapter 1, you must be able to translate a verbal statement or concept of the desired objective into mathematical terms. In the chemical industries, the objective function often is expressed in units of currency (e.g., U.S. dollars) because the goal of the enterprise is to minimize costs or maximize profits subject to a variety of constraints. In other cases the problem to be solved is the maximization of the yield of a component in a reactor, or minimization of the use of utilities in a heat exchanger network, or minimization of the volume of a packed column, or minimizing the differences between a model and some data, and so on. Keep in mind that when formulating the mathematical statement of the objective, functions that are more complex or more nonlinear are more difficult to solve in optimization. Fortunately, modem optimization software has improved to the point that problems involving many highly nonlinear functions can be solved. 

Data from G. E. Boyd, Thermal Effects In Ion-Exchange Reactions With Organic Exchangers Enthalpy and Heat Capacity Changes , in Ion Exchange In The Process Industries , Society of Chemical Industry, London, 1970, p. 261)... 

GENERAL NOTE This table is composed of the applicable fields from Appendix Q, ANSI/API 610, Centrifugal Pumps for Petroleum, Heavy-Duty Chemical and Gas Industry Services, with the addition of data fields from the Process Industry Practices (PIP) specification that completely define necessary data for the electronic exchange of ASME B73 pump data. See Appendix Q, API 610 for complete information on the neutral data exchange file format. 

Figure 17.21. Some recent designs of ammonia synthesis converters, (a) Principle of the autothermal ammonia synthesis reactor. Flow is downwards along the wall to keep it cool, up through tubes imbedded in the catalyst, down through the catalyst, through the effluent-influent exchanger and out. (b) Radial flow converter with capacities to l tons/day Haldor Topsoe Co., Hellerup, Denmark), (c) Horizontal three-bed converter and detail of the catalyst cartridge. Without the exchanger the dimensions are 8 x 85 ft, pressure 170 atm, capacity to 2000 tons/day (Pullman Kellogg), (d) Vessel sketch, typical temperature profile and typical data of the ICI quench-type converter. The process gas follows a path like that of part (a) of this figure. Quench is supplied at two points (Imperial Chemical Industries).

Packed beds, often composed of catalyst pellets, are used widely in the chemical industries. Fluid flows through the bed and exchanges heat with the bed material. Heat-transfer processes within the bed and between the bed and the container walls are also of concern. Gnielinski ([29], summarized in [1]) presents a comprehensive listing of available data and gives the following equations valid over a Reynolds number range from 100 to 2 x 1(1 and void fractions 0.26 < / < 1 ... 

Bibliographic Retrieval Services (BRS) The Bibliographic Retrieval Services, Inc. of Scotia, New York also offer efficient access to several data bases that are relevant to chemical industry needs. BRS offers an on-line version of Chemical Abstracts CA search under the file label CHEM. Often a CHEM search can be supplemental with other BRS data bases. One can use the CROS file, which provides an index to all data bases on-line at BRS. BRS data bases include NTIS, Science SCISEARCH Citation Index, the Smithsonian Information Exchange (SMIE), and BIOSIS Previews. All are described in the previous section. A few of the MEDLARS data bases are available from BRS, as well as a data base called Pharmaceutical News Index that covers drug industry news. 

The Guidelines for Process Equipment Reliability Data with Data Tables covers a variety of components used in the chemical process industry, including electrical equipment, analyzers, instrumentation and controls, detectors, heat exchangers, piping systems, rotating equipment (pump, compressor, and fan), valves, and fire protection systems. 

L-Cysteine is a high value a-amino acid used world-wide in a scale of 1200-15001 year-1 as additive in foodstuffs, cosmetics or as intermediate or active agent (as antidote to several snake venoms) in the pharmaceutical industry. Chemical routes generally lack the efficiency of electrochemical techniques, or they produce mixtures of l- and d- forms rather than the L-isomer. The most common electrochemical route is the cathodic reduction of L-Cystine in acid (usually HC1) solution to produce the stable hydrochloride. In Table 10, the charateristic data for a laboratory bench, laboratory pilot and a product pilot reaction using a DEM filter press are compared [13]. A production scale study was carried out in a filterpress reactor divided by a cation exchange membrane with a total area of 10.5 m2. The typical product inventory was 450 kg/24-hour batch time. For more details see Ref. [13]. 

In this section, a safety dataset, resulting from over 20 years of practical experience with risk analysis of chemical processes, is presented. These data build the base of risk analysis in the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries, essentially in multi-purpose plants. Therefore, the dataset introduces plant considerations only at its end. This allows exchanging them without any need for recollecting the whole dataset, in cases where the process is transferred from one plant unit to another. Moreover, this dataset may be used in the frame of different risk analysis methods. 

---