Chemical manufacturing processes continuous

Thus, microreactor technology, by allowing continuous processes, touches at the heart of fine chemical manufacturing processes, namely it reduces the amount of labor required to run a process. It reduces the amount of labor because it reduces the number of unit operations (or procedures) accomplished by workers. Those operations are performed in situ through an automated system and an appropriate microreactor setup (toolbox concept). The relation between continuous operations and labor is well established in other industries such as the petroleum industry, leading to highly automated and efficient processes. 

In some cases the chemical manufacturer purifies a portion of this intermediate stream to make a high purity product. In other cases, the chemical manufacturer sells a low purity product to a gas company and the gas company purifies it to make a high purity product. In both bases, purification is done on a continuous basis, rather than cylinder by cylinder. The purification processes tend to utilize standard methods. 

Benson and Ponton (1993) and Ponton (1996) have speculated on the ultimate results of continuing efforts for process minimization. They envision a twenty-first century chemical industry totally revolutionized by technological innovation, automation, and miniaturization. Small, distributed manufacturing facilities would produce materials on demand, at the location where they are needed. Raw materials would be nonhazardous, and the manufacturing processes would be waste free and inherently safe. While their vision of future technology is speculative, we are beginning to see progress in this direction. 

Crystallization continues to be the most widely used method of separating or resolving enantiomers (optical resolutions). The manufacture of chemicals and pharmaceuticals as purified optical isomers, or enantiomers, has taken on a pivotal importance in the pharmaceutical, agricultural and fine chemicals industries over the past 15-20 years. Crystallization has been and continues to be the most widely used method of separating or resolving enantiomers (optical resolutions), and is particularly well suited to separations at large scale in manufacturing processes (Jacques etal., 1981 Roth etai, 1988 Wood, 1997 Cains, 1999). 

Switching from Batch to Continuous Processing for Fine and Intermediate-Scale Chemicals Manufacture... 

The development of chemical micro processing was, among other influences, strongly promoted by continuing manufacturing and offering of micro devices, as... 

Characteristic features of bulk versus fine chemicals manufacture are shown in Table 2.1. Fine chemicals manufacture often involves multi-step syntheses and is generally performed batch-wise in multi-purpose equipment. This contrasts with bulk chemicals manufacture, which generally involves continuous processing in dedicated plants. 

Distillation is a well-known process and scale-up methods have been well established. Many computer programs for the simulation of continuous distillation columns that are operated at steady state are available. In fine chemicals manufacture, this concerns separations of products in the production of bulk fine chemicals and for solvent recovery/purification. In the past decade, software for modelling of distillation columns operated at non-steady state, including batch distillation, has been developed. In the fine chemicals business, usually batch distillation is applied. 

Continuous analysis offers another very useful possibility of completely automated chemical control, especially in manufacturing processes, but also in analytical processes such as separational flow techniques where the analytical measurement proper acts as a sensor, usually called the detector. As long as a physical or physico-chemical constant yields a sufficiently accurate and specific... 

Sustainability, hazard reduction, and protection of health and the environment remain great concerns for the process industries. Many of the raw materials used—especially those derived from oil, gas, and some plants and animals—have been and in some cases continue to be depleted at rates either large compared to known reserves or faster than replenishment. In addition, there is the desire for products, intermediates, solvents, catalysts, and other materials produced or selected for use in chemical manufacture to be as safe and nontoxic as possible during their use and to be recoverable or benignly degradable after their use. 

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