Chemical manufacturing processes design

This chapter is an introduction to the nature and methodology of the design process, and its application to the design of chemical manufacturing processes. 

The design work required in the engineering of a chemical manufacturing process can be divided into two broad phases. 

Clearly, the designer should always select a process that is inherently safe whenever it is practical, and economic, to do so. However, most chemical manufacturing processes are, to a greater or lesser extent, inherently unsafe, and dangerous situations can develop if the process conditions deviate from the design values. 

On January 1, 1977, the chemical industry truly became a regulated industry. The environmental laws up until that time had covered some chemicals, but had been media oriented. That is — they were concerned about certain chemicals that escaped as emissions or pollutants to various media - the air, our water, contaminated our food or entered the workplace. TSCA changed that direction. It was designed to regulate commerce on chemical substances. TSCA potentially applies to all chemicals manufactured, processed, distributed or used in the U.S. except those chemicals already regulated under certain other federal laws. TSCA affects not only the chemical industry itself, but the many other industries whose products are chemical in nature. This includes most all industrial products. 

Life cycle" refers to all phases of a chemical manufacturing process-from conceptualization, process research and development (R D), engineering design, construction, commissioning, commercial operation, and major modification to decommissioning. 

Chemical engineers use engineering principles to solve problems of a chemical nature. Nearly three-fourths of the approximately 33,000 chemical engineers in the United States work in chemical manufacturing. They design chemical plants, develop chemical processes, and optimize production methods. A primary concern of chemical engineers working in industry is to... 

Currently, chemists now have the knowledge to design chemicals and chemical manufacturing processes that pose little or no risk to human health and the environment. 

Chemical Manufacturers Association, Designing Pollution Prevention into the Process, CMA (1993). 

Reliable prediction of thermodynamic and kinetic properties for chemical processes (e.g., reactions of chlorinated hydrocarbons on surfaces and in aqueous systems, atmospheric oxidation of organic precursors to ozone and aerosols) as well as for designing green chemical manufacturing processes. 

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