Chemical process industry characteristics

The chemical process industries (CPI), petroleum and allied industries apply physical as well as chemical methods to the conversion of raw feedstock materials into salable products. Because of the diversity of products, process conditions and requirements, equipment design is often unique, or case specific. The prime requirement of any piece of equipment is that it performs the function for which it was designed under the intended process operating conditions, and do so in a continuous and reliable manner. Equipment must have mechanical reliability, which is characterized by strength, rigidness, steadiness, durability and tightness. Any one or combination of these characteristics may be needed for a particular piece of equipment. 

In the previous chapter, a comprehensive description was provided, from four complementary perspectives, of the process of how human errors arise during the tasks typically carried out in the chemical process industry (CPI). In other words, the primary concern was with the process of error causation. In this chapter the emphasis will be on the why of error causation. In terms of the system-induced error model presented in Chapter 1, errors can be seen as arising from the conjunction of an error inducing environment, the intrinsic error tendencies of the human and some initiating event which triggers the error sequence from this imstable situation (see Figure 1.5, Chapter 1). This error sequence may then go on to lead to an accident if no barrier or recovery process intervenes. Chapter 2 describes in detail the characteristics of the basic human error tendencies. Chapter 3 describes factors which combine with these tendencies to create the error-likely situation. These factors are called performance-influencing factors or PIFs. 

Two of the most important classes of chemical compounds are acids and bases. A small sampling of acids and bases found around the home demonstrates their importance in daily life. A few of these include fruit juice, aspirin, milk, ammonia, baking soda, vinegar, and soap. Beyond their presence in numerous household items, acids and bases are key ingredients in the chemical process industry. More sulfuric acid is produced than any other chemical in the United States with an annual production of 40 million tons. While the commercial applications of acids and bases illustrate their importance in everyday life, on a more fundamental level each one of us inherited our characteristics and genetic make-up through the acid DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid. 

Inserting this bulk fluid velocity into Table 3, one can calculate the level of agitation used in the pilot batch of indictable solution as 4, which is described as characteristic of fluid velocities in most chemical process industries agitated batches. 

Agitation levels 3-5 are characteristic of most chemical process industry solids-suspension applications and are typically used for dissolving solids. Agitators capable of scale levels of 3-5 will a. Suspend all the solids of design settling velocity completely off the vessel bottom b. Provide slurry uniformity to at least 1/3 of fluid-batch height c. Be suitable for slurry drawoff at low exit-nozzle elevations... 

Bioseparation processes make use of many separation techniques commonly used in the chemical process industries. However, bioseparations have distinct characteristics that are not common in the traditional separations of chemical processes. Some of the unique characteristics of bioseparation products can be listed as follows ... 

The size distribution of particles in a wide variety of particulate systems is of paramount importance in the chemical processing industries. For example, the compacting and sintering behavior of metallurgical powders, the flow characteristics of granular material, the hiding power of paint (qv) pigments (qv), and the combustion efficiency of powdered coal (qv) and sprayed fluids, are all heavily influenced by the size of the constituent particles (see Flow... 

Slurry reactors are widely used in the chemical process industry due to their superior mass transfer characteristics. Catalytic hydrogenation of unsaturated fatty oils and catalytic oxidation of olefines are among practical examples in which slurry reactors are utilized. 

A typical characteristic of much of the chemical process industry is that the operating plants appear to require little human supervision. The process units are often extensively instrumented and the desired operating conditions are maintained rigidly by arrays of control instruments. Automatic control is clearly an important feature of modern processing. 

Characteristic for Chemical Process Industries is the burden of raw materials in the manufacturing costs, typically between 50 and 60%. As a result, the profit of chemical processes depends heavily on the market of raw materials. In addition, the weight of the shipping fees in the product cost must be also carefully examined for remote suppliers. 

Over 70 per cent of the total electric power used in the chemical process industries is consumed by motor-driven machinery. It is particularly desirable for the process engineer to have a clear picture of the application of electric motors and controls because their characteristics have a very definite effect on the proper functioning of the associated process equipment. 

PVDF exhibits the excellent resistance to harsh environments, characteristic of fluoropolymers. It is widely used in the chemical processing industry, in piping systems, vales, tanks (both molded and lined), and other areas where its combination of excellent mechanical properties and superb resistance to most chemicals make it an ideal material for fluid handling equipment. Increasingly important is use of PVDF as the base resin for long-life, exterior coatings on aluminum, steel, masonry, wood, and plastics. 

With the advent of war the need developed for critical chemicals that were often corrosive and sticky. This sparked development programs to find materials to meet these needs. It was during this time that the importance of characteristics other than corrosion resistance of the composite were recognized, specifically thermal loading and mechanical stressing. Since that time, continued research efforts have culminated in a glassed steel product that is one of the major materials of construction used by the chemical processing industry. 

Punctuality. Most companies terminate trainees after several unexcused "tardies." Punctuality is considered very important to shift workers. Other key characteristics the chemical processing industry looks at are fighting, lack of teamwork, drug abuse, safety violations, and excessive absences. Studies indicate that job satisfaction is linked directly to low instances of these sorts of infractions. 

Process systems take their specific characteristics from the equipment that makes up the process unit. Some of the basic systems found in the chemical processing industry include ... 

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach has become a standard tool for analyzing various situations where fluid flow has an effect on the studied processes. Numerous studies using CFD for chemical process industry have also been reported. Mostly, they have been simple cases as the system is non-reacting, contains only one phase (liquid or gas), or physical properties are assumed constant. When we are dealing with multiphase systems like gas-liquid or liquid-liquid systems we must take into account some phenomena which are not of importance for one-phase systems. The vapor-liquid or liquid-liquid equilibrium is one of these that are needed in order to model the system. In addition to that, mass and heat transfer between the phases must generally be taken into account. Also, the two-phase characteristics of fluid flow need to be taken into consideration in the CFD models. 

Media can significantly influence public opinion on risks related to industrial activities. Media coverage most of the time leads to accelerate the risk perception, i.e. amplification of perceived risk than what the risk really is. When it comes to chemical process industry, media coverage can be inherently biased. This is due to a characteristic nature of public media. The commercial media is usually based on popular incidents (for obvious... 

The approach is explained with the help of a case study Organic fibre prototype analysis out of the chemical process industry with the focus on the analysis of reliability parameters of fibre samples. With the use of nonparametric as well as parametric statistical methods, fibre characteristics (e.g. centre, dispersion, trends) and interdependences are analysed with regard to material, geometry and origin aspects. 

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