Chemical processes, recycling

The recycling of material is an essential feature of most chemical processes. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the main factors which dictate the recycle structure of a process. We shall start by considering the function of process recycles and restrict consideration to continuous processes. Later the scope will be extended to include batch processes. 

Although 600 m of water is used to make a metric ton of fertilizer, 150—240 m to make a tonne of steel, 480 m to make a tonne of gasoline, and 1000 m to make a tonne of acetate fiber, Htde if any is required chemically in any of these processes. Recycling can reduce industrial requirements by a factor of 10—50. Much of this water, particularly that for cooling, and often that for washing, can be saline. Some petroleum refiners have used salt water to remove heat (water s principal role in gasoline production), and some have actually produced table salt by evaporation in cooling towers. 

Heat pumps are particularly suitable for recycling heat energy in the chemical-process industries. For the outlay of an additional fixed-capital expenditure Cec on a heat-pump system, a considerable reduction in the annual heating cost can be effected. 

FIG. 24-23 Continuous culture with recycle. (A. E. Humphrey, Biochemical Engineering in Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing and Design, -ool. 4, July 1977,pp. 359A 94.)... 

If a catalyst is tested for commercial use, it is also important to know under production conditions how much rates are influenced by various transfer processes. Recycle reactors can execute all these tests and give information on transfer influences. In advanced research projects it is enough to know the transfer interaction during the study so that physical processes are not misinterpreted as chemical phenomena. 

The setting of indoor air quality targets is much more complicated and individualized, T his is due to the fact that the chemical process in paper making differs from paper type to paper type. Also, the amount of particles is highly dependent on the speed of the machine, the percentage of recycled mass, and the percentage of stone in the paper. 

It was not nndl the 1950s that detonation flame arresters made of crimped metal ribbon elements were developed and began to be used more freqnendy (Binks 1999). The major impetus for die use of crimped metal ribbon detonation flame arresters in the US was the enactment of clean air legislation (Clean Air Act of 1990) which inadvertently created a safety problem by requiring reductions in volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. To do this, manifolded vent systems (vapor collection systems) were increasingly installed in many chemical process industry plants which captured VOC vapors and transported them to suitable recovery, recycle, or destruction systems. This emission control requirement has led to the introdnction of ignition risks, for example, from a flare or via spontaneous combustion of an activated carbon adsorber bed. Multiple... 

Easy product separation and catalyst recycling Lower cost of chemical processes... 

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most important commercial thermoplastic polyesters, which has been on the market since 1977 and is widely used in both industrial and household applications. Under specific conditions, plastics can be converted into their primary components for use in other chemical processes by chemical recycling. PET is a thermoplastic, and so recycling by chemical methods, which converts it into primary components, can be achieved. This study examines the optimal routes of the existing chemical methods. For chemical recycling, acidic hydrolysis is used and PET is converted into terephthalic acid (TPA) and... 

R 95 - Recovery, Recycling, Re-Integration. Volume IV Chemical Processes, Biological Processes, Hospital Waste. Conference proceedings. 

The trends in environmental research will be considered on the basis of polymers, fillers, oil, and other processing aids, reinforcing fabrics, other chemicals, and recycling technology. Broadly speaking, the following research trends are evident on a global scale ... 

Although very corrosive, it can be stored and shipped in steel or common alloys at commercial concentrations. In some chemical processes, it is used simply as an acid while in others it is used as a dehydrating agent to remove water, as an agent to increase the rate of a chemical reaction (catalyst), or as a solvent for reactions in which it remains unchanged. It rarely ends up in the final product. Waste sulfuric acid can be recycled. 

Process recycle includes in-process and post-processing recycle. In general, in-process recycle is the preferred approach if at aU possible, but is clearly more common in the petrochemical and commodity chemicals context. For batch chemical operations commonly found in the fine chemical, pharmaceutical and agrochemicals businesses, in-process recycle is generally very difficult to do. The premise in those industries, however, is to reduce the scale of batch operations, make them continuous, and number up to achieve the required volumes. If this can be done successfully, it is more likely to be able to incorporate in-process recycle. 

The last reaction cited above as shown is very effectively catalyzed by bacterial action but is very slow chemically by recycling the spent ferrous liquors and regenerating ferric iron bacterially, the amount of iron which must be derived from pyrite oxidation is limited to that needed to make up losses from the system, principally in the uranium product stream. This is important if the slow step in the overall process is the oxidation of pyrite. The situation is different in the case of bacterial leaching of copper sulfides where all the sulfide must be attacked to obtain copper with a high efficiency. A fourth reaction which may occur is the hydrolysis of ferric sulfate in solution, thus regenerating more sulfuric acid the ferrous-ferric oxidation consumes acid. 

The synthesis of reaction-separation systems. The recycling of material is an essential feature of most chemical processes. The use of excess reactants, diluents, solvents or heat carriers in the reactor design has a significant effect on the flowsheet recycle structure. Sometimes, the recycling of unwanted byproduct to the reactor can inhibit its formation at the source. 

From the studies covered in this chapter, it can be concluded that a completely green chemical process in the synthesis of this kind of material is still a challenge. Some protocols, despite using non-toxic precursors, are time- and/or energy-consuming processes or require the use of non-friendly and non-recyclable solvents. Reaction times in microwave-assisted reaction processes have shown to be shorter. On the other hand, the substitution of conventional solvents for chemical and thermally stable I Ls allowed the reutilization of the solvent and also provided control of the size and shape of NPs. 

In a chemical process, the use of recycle, that is, the return of a portion of an outlet stream to an inlet to join with fresh feed, may have the following purposes (1) to conserve feedstock when it is not completely converted to desired products, and/or (2) to improve the performance of a piece of equipment such as a reactor. It is the latter purpose that we consider here for a PFR (the former purpose usually involves a separation process downstream from a reactor). For a CSTR, solution of problem 14-26 shows that recycling alone has no effect on its performance, and hence is not used. However, it provides a clue as to the anticipated effect for a PFR. The recycle serves to back-mix the product stream with the feed stream. The effect of backmixing is to make the performance of a PFR become closer to that of a CSTR. The degree of backmixing, and... 

Numerous commercial dyes are metal chelate complexes. These metals form pollutants which must be eliminated. One of the strongest points in favour of electrochemical reduction/removal of metal ions and metal complexes - the metal ions and weakly complexed ions form the toxic species - and of the metals from the metal-complex dye is that they are eliminated from the solution into the most favorable form as pure metal, either as films or powders. Polyvalent metals and metalloids can be transferred by reduction or oxidation treatment to one valency, or regenerated to the state before use, e.g. Ti(III)/Ti(IV), Sn(II)/Sn(IV), Ce(III)/Ce(IV), Cr(III)/Cr(VI), and can be recycled to the chemical process. Finally, they can be changed to a valence state better suited for separation, for instance, for accumulation on ion exchangers, etc. Parallel to the... 

Many papers used for recycling are already printed upon, and one of the most important chemical processes involved in waste paper... 

Despite their evident utility, the use of solvents in chemical processes must be scrutinized from environmental and economic points of view because solvent use is inherently wasteful. In a chemical process, a solvent is usually added to reactants to facilitate reaction, and is later removed from the chemical product prior to disposal or, preferably, recycling and reuse. Removal of residual solvent from... 

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