Chemical processing industries diversity

Distillation Columns. Distillation is by far the most common separation technique in the chemical process industries. Tray and packed columns are employed as strippers, absorbers, and their combinations in a wide range of diverse appHcations. Although the components to be separated and distillation equipment may be different, the mathematical model of the material and energy balances and of the vapor—Hquid equiUbria are similar and equally appHcable to all distillation operations. Computation of multicomponent systems are extremely complex. Computers, right from their eadiest avadabihties, have been used for making plate-to-plate calculations. 

The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), a directorate of AIChE, was established in 1985 to develop and disseminate technical information for use in the prevention of major chemical accidents. The CCPS is supported by a diverse group of industrial sponsors in the chemical process industry and related industries who provide the necessary funding and professional guidance for its projects. The CCPS Technical Steering Committee and the technical subcommittees oversee individual projects selected by CCPS. Professional representatives of the sponsoring companies staff the subcommittees, with a member of the CCPS staff coordinating the activities of the sub-committee. 

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. 

As the previous ehapter discussed nuelear power reactor operation and how to perform a PSA on it, this chapter attempts to apply a similar framework to chemical processing. The problem is the diversity of chemical processing that blurs the focus. This chapter begins by showing that accidents in the chemical process industry cost lives and dollars. Descriptions of deadly chemical accidents arc presented to show the chain of sequences that were involved to suggest how their PSA may be structured. Background on selected hazardous chemical process is presented followed by descriptions of how their PSA have structured. The chapter concludes by applying FTAPSUIT to a pressure vessel rupture analysis. 

Process safety management has been applied primarily in the chemical process industries. However, the concepts of PSM, and the approaches used for implementing PSM, can be applied equally well to any manufacturing process that uses chemical products. Manufacturing industries as diverse as semiconductor manufacturing 2md food processing can, and do, apply PSM to improve safety and operations. 

The capability of chemical substances to undergo reactions, or transformations in their structure, is central to the chemical processing industry. Chemical reactions allow for a diversity of manufactured products. However, chemical reactivity can lead to significant hazards if not properly understood and controlled. 

A range of chemical reactions can cause reactive incidents. Over 90 percent of the 167 incidents analyzed by CSB involved reactive hazards that are documented in literature available to the chemical processing industry (see Section 7.1). The various types of reactions indicate the diversity of chemistry involved for... 

The products of our chemical processing industries themselves could become the instruments of terrorists because of their flammability, reactivity, toxicity, or notoriety. It is critical to minimize the vulnerability of chemicals or chemical assets to attack, contamination, or diversion for terrorist purposes, particularly as weapons of mass destraction. Critical challenges include the development of systems or chemistries that reduce the amount of or substitute for materials currently at risk, alter the attractiveness of such materials to terrorists, minimize the inventory and transportation of such materials, and that can detect and track the covert production and transportation of such materials. 

The problems experienced in Australia have been effectively buffered in the world market by a broad, diverse market base. A substantial proportion of world production is used in other areas of the chemical processing industry (as shown in Section 2.3.3), thereby establishing a more stable base. 

The approach in this chapter is aimed primarily at the chemical process industries, but the ideas may be broadened and modified to cover many diverse situations. 

Seiler DA (1997) PVDF in the chemical process industry. In Scheirs J (ed) Modern fluoropolymers High performance polymers for diverse applications. Wiley, Chichester, UK, p487... 

The theory and conditions for phase equilibrium are well established. If more than one phase is present, then the chemical potential of a component is the same in all phases present. As chemical potential is linked functionally to the concepts of fugacity and activity, models for phase behavior prediction and correlation based on chemical potentials, fugacities, and activities have been developed. Historically, phase equilibrium calculations for hydrocarbon mixtures have been fragmented with liquid-vapor, liquid-liquid, and other phase equilibrium calculations, subject to separate and diverse treatments depending on the temperature, pressure, and component properties. Many of these methods and approaches arose to meet specific needs in the chemical process industries. Poling, Prausnitz,... 

Mechanical aids stir the fluid by mechanical means or by rotating the surface. Surface scraping, widely used for batch processing of viscous liquids in the chemical process industry, is applied to the flow of such diverse fluids as high-viscosity plastics and air. Equipment with rotating heat exchanger ducts is found in commercial practice. 

---