Combined Separation Units

The possibility of combining two different separation units into one, hybrid, process has not been considered in this chapter. Hybrid processes are quite novel and have only very recently been considered by industry and have, therefore, so far not made it into the standard textbooks. A hybrid process has the combined benefits of both of the component units and the benefits should theoretically outweigh the disadvantages. An example is a hybrid of a distillation column and a pervaporation unit for azeotropic separation, where the distillation unit alone is limited by the azeotropic point. Again, a lot of research is currently devoted to this type of operation and it is generally believed that it will become more widely used in the future. 

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Rather than send the vapor to one of the separation units described above, a purge can be used. This removes the need for a separator but incurs raw material losses. Not only can these material losses be expensive, but they also can create environmental problems. However, another option is to use a combination of a purge with a separator. 

X 10 m (l.9x lO " /t ) of heHum in each cubic meter (35 ft ) of air entering the air separation process, the small quantities of cmde coUected in even a large air separation unit may be easily appreciated. It is sometimes desirable, therefore, to combine cmdes coUected from several air plants and to process them at a centralized location in specialized equipment. 

While comparison of the absolute capital costs and costs of electricity among different power systems is difficult and uncertain, the structure of these costs is rather typical, and the costs of component units are usually within known ranges. For an oxygen-blown IGCC power system, the breakdown of the capital cost for the four component units is air separation plant (11 to 17 percent), fuel gas plant (33 to 42 percent), combined-cycle unit (32 to 39 percent), and balance of plant (2 to 21 percent). The breakdown of the cost of elec tricity is capital charge (52 to 56 percent), operating and maintenance (14 to 17 percent), and fuel (28 to 32 percent). 

The dead-end setup is by far the easiest apparatus both in construction and use. Reactor and separation unit can be combined and only one pump is needed to pump in the feed. A cross-flow setup, on the other hand, needs a separation unit next to the actual reactor and an additional pump to provide a rapid circulation across the membrane. The major disadvantage of the dead-end filtration is the possibility of concentration polarization, which is defined as an accumulation of retained material on the feed side of the membrane. This effect causes non-optimal membrane performance since losses through membrane defects, which are of course always present, will be amplified by a high surface concentration. In extreme cases concentration polarization can also lead to precipitation of material and membrane fouling. A membrane installed in a cross-flow setup, preferably applied with a turbulent flow, will suffer much less from this... 

Supercritical fluids (SCFs) offer several advantages as reaction media for catalytic reactions. These advantages include the ability to manipulate the reaction environment through simple changes in pressure to enhance solubility of reactants and products, to eliminate interphase transport limitations, and to integrate reaction and separation unit operations. Benefits derived from the SCF phase Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (SCF-FTS) involve the gas-like diffusivities and liquid-like solubilities, which together combine the desirable features of the gas- and liquid-phase FT synthesis routes. 

Some extractants have been used in the development of selective sensors for radionuclides. These have been noted in Tables 9.1 through 9.3 and briefly mentioned above. They were recently reviewed in detail.99 In addition to column sensor formats, extractants have been coated onto passivated ion-implanted planar silicon (PIPS) diodes to create selective radionuclide sensors.152153 Though not a focus of this review, it is worth noting the such sensors, combining separation and detection in a single functional unit, have potential for use in process-monitoring applications. 

NGCC/GTCC, Natural gas combined cycle (often termed gas-turbine combined cycle) PC, Pulverized-coal-fired power plant IGCC, Integrated gasification combined cycle, Oxy-fuel (PC boiler) plant. Flue-gas desulfurization and air particulate control is included in the total cost, but not in the separation unit cost. 

S02) easily reacts with the same membrane components, and need therefore to be removed before the separation unit. The material designer must also consider possible evaporation of membrane components. The high temperature in combination with steam can lead to increased evaporation by metal-hydroxy components. Kinetic demixing seems to be an unavoidable phenomena originating from difference in diffusivity of the metal components in thermodynamic potential gradients... 

However, the possibility to integrate various membrane operations in the same process or in combination with conventional separation units, allows, in many cases better performance in terms of product quality, plant compactness, environmental impact, and energy use to be obtained. 

Membrane bioreactors have been reviewed previously in every detail [3,4,7,8,18], There are two main types of membrane bioreactors (i) the system consists of a traditional stirred-tank reactor combined with a membrane separation unit (Figure 14.1) (ii) the membrane contains the immobilized biocatalysts such as enzymes, micro-organisms and antibodies and thus, acts as a support and a separation unit (Figure 14.2). The biocatalyst can be immobilized in or on the membrane by entrapment, gelification, physical adsorption, ionic binding, covalent binding or crosslinking [3, 7, 18]. Our attention will be primarily focused on the second case where the membrane acts as a support for biocatalyst and as a separation unit, in this study. The momentum and mass-transport process, in principle, are the same in both cases, namely when there is... 

In recent years, membrane bioreactors, bioreactors combined with membrane separation unit have established themselves as an alternative configuration for traditional bioreactors. The important advantages offered by membrane bioreactors are the several different types of membrane modules, membrane structures, materials commercially available. Membrane bioreactors seem particularly suited to carry out complex enzymatic/microbial reactions and/or to separate, in situ, the product in order to increase the reaction efficiency. The membrane bioreactor is a new generation of the biochemical/chemical reactors that offer a wide variety of applications for producing new chemical compounds, for treatment of wastewater, and so on. 

The gas feed stream is split, recycle CO2 is added to each stream and the combined streams are fed to each of the two gasification trains. Oxygen from the Air Separation Unit (ASU) is preheated by steam, split and fed to the two gasification trains. Partial oxidation and reforming reactions take place in the Gasifiers. 

The SELEXOL unit removes H2S and most of the CO2 in the syngas stream. The final hydrogen purification is accomplished in a downstream PSA unit. The purified hydrogen stream is combined with nitrogen from the air separation unit (ASU) and converted to ammonia. A unique CO2 purification scheme was developed to remove traces of H2S and COS from the CO2 that is fed to the UAN plant185. 

Methanol is produced from carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. The proper feed composition is achieved by combining the hydrogen-enriched syngas from the shift reactor and the hydrogen-carbon monoxide stream from the gas separation unit. The feed stream... 

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