Data collection/analysis pilot plant

The authors would like to thank Tom Deinlein for collecting the pilot plant data and Diem Tran for helping in the chemical analysis. 

We begin the analysis by collecting all the information that is known about the process from the technical Uterature - joiunals, books, and patents. Also we can obtain information from company brochvues on plant operations, pilot plant data, and laboratory data. Table 3.5.1 contains some of these data, operating conditions, and specifications. 

Since clinical trials and toxicology studies require increasing amounts of product, an intermediate scale-up is often necessary. Scale-up may be performed in a pilot plant or in intermediate-sized laboratory equipment on-site or at a contract facility. As the scale increases, evaluation of the hazardousness of the operation sequence becomes necessary. Hazardous operation analysis may be done during this intermediate scale-up or during the detailed design. It is useful to take the results of the gap analysis and collect the appropriate data during intermediate scale-up. 

The semi-empirical analysis of many experimental data collected in two different pilot plants led to satisfactory correlations for the turbulent friction coefficient and to the prediction of laminar-turbulent transition velocity for the flow of viscoplastic suspensions in annuli. 

In the course of commercial operations> extensive yield data were collected on various liquid feedstock operations over the full short residence time range and varying hydrocarbon partial pressure. Yields were determined in the field by a special sample conditioning and analysis system ( ) operating on the furnace effluent. The results of these studies substantiated the laboratory and pilot plant findings and confirmed that ethylene yields with the Millisecond Furnace can be increased by 10-20 wt % relative to those obtained with conventional cracking. Similar increases were achieved in the yields of other valuable co-products while the yield of methane was significantly reduced in all cases. 

The simultaneous absorption of two gases that react with the solvent at different rates has been studied by Ouwerkerk. The specific system which he selected for analysis was the selective absorption of HjS in the presence of CO2 into amine solutions. This operation is a feature of several commercially important gas purification processes. Bench scale experiments were conducted to collect the necessary pi sico-chemical data. An absorption rate equation was developed for H2S based on the assumption of instantaneous reaction. For CO2 it was found that the rate of absorption into diisopropanolamine (DIPA) solution at low CO2 partial pressures can best be correlated on the l is of a fast pseudo-first-order reaction. A computer program was developed which took into account the competition between H2S and CC>2 when absorbed simultaneously, and the computer predictions were verified by experiments in a pilot scale absorber. Finally, the methodology was employed successfully to design a large commercial plant absorber. 

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