De-bottlenecking

De-bottlenecking is particularly important when the producing field is on plateau production, because it provides a means of earlier recovery (acceleration) of hydrocarbons, which improves the project cashflow and NPV. 

Enhancements to the process may be required due to sub-optimal initial design of the equipment, or to implement new technology, or because an idea for improving the production system has emerged. De-bottlenecking would be an example of an... 

Improving the economics of gas plant design, construction, and operations is essential to ensure the approval of future de-bottlenecking, capacity expansion, and new projects. The economics include not only capital investment, life cycle operations, and maintenance costs, but also the monetary equivalents of safety, reliability, and availability. 

Rarely in the pharmaceutical industry is a new plant built to accommodate a new process or product It may happen in the petrochemical industry, where economies of scale mean that product-specific plants are designed from scratch and then continuously de-bottlenecked over a number of years to increase and optimize productivity, but it is not the case in the pharmaceutical industry, where the number of types of unit operations in use is generally fairly small and fixed. Within a multi-purpose chemical plant commonly found in the batch chemical industry, it is common practice for process designers to make do with what is available on a given site to avoid capital expenditure and plant shut-down for modifications. 

For example one area well known in the chemical industry is process de-bottlenecking. Another example is the need for more environmentally friendly processes. Drucker s example is plate glass making by the float glass process (Pilkingtons). 

It is important to know the volumes of acid gas injected. This is significant from a process point of view, for process design or to de-bottleneck existing schemes. In addition, the amount of acid gas injected is also required by any regulatory board, such as the Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) in Alberta. 

The factorial method of cost estimation is based on purchased equipment costs and therefore requires good estimates for equipment costs. Costs of single pieces of equipment are also often needed for minor revamp and de-bottlenecking projects. 

Formulas for new entrants. For most sectors, the rules for new entrants were tied to the addition of capacity (whether to a new site or an existing site) of the covered activity explicitly referred to in the Directive. This meant that certain types of capacity expansion (for example de-bottlenecking at chemicals installations) would not qualify for new entrant allocations.9 The basic formula used for new entrants in most sectors can be summarised as follows ... 

The roadbeds and rights-of-way must be constantly modernized and de-bottlenecked. Many railroads now in a position to handle the proposed larger cars on main line service must commit to accept them for interchange movements. 

New departures in catalyst formulation are also greatly facilitated by a thorough understanding of the mechanisms involved. If the mechanism of a reaction is well understood, focused efforts can be initiated in search of de-bottlenecking procedures to improve the pre-existing mechanism by altering the rates of intermediate steps on the sites of a new catalyst formulation. This is the rational design of catalysts that will make catalysis a science. 

Depending on the complexity of the installation, scheduling logistic software can be used to analyze the capacity of the plant and de-bottleneck while it is stiH in the design phase. In addition to the process side, requirements on auxiliary systems like utilities, drains, and waste water treatment systems have to be reliably estimated. 

Isopropanol, ethanol Standard applications for pervaporation, typically dehydrated from their azeotropes to fractions of a percent of water. De-bottlenecking of entrainer plants. 

Acetone Does not form an azeotrope with water but requires a large reflux when distilled. Pervaporation is ideal for final dehydration or for de-bottlenecking existing distillation systems. Acetonitrile Forms an azeotrope with water fully miscible with water. Can easily be dehydrated to low water concentrations. Avoids messing with contaminated salt solution andre-distilla-tion of salt-contaminated organic phase. 

After a challenging start-up, Cominco s new lead smelter is a success. It has fully met the requirements for environmental performance, reduced energy consumption, and lowered labour costs. The new smelter has positioned Cominco Trail Operations well for the future and it is expected that further gains in throughput can be achieved through de-bottlenecking. 

De- bottlenecking Improve capacity or performance by identifying and eliminating process constraints or bottlenecks Comixessor inter-stage subcooling... 

Through this phase, the final points of de-bottlenecking the project will be addressed, and all should be in place to allow the project to move ahead without too many delays or surprises. 

To diversify the production line since it may become possible to produce some additional products by addition of a few new equipment only To de-bottleneck existing production line, e.g. a mixer/filter that is of smaller capacity than required and thus either not able to take care of material fed to it or is starving the downstream equipment... 

Retter has recently described the use of the membrane filter press in the de-bottlenecking of titanium dioxide calcination and in filtration of sugar... 

Meet the environmental and quality requirements of the Specialty pulp market Early in the process design, the mill decided to utilize simulation to outline and evaluate several mill upgrade alternatives. This approach made it possible to test hypotheses and assess different alternatives at a small cost and has helped with de-bottlenecking of the process before the actual systems were built. Steady state simulation was utilized to provided the required mass and energy balance, while dynamic simulation has later been used to verify the design parameters like equipment sizing. 

Liz, Jerry, Mike, and I were partners in expanding the capacity of a naphtha reformer plant producing aromatic base stocks. The bottleneck was the reboiled de-ethanizer, limited by flooding. Our job was to produce a process design to de-bottleneck the reformer from... 

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