Developing New Processes

Development of New Processes. There has been significant research activity to develop new processes for producing formaldehyde. Even though this work has been extensive, no commercial units are known to exist based on the technologies discussed ia the following. 

Environmental pressures on the process industries will prove to be the most significant change for the next 50 years. Not only will new processes cnange, but mature industries will have to develop new process technology to suiwive (Benson et al., op. dt.). 

Because calcium sulfide contained in the black ash had a highly unpleasant odor, methods were developed to remove the odor by recovering the sulfur, therein providing at least part of the raw-material for the sulfuric acid required in the first part of the process. Thus, the Leblanc prtKcss demonstrated, at the very beginning, the typical ability of the chemical industry to develop new processes and new products, and often in so doing to turn a liability into an asset. 

An overview is presented of plutonium process chemistry at Rocky Flats and of research in progress to improve plutonium processing operations or to develop new processes. Both pyrochemical and aqueous methods are used to process plutonium metal scrap, oxide, and other residues. The pyrochemical processes currently in production include electrorefining, fluorination, hydriding, molten salt extraction, calcination, and reduction operations. Aqueous processing and waste treatment methods involve nitric acid dissolution, ion exchange, solvent extraction, and precipitation techniques. 

There are comparable incentives to develop new process-related materials that are more selective as catalysts, extractants, or separation membranes and more effective in controlling flow in porous media. In addition, the development of materials that are less energy intensive in terms of production and use is a goal equivalent to other means of energy conservation. 

Many academic texts are available to teach chemists the fundamental tools of their trade, but few books are designed to give future industrial research and development chemists the knowledge they need to contribute, with confidence and relevance, to the development of new environmentally benign chemical technology. This book aims to be a handbook for those chemists attempting to develop new processes and products for the twenty-first century, which meet the evermore stringent demands of a society that wants new products with improved performance, and with a lower financial and environmental price tag. 

A major challenge will be to develop new processes or step-up technologies that increase the yield and/or selectivity, use cheaper raw materials, decrease energy consumption, minimize the product separation and purification needs and lower capital investment. Iimoyative step-out technologies can still have a major impact on existing processes. An excellent example of such an accomplishment is the reactive distillation process developed by Eastman Chemicals for production of methyl acetate by via the reaction [2]... 

The experienced engineer will wisely prefer the tried and tested methods, rather than possibly more exciting but untried novel designs. The work required to develop new processes, and the cost, is usually underestimated. Progress is made more surely in small steps. However, whenever innovation is wanted, previous experience, through prejudice, can inhibit the generation and acceptance of new ideas the not invented here syndrome. 

Develop new less-energetic chemical reaction systems for product manufacture, including alternate catalytic and biological routes where appropriate Emphasize need to develop economically viable inherently safer systems at the research and development stages of new process development Develop new process equipment and strategies for product manufacture using lower inventories of reactive chemicals, error tolerant approaches, and process conditions further from limits of control where appropriate... 

In the rest of this book we will apply these ideas to increasingly complex situations, so that by the last chapter you should have seen all the ideas necessary to deal with these reactions and reactors. More important, these ideas should permit you be able to understand the even more complex reactions and reactors that you will have deal with to develop new processes for future technologies. 

The skills and knowledge of those in all chentical and chentical engineering disciplines are needed for these processes. Additionally, collaboration among the disciplines must be cultivated—especially between researchers who synthesize new chenticals and materials and those who develop new processes to manufacture them. There must be parallel integration of fields, so that discoveries quickly lead to useful technology. In a terrorist attack, a quick response is essential, whether it be decontamination of a site or scale-up of drug or vaccine production. 

We have evaluated and developed new process modifications using the model. The concept of staggering the reactor inlet temperatures to equalize the aging rates in all three reactors (15) was evaluated with the model. Model simulations, to quantify the benefits of this modification, could be carried out in a day. Corresponding experiments showing similar effects would have required months to complete. With minimal modifications to the model, the benefits for splitting the reformer feed among the three reactors (16) were also determined. 

Historically, technological innovation has been a prime force in economic development. New processes and products have been credited with such diverse benefits as increased employment, increased labor productivity, new opportunities for preventing and curing disease, greater consumer comfort, and improvements in the balance of trade. 

The vast quantities of aromatics available or potentially available from petroleum provide a tremendous incentive to the petroleum technologists to develop new processes for the isolation of additional pure compounds, thereby extending the long list of materials available to the industry. 

An important part of any plastics research and development program is the time that should be spent on evaluating and developing new processing systems and equipment. The introduction of many new polymers and the dramatic growth of the plastics... 

The second factor is the unique feature of N20 as an oxygen donor - first demonstrated with the gas-phase oxidation of lower alkanes over metal oxides. Later, the high catalytic efficiency of the FeZSM-5 zeolites was discovered, suggesting an opportunity for developing new processes of gas-phase oxidation with N20, especially the hydroxylation of benzene and other aromatics to the corresponding phenols. 

Several detailed analyses of the spin coating process have been conducted (Bornside et al., 1989 Emslie et al., 1958 Meyerhofer, 1978 Yonkoski and Soane, 1992). The analyses conducted by these authors have been shown to hold for a variety of volatile organic solvents (Birnie, 1997 Paul et al., 1996). However, this model may not apply well to spin coating in C02 because coatings from C02 are formed under drastically different conditions. This difficulty in relating the conventional process to C02-based spin coating is illustrative of the hurdles encountered when developing new processes in C02. 

The objective of the book is not to turn the reader into a specialist in thermal safety. It is to guide those who perform risk analysis of chemical processes, develop new processes, or are responsible for chemical production, to understand the thermal aspects of processes and to perform a scientifically founded-but practically oriented-assessment of chemical process safety. This assessment may serve as a basis for the optimization or the development of thermally safe processes. The methods presented are based on the author s long years of experience in the practice of safety assessment in industry and teaching students and professionals... 

As with any radical step, the main obstacle to its implementation is the normal human resistance to change. In order to overcome this it is vital that chemists who are developing new processes be as fully conversant with SDRs as with their beakers and flasks. There is therefore a latent market for miniature versions of this equipment throughout the world s industrial and teaching laboratories. Once the cultural block is overcome and company decisionmakers fully appreciate the breadth of impact in prospect, then the process industry will be fully prepared to meet the challenges of the new century. 

Chemistry - or chemicals - lies at the heart of everything fibers for new textiles, catalysts for a clean environment, colors that gleam in the sun, polymer electrolyte diaphragms for fuel cells, chemicals for chip production, or fertilizers that help plants grow, ensuring global food production. The chemical industry develops the intermediate products that other industries use, and often develops new processes and products itself, or in conjunction with customers. 

Because of the low success rate for the commercialization of new processes, we will continue to develop new processes by proceeding through a hierarchy of designs, and therefore we will still need shortcut models. To decide whether simple models are applicable in a particular situation, we can develop a perturbation solution around a complex model, so that the simple model is the generating solution. With this approach, we can establish an error criterion that will indicate the validity of the simple model. 

If given enough time to develop new processes, research chemists and chemical engineers can often devise new processing techniques that will reduce the hazard of a process by reducing the maximum instantaneous inventory of hazardous materials. Occasionally these new techniques also provide in-... 

Bituminous coals are relatively Insoluble solids, and their chemical compositions, which are based on aromatic structures, are still partially unknown. It Is expected that a better knowledge of the chemical structure of coal may open new ways to develop new processes for an economic use of coal. The elucidation of the chemical structure of coal is hampered by the fact that only a small part of the coal Is soluble in suitable solvents. Three reasons are thought to cause this low extractability ... 

If we can ensure the control and compensation of these uncertainties, then we can appreciate the enormous importance of the experimental chemical engineering research for developing new processes or for modernizing those that are already in use. 

The chemical engineer may work in three types of organizations. One is the operating company, such as DuPont and Dow Chemical, whose main concern is to produce products. These companies are also engaged in developing new processes. If a new plant for an old improved process, or a plant for a recently developed process is being considered, a plant constmction organization, the second company type, such as the C.E. Lummus Corp. or the Forster Wheeler Corp., will... 

Although there has been a rapid decline in commercial destructive distillation of wood, manufacture of activated carbon by the pyrolysis of cellulosic materials still constitutes a major commercial operation. Finally, the possibility of developing new processes for production of special chemicals by the pyrolysis of cellulose, or the adaptation of the old process to the economy of developing nations blessed with rich forest resources, cannot be overlooked. Controlled pyrolysis of cellulose and cellulosic materials to provide a totally impermeable carbon and other industrial products is an example of the former possibilities. 

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