Effluents

Life cycle analyses for sustainability are frequently used to attempt to measure the many variables within production and pollution through projecting various scenarios. Due to these variables, life cycle analysis and sustainability assessment can quickly become extraordinarily complex, with many interconnected components in any process, each with their own supply chain and consequent impact. There are often tradeoffs that are difficult to equate. Ink jet printing uses less ink than screen-based 

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Table 2.2 gives the compositions of the reactor feed and effluent streams. Calculate the conversion, selectivity, and reactor yield with respect to (a) the toluene feed and (b) the hydrogen feed. 

TABLE 2.2 Reactor Feed and Effluent streams in Example 2.3... 

Even if the reactor temperature is controlled within acceptable limits, the reactor effluent may need to be cooled rapidly, or quenched, to stop the reaction quickly to prevent excessive byproduct formation. This quench can be accomplished by indirect heat transfer using conventional heat transfer equipment or by direct heat transfer by mixing with another fluid. A commonly encountered situation is... 

In fact, cooling of the reactor effluent by direct heat transfer can be used for a variety of reasons ... 

The liquid used for the direct heat transfer should be chosen such that it can be separated easily from the reactor product and so recycled with the minimum expense. Use of extraneous materials, i.e., materials that do not already exist in the process, should be avoided because it is often difficult to separate and recycle them with high efficiency. Extraneous material not recycled becomes an effluent problem. As we shall discuss later, the best way to deal with effluent problems is not to create them in the first place. 

One disadvantage of fluidized heds is that attrition of the catalyst can cause the generation of catalyst flnes, which are then carried over from the hed and lost from the system. This carryover of catalyst flnes sometimes necessitates cooling the reactor effluent through direct-contact heat transfer hy mixing with a cold fluid, since the fines tend to foul conventional heat exchangers. 

Having made an initial specification for the reactor, attention is turned to separation of the reactor effluent. In addition, it might be necessary to carry out separation before the reactor to purify the feed. Whether before or after the reactor, the overall separation task normally must be broken down into a number of intermediate separation tasks. The first consideration is the choice of separator for the intermediate separation tasks. Later we shall consider how these separation tasks should be connected to the reactor. As with reactors, we shall concentrate on the choice of separator and not its detailed sizing. 

Achieving complete conversion of FEED to PRODUCT in the reactor usually requires an extremely long residence time, which is normally uneconomic (at least in continuous processes). Thus, if there is no byproduct formation, the initial reactor conversion is set to be around 95 percent, as discussed in Chap. 2. The reactor effluent thus contains unreacted FEED and PRODUCT (Fig. 4.1a). 

Four possible arrangements can be considered a. Complete conversion of both feeds. Figure 4.7a shows the most desirable arrangement complete conversion of the decane and chlorine in the reactor. The absence of reactants in the reactor effluent means that no recycles are needed. 

Again, in practice, there is likely to be a trace of chlorine in the reactor effluent. This can be recycled to the reactor with the unreacted decane or allowed to leave with the hydrogen chloride byproduct (providing this meets with the byproduct specification). 

The reactor effluent is thus likely to contain hydrogen, methane, benzene, toluene, and diphenyl. Because of the large differences in volatility of these components, it seems likely that partial condensation will allow the effluent to be split into a vapor stream containing predominantly hydrogen and methane and a liquid stream containing predominantly benzene, toluene, and diphenyl. 

Given the assumptions, estimate the composition of the reactor effluent for fraction of methane in the recycle and purge of 0.4. 

The estimated composition of the reactor effluent is given in Table 4.2. This calculation assumes that all separations in the phase split are sharp. 

Given the estimate of the reactor effluent in Example 4.2 for fraction of methane in the purge of 0.4, calculate the.actual separation in the phase split assuming a temperature in the phase separator of 40°C. Phase equilibrium for this mixture can be represented by the Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state. Many computer programs are available commercially to carry out such calculations. 

The use of excess reactants, diluents, or heat carriers in the reactor design has a significant effect on the flowsheet recycle structure. Sometimes the recycling of unwanted byproduct to the reactor can inhibit its formation at the source. If this can be achieved, it improves the overall use of raw materials and eliminates effluent disposal problems. Of course, the recycling does in itself reuse some of the other costs. The general tradeoffs are discussed in Chap. 8. 

When a mixture in a reactor effluent contains components with a wide range of volatilities, then a partial condensation from the vapor phase or a partial vaporization from the liquid phase followed by a simple phase split often can produce a good separation. If the vapor from such a phase split is difficult to condense, then further separation needs to be carried out in a vapor separation unit such as a membrane. 

The effluent from the reactor contains both PRODUCT and unreacted FEED which must be separated in a distillation column. Unreacted FEED is recycled to the reactor via a pump if the recycle is liquid or a compressor if the recycle is vapor. 

Because there is a mixture of FEED, PRODUCT, and BYPRODUCT in the reactor effluent, an additional separator is required. 

The purge usually only has value in terms of its fuel value. Alternatively, if the purge must be disposed of by effluent treatment. 

As with safety, environmental considerations are usually left to a late stage in the design. However, like safety, early decisions often can lead to difficult environmental problems which later require complex solutions. Again, it is better to consider effluent problems as the design progresses in order to avoid complex waste treatment systems. 

Treat the effluent using incineration, biplogical digestion, etc. to a form suitable for discharge to the environment, called end-of -pipe treatment. 

Reduce or eliminate production of the effluent at the source by waste minimization. 

The problem with the fiowsheet shown in Fig. 10.5 is that the ferric chloride catalyst is carried from the reactor with the product. This is separated by washing. If a reactor design can be found that prevents the ferric chloride leaving the reactor, the effluent problems created by the washing and neutralization are avoided. Because the ferric chloride is nonvolatile, one way to do this would be to allow the heat of reaction to raise the reaction mixture to the boiling point and remove the product as a vapor, leaving the ferric chloride in the reactor. Unfortunately, if the reaction mixture is allowed to boil, there are two problems ... 

Rgure 10.6 The direct chlorination step of the vinyl chloride process using a boiling reactor eliminates the washing and neutralization steps and the resulting effluents. (From McNaughton, Chem. Engg., December 12, 1983, pp. 54-58 reproduced by permission.)... 

Additional separation and recycling. Once the possibilities for recycling streams directly, feed purification, and eliminating the use of extraneous materials for separation that cannot be recycled efiiciently have been exhausted, attention is turned to the fourth option, the degree of material recovery from the waste streams that are left. One very important point which should not be forgotten is that once the waste stream is rejected, any valuable material turns into a liability as an effluent material. The level of recovery in such situations needs careful consideration. It may be economical to carry out additional separation of the valuable material with a view to recycling that additional recovered material, particularly when the cost of downstream effluent treatment is taken into consideration. 

Figure 10.7 Effluent treatment costs should be included with raw materials costs when traded off against separation costs to obtain the optimal recovery. (From Smith and Petela, Chem. Eng., 513 24, 1991 reproduced by permission of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.)...

The best solution to effluent problems is not to produce the waste in the first place, i.e., waste minimization. If waste can be minimized at the source, this brings the dual benefit of reducing waste treatment costs and reducing raw materials costs. 

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