Energy intensive equipment

Basically, process intensification aims at replacing large, expensive, energy-intensive equipments or processes with ones that are smaller, cheaper and more efficient. At the same time, they have to minimize environmental impact, increase safety, improve remote control and automation and ensure a better product quality. 

Although the manufacturing sector continued its decline in the production of energy-intensive products, between 1986 and 1997 the service sector continued to grow. Not only did the commercial building stock increase, but the use of office equipment—from computers to copy machines—has grown rapidly. In just three years, between 1992 and 1995, the number of personal computers and computer terminals m commercial buildings increased from 29.8 million to 43 million (45%). 

Most of the impact is created by providing the materials contained in the product. This includes production of waste and consumption of energy in producing the raw materials. Typical high impact materials would include rare metals, natural extracts such as perfume ingredients, and energy intensive materials such as bricks and concrete. Electronic and electrical equipment are typical of products in this category. 

The overriding consideration in the selection of drying equipment is the nature and concentration of the feed. Drying is an energy-intensive process, and the removal of liquid by thermal drying will be more costly than by mechanical separation techniques. 

Such improvements could for instance be looked for in the handling and pretreatment of solid feedstock, which require heavy and energy consuming equipment. Purification of the product can also be capital intensive. For instance, hydrolysis and fermentation technologies often result in a product that is highly diluted in water and requires expensive recovery by distillation or extraction. 

Crowley and Martini [48] reported on several studies evaluating the impact of unit process operations on hydrates. AU showed some level of dehydration liberating freed crystalline water to participate in moisture-mediated reactions. The authors speculated that such energetic processing conditions are likely to have a similar affect on hydrated excipients with a potential deleterious effect on moismre-sensitive APIs. They commented that classical excipient compatibility studies were ill-equipped to predict such moismre-mediated interactions and that compression, attrition and other energy-intensive unit operations were rarely mentioned as requiring investigations. 

Two of the process steps require cryogenic temperatures (<-70 °C), necessitating specialized equipment and energy-intensive cooling. Furthermore, three other steps require cooling to —30 to 0 °C. 

In situ thermal treatment — In situ thermal treatment allows pollutants to be treated without being excavated and transported. Thermal treatment requires a shorter clean-up time however, high costs are usually associated with the amount of energy and equipment required. For example, enhanced soil vapor extraction is usually an energy-intensive process. 

CMCs are used in the manufacture of preheaters and recuperators in heat recovery equipment. They are used for indirect heating and energy-intensive industrial internal processes such as glass melters, steel reheaters and aluminium remelters. 

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