Fine chemical processes

From the foregoing it will be clear that in fine chemicals process development the strategy differs profoundly from that in the bulk chemical industry. The major steps are (i) adaptation of procedures to constraints imposed by the existing facilities with some necessary equipment additions, or (ii) choice of appropriate equipment and determination of procedures for a newly built plant, in such a way that procedures in both cases guarantee the profitable, competitive, and safe operation of a plant. 

In spite of all doubts, mathematical modelling in fine chemicals process development is strongly recommended. The following steps in mathematical modelling of chemical reactors can be distinguished ... 

Fine-chemical processes convert raw materials to higher-value materials with a total annual value much higher than the costs of a typical microprocessing plant and its engineering. To illustrate this, the example of... 

Heinzle, E., Weirich, D., Brogli, F., Hoffmann, V., Roller, G., Verduyn, M.A. and Hungerbuhler, K. (1998) Ecological and Economic Objective Functions for Screening in Integrated Development of Fine Chemical Processes. 1. Flexible and Expandable Framework Using... 

Atherton, J. H. (1993). "Methods for Study of Reaction Mechanisms in Liquid/Liquid and Liquid/Solid Reaction Systems and Their Relevance to the Development of Fine Chemical Processes." Trans. IChemE 71, Part A, (March), 111-18. 

The non-random two-liquid segment activity coefficient model is a recent development of Chen and Song at Aspen Technology, Inc., [1], It is derived from the polymer NRTL model of Chen [26], which in turn is developed from the original NRTL model of Renon and Prausznitz [27]. The NRTL-SAC model is proposed in support of pharmaceutical and fine chemicals process and product design, for the qualitative tasks of solvent selection and the first approximation of phase equilibrium behavior in vapour liquid and liquid systems, where dissolved or solid phase pharmaceutical solutes are present. The application of NRTL-SAC is demonstrated here with a case study on the active pharmaceutical intermediate Cimetidine, and the design of a suitable crystallization process. 

In particular, the appropriate integration of microbial, enzymatic and chemical catalytic transformations in a cascade mode may be seen as the ultimate tool for sustainable fine chemicals processing. In this respect, the increasing insight in the precise functioning of living cells as high-tech miniature factories will surely... 

Since the discovery of olefin metathesis by Banks and Bailey in the 1960s using alumina supported Mo(CO)6 [64] this reaction has become key in both petrochemical and fine chemical processes. While the petrochemical industry has relied for more than three decades on the Lummus process, employing WO3 supported... 

Copper-catalysts promoted with i) other group VIA or VIIIA metals and ii) alcaline or alcaline earth elements (IA or IIA) are used for selective hydrogenation of various organic compounds (1). Moreover Cu(Co) Zn-Al catalysts were extensively studied for the synthesis of methanol and of light alcohols (2,3). More recently, due to the development of fine chemical processes, detailed studies of copper catalysts were carried out in order to show, like for noble metals, the effect of supports (SMSI), of promoters and of activation-on metal dispersion or reduction, on alloy formation... For example modified copper catalysts are known for their utilization in the dehydrogenation of esters (4-6), in the hydrolysis of nitriles (7), in the selective hydrogenation of nitriles (8), in the amination of alcohols (9)... 

Introduction to Risk Analysis of Fine Chemical Processes... 

Risks linked with chemical processes are diverse. As already discussed, product risks include toxicity, flammability, explosion, corrosion, etc. but also include additional risks due to chemical reactivity. A process often uses conditions (temperature, pressure) that by themselves may present a risk and may lead to deviations that can generate critical effects. The plant equipment, including its control equipment, may also fail. Finally, since fine chemical processes are work-intensive, they may be subject to human error. All of these elements, that is, chemistry, energy, equipment, and operators and their interactions, constitute what we call process safety. 

For highly exothermic reactions the so-called HEX reactors present a very promising option. The basic common feature of all HEX reactors is much more favorable heat transfer conditions in comparison with conventional reactors (heat transfer coefficients typically 3500-7500 W/m2K, heat transfer areas up to 2200 m2/m3). A HEX reactor developed by BHR Group Ltd. (Figure 14) was able to decrease the by-product formation in one of ICI Acrylics processes by 75% (41) and to decrease the processing time in a Hickson Welch fine chemical process from 18 hours to 15 minutes, saving 98.6% of batch time (42). 

Among hybrid separations not involving membranes, adsorptive distillation (87) offers interesting advantages over conventional methods. In this technique a selective adsorbent is added to a distillation mixture. This increases separation ability and may present an attractive option in the separation of azeotropes or close-boiling components. Adsorptive distillation can be used, for instance, for the removal of trace impurities in the manufacturing of fine chemicals (it may allow for switching some fine chemical processes from batchwise to continuous operation). 

Ramshaw C. The desktop fine chemical process. TG Lustrum Congress 2000, Honey, I Shrunk the Plant, Delft, Nov 8-9, 2000. 

The conventional production consisted of many process steps, typical for a fine chemical process. These process steps are given in Figure 6. The selectivity of the enzyme is rather high. The downstream processing is rather laborious,... 

Oxidation of organic and inorganic species in aqueous solutions can find applications in fine chemical processes and wastewater treatment. Here, the oxidant, often either air or pure oxygen, must undergo all the mass transfer steps mentioned above in order for the reaction to proceed. During the last decade, increased environmental constraints have resulted in the application of novel processes to the treatment of waste streams. An example of such a process is wet air oxidation. Here, the simplest reactor design is the cocurrent bubble column. However, the presence of suspended organic and inert solids makes the use of monolith reactors favorable. 

ZSM-5 (Al-MFI) is used as a catalyst in petroleum refining, in the production of synthetic fuels, and in other petrochemical processes, whereas TS-1 (Ti-MFI) is applied as a catalyst in fine chemical processes. The orthorhombic MFI structure exhibits 12 crystallographically unique tetrahedral sites. Calculations have been carried out on substitution preferences using classical as well as quantum models. " In most studies 12 simulations were conducted, and in each run, one or more crystallographically equivalent sites of the subsequently crystallographically unique tetrahedral sites were substituted. Energy minimization and molecular dynamics techniques were employed to calculate... 

Stage 4. Product separation After the reactor(s) the products and byproducts are separated from any unreacted material. If in sufficient quantity, the unreacted material will be recycled to the reaction stage or to the feed purification and preparation stage. The byproducts may also be separated from the products at this stage. In fine chemical processes there are often multiple reaction steps, each followed by one or more separation steps. 

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