From Planning to Production

Natural gas is the fuel of choice wherever it is available because of its clean burning and its competitive pricing as seen in Figure 1-30. Prices for Uranium, the fuel of nuclear power stations, and coal, the fuel of the steam power plants, have been stable over the years and have been the lowest. Environmental, safety concerns, high initial cost, and the long time from planning to production has hurt the nuclear and steam power industries. Whenever oil or natural gas is the fuel of choice, gas turbines and combined cycle plants are the power plant of choice as they convert the fuel into electricity very... 

Stoeppler M (2001b) From planning to production. In Stoeppler M, Wolf WR and Jenks PJ, eds. Reference materials for chemical analysis -certification, availability and proper usage, pp. 20-48 Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. 

As sketched out initially, simulation can be used at different points in time of a production system lifecycle and with a different scope (see Figure 2.1). Considering the lifecycle and the scope, the three case studies described in this section may be classified differently, from supply chain to plant level and from planning to daily operation. 

Planning steps and reaction mechanisms of forward reactions (from educts to products) as well as of retroreactions (from target compound through intermediates to educts) can be performed by PEGAS The examples contain ... 

Isolation and purification of reaction products Despite recent advances in methodologies for the synthesis of very complex molecules, one important aspect of synthesis has not changed much over the past decades isolation and purification. A recent excellent review entitled Strategy-Level Separations in Organic Synthesis From Planning to Practice discusses various techniques for the separation of reaction mixtures. The yield and hence the utility of every reaction is limited by the ability to separate and recover the reaction product from other materials. 

Plan From each equation, we see whether heat is a product (exothermic AH < 0) or a reactant (endothermic AH > 0). For exothermic reactions, reactants are above products on the enthalpy diagram for endothermic reactions, reactants are below products. The AH arrow always points from reactants to products. 

Modeling of virtual products includes all phases of the product life cycle, from product planning to product disposal. The aim is complete integration of aU the development processes for efficient... 

Carbonate rocks are more frequently fractured than sandstones. In many cases open fractures in carbonate reservoirs provide high porosity / high permeability path ways for hydrocarbon production. The fractures will be continuously re-charged from the tight (low permeable) rock matrix. During field development, wells need to be planned to intersect as many natural fractures as possible, e.g. by drilling horizontal wells. 

Sodium Hydroxide. Before World War 1, nearly all sodium hydroxide [1310-93-2], NaOH, was produced by the reaction of soda ash and lime. The subsequent rapid development of electrolytic production processes, resulting from growing demand for chlorine, effectively shut down the old lime—soda plants except in Eastern Europe, the USSR, India, and China. Recent changes in chlorine consumption have reduced demand, putting pressure on the price and availabiHty of caustic soda (NaOH). Because this trend is expected to continue, there is renewed interest in the lime—soda production process. EMC operates a 50,000 t/yr caustic soda plant that uses this technology at Green River it came onstream in mid-1990. Other U.S. soda ash producers have aimounced plans to constmct similar plants (1,5). 

At least in the short term, European production is expected to be impacted by two trends the move away from planned economics in the East should lead to more rapid demand growth and the phaseout of CPCs, including, in Europe, aerosols (qv), should lead to overcapacity in the West. This excess capacity in western Europe could be used to supply the East. 

Because most fuel ethanol manufactured ia the United States is made from com, price plays a cmcial role ia determining the competitive position of ethanol ia an open market. With com priced at about 2.50/bu, the embedded feedstock cost of product ethanol is about 0.14—0.23/L ( 0.52—0.87 gal), depending on over-all yield and by-products ignored (125). Euel ethanol plants may have contingency plans to close if com prices rise to a certain level, eg, 3.50/bu or above (126). 

Prior to the discovery of plentihil suppHes of natural gas, and depending on the definition of the resources (1), there were plans to accommodate any shortfalls in gas supply from soHd fossil fuels and from gaseous resources by the conversion of hydrocarbon (petroleum) Hquids to lower molecular weight gaseous products. 

Indium prices vary by purity level according to the number of mines. For 99.97 or 99.99% pure indium Meta/Bu//etm magazine s free-market prices ranged from 160 to 190/kg in 1993. Prices have trended downward since 1988. This, coupled with the fact that consumption increased during this period, is evidence that supply is ahead of demand. The most notable production increases have occurred at Indium Corp. of America, Nippon Mining Co. Ltd., Cominco Ltd., and Metaleurop S.A. The largest increase was made by Indium Corp. A 30-t increase was announced in 1988 in 1993 Indium Corp. announced plans to increase production by another 30 t to be phased in with demand, bringing the company s actual and planned increases to 60 metric tons over the 1988 level. 

Transuranic Waste. Transuranic wastes (TRU) contain significant amounts (>3,700 Bq/g (100 nCi/g)) of plutonium. These wastes have accumulated from nuclear weapons production at sites such as Rocky Flats, Colorado. Experimental test of TRU disposal is planned for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The geologic medium is rock salt, which has the abiUty to flow under pressure around waste containers, thus sealing them from water. Studies center on the stabiUty of stmctures and effects of small amounts of water within the repository. 

Phase 4 - Production Planning. The critical process operations from Phase 3 are ranked with production requirement issues, ultimately translating the important customer requirements to production planning and establishing important actions to be taken. 

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