Mixing unit operation

Saturated steam at 1 atm is discharged from a turbine at a rate of 1150 kg/h. Superheated steam at 300 C and 1 atm is needed as a feed to a heat exchanger to produce it, the turbine discharge stream is mixed with superheated steam available from a second source at 400°C and 1 atm. The mixing unit operates adiabatically. Calculate the amount of superheated steam at SOO C produced and the required volumetric flow rate of the 400 0 steam. 

There have been contradictory results reported in the literature, however, regarding the influence of fluid elasticity on the mixing unit operation [49-52], Further research is apparently required to define adequately the influence of viscoelasticity on mixing in agitated vessels, for a broad range of fluid properties and mixer configurations. 

For a comprehensive overview of the mixing unit operation, for both structured and unstructured fluids, various references are available describing the specific requirements for the design and specification of complete mixing systems [57-79]. 

In-line static mixing units operate by a redistributive mixing action when used for laminar blending operations. As discussed in section 11.4 this mechanism is essentially independent of flow rate and rheology. However, for dispersion duties it is the stress field which is important and here both flow rate and viscous properties will be critical. Further consideration of these mixing devices is given in Chapter 12. 

Hydrothermal Synthesis Systems. Of the unit operations depicted in Figure 1, the pressurized sections from reactor inlet to pressure letdown ate key to hydrothermal process design. In consideration of scale-up of a hydrothermal process for high performance materials, several criteria must be considered. First, the mode of operation, which can be either continuous, semicontinuous, or batch, must be determined. Factors to consider ate the operating conditions, the manufacturing demand, the composition of the product mix (single or multiple products), the amount of waste that can be tolerated, and the materials of constmction requirements. Criteria for the selection of hydrothermal reactor design maybe summarized as... 

Fluid mixing is a unit operation carried out to homogenize fluids in terms of concentration of components, physical properties, and temperature, and create dispersions of mutually insoluble phases. It is frequently encountered in the process industry using various physical operations and mass-transfer/reaction systems (Table 1). These industries include petroleum (qv), chemical, food, pharmaceutical, paper (qv), and mining. The fundamental mechanism of this most common industrial operation involves physical movement of material between various parts of the whole mass (see Supplement). This is achieved by transmitting mechanical energy to force the fluid motion. 

Tanks are used in innumerable ways in the chemical process iadustry, not only to store every conceivable Hquid, vapor, or soHd, but also ia a number of processiag appHcations. For example, as weU as reactors, tanks have served as the vessels for various unit operations such as settling, mixing, crystallisation (qv), phase separation, and heat exchange. Hereia the main focus is on the use of tanks as Hquid storage vessels. The principles outlined, however, can generally be appHed to tanks ia other appHcations as weU as to other pressure-containing equipment. 

It is likely that there will always be a distinction between the way CAD/CAM is used in mechanical design and the way it is used in the chemical process industry. Most of the computations requited in mechanical design involve systems of linear or lineatizable equations, usually describing forces and positions. The calculations requited to model molecular motion or to describe the sequence of unit operations in a process flow sheet are often highly nonlinear and involve systems of mixed forms of equations. Since the natures of the computational problems are quite different, it is most likely that graphic techniques will continue to be used more to display results than to create them. 

Ordinary diffusion involves molecular mixing caused by the random motion of molecules. It is much more pronounced in gases and Hquids than in soHds. The effects of diffusion in fluids are also greatly affected by convection or turbulence. These phenomena are involved in mass-transfer processes, and therefore in separation processes (see Mass transfer Separation systems synthesis). In chemical engineering, the term diffusional unit operations normally refers to the separation processes in which mass is transferred from one phase to another, often across a fluid interface, and in which diffusion is considered to be the rate-controlling mechanism. Thus, the standard unit operations such as distillation (qv), drying (qv), and the sorption processes, as well as the less conventional separation processes, are usually classified under this heading (see Absorption Adsorption Adsorption, gas separation Adsorption, liquid separation). 

The first commercial fluidized bed polyeth)4eue plant was constructed by Union Carbide in 1968. Modern units operate at 100°C and 32 MPa (300 psig). The bed is fluidized with ethylene at about 0.5 m/s and probably operates near the turbulent fluidization regime. The excellent mixing provided by the fluidized bed is necessary to prevent hot spots, since the unit is operated near the melting point of the product. A model of the reactor (Fig. 17-25) that coupes Iduetics to the hydrodynamics was given by Choi and Ray, Chem. Eng. ScL, 40, 2261, 1985. 

Mixing of sohds is an important unit operation in the production of solids with consistent properties. A number of properties of the solid particles influence the mixing process, the design, and selection of mixing equipment. The second subsection elaborates on the theoiy of mixing, types of mixing equipment, and their operation. 

Figure 7-16. Mixing times in agitated vesseis. Dashed iines represent unbaffied tanks soiid iines represents a baffied tank. (Source McCabe, N. L., et a ., Unit Operations of Chemicai Engineering, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1985.)...

The SIMULAR, developed by Hazard Evaluation Laboratory Ltd., is a chemical reactor control and data acquisition system. It can also perform calorimetry measurements and be employed to investigate chemical reaction and unit operations such as mixing, blending, crystallization, and distillation. Ligure 12-24 shows a schematic detail of the SIMULAR, and Ligure 12-25 illustrates the SIMULAR reaction calorimeter with computer controlled solids addition. 

The scale-up criterion that is probably most widely used for mixing-limited unit operations is based on constant power input per unit volume according to (Harnby etal., 1992). 

Within the chemical industry, micro-organisms and enzymes are often used as catalysts. It is possible for a unit operation in an essentially chemical production process to be a biochemically catalysed step giving rise to a mixed chemical/biochemical production process. The products of these reactions include organic chemicals, solvents, polymers, pharmaceuticals, and purfumes. Mixed chemical/biochemical production processes are continuously innovated and optimised, mainly for economical reasons. 

Consider the flowshop in Fig. 2. The unit operations being performed are mixing, reaction, distillation, cooling, and filtration. We have made the following assumptions about the way the flowshop operates ... 

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