Petrochemical Processing economics

A. Chauvel and co-workers. Manual of Economic Analysis of Chemical Processes Feasibility Studies in Eefining and Petrochemical Processes, McGraw-Hid Book Co., Inc., New York, 1980. 

Heat transfer is perhaps the most important, as well as the most applied process, in chemical and petrochemical plants. Economics of plant operation often are controlled hy the effectiveness of the use and recovery of heat or cold (refrigeration). The service functions of steam, power, refrigeration supply, and the like are dictated hy how these services or utilities are used within the process to produce an efficient conversion and recovery of heat. 

Use it as a primer in petrochemical economics. Many of the chapters have material balances, and a number of the exercises deal with product or process economics. 

The chemical industry typically involves much more high technology but smaller reactors because one usually desires to produce a single molecule as an intermediate to make a particular product. These molecules usually can be sold for a much greater price than gasoline so the extra value added in the petrochemical processing industry justifies the increased sophistication and cost of these reactors. The costs of separating the desired product from reactants and undesired products can dominate the economics of petrochemical processes. 

Acetaldehyde. The industrial production of acetaldehyde by the hydration of acetylene has lost its importance with the introduction of more economical petrochemical processes (dehydrogenation of ethanol, oxidation of ethylene see Section 9.5.2). At present it is practiced only in a few European countries where relatively cheap acetylene is still available.86-88... 

Although ASPEN-Plus is widely used to simulate petrochemical processes, its uses for modeling biomass processes are limited owing to the limited availability of physical properties that best describe biomass components such as cellulose, xylan, and lignin. For example, Lynd et al. (1) used conventional methods to calculate the economic viability of a biom-ass-to-ethanol process. However, with the development by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of an ASPEN-Plus physical property database for biofuels components, modified versions of ASPEN-Plus software can now be used to model biomass processes (2). Wooley et al. (3) used ASPEN-Plus simulation software to calculate equipment and energy costs for an entire biomass-to-ethanol process that made use of dilute-H2S04 acid pretreatment. 

Technical solutions to produce hydrogen using nuclear energy and electrolysis will then be described. We mill describe the relevant characteristics of alkaline electrolyser technology. Using results of nuclear-aided petrochemical processes technico-economic studies, we mill show that synthetic fuels are accessible at reasonable costs. 

HP s Petrochemical Processes 2005 handbooks are inclusive catalogs of established and emerging licensed technologies that can be applied to existing and grassroots facilities. Economic stresses drive efforts to conserve energy, minimize waste, improve product qualities and, most important, increase yields and create new products. 

To be capable of making a valid choice among the various alternatives, or to compile a classification in terms of overall flow sheets or operating sequences, if several processes are in competition, petrochemical process evaluation must be supplemented by an economic study. 

R. E. Maples, Petroleum Refinery Process Economics , PennWell, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1993 J. H. Gary and G. E. Handwerk, Petroleum Refining - Technology and Economics , 4 Edition, Marcel Dekker, 2001 and Petrochemical Processes 2005 , Hydrocarbon Processing, CD ROM, p. 32-37... 

A technical and economic appraisal of petrochemicals spans several large subject areas petroleum and oil industry economics, petrochemical refining and applied chemistry, chemical engineering and process economics. Unfortunately these distinct fields carry their own units. The petroleum industry generally uses American units based on standards defined at 60° Fahrenheit and are generally the units used in the US chemicals industry. Most chemists and academic engineers use... 

Note, however, that liquid acids are still largely used in refinery and petrochemical processes. For example, HF alkylation (for isobutane alkylation with light olefins) is still among the top-ten refining processes licensed by UOP, with over 100 units installed worldwide. However, UOP introduced from 2002 the Alkylene process, which uses a liquid phase riser reactor with a solid acid catalyst for the isobutane alkylation. However, HF alkylation remains the best economic choice [223], notwithstanding environmental and corrosion problems. Also in this case, the conventional process has been improved, for example by HF aerosol vapor suppression. Other aspects of isobutane alkylation have been reviewed by Hommeltoft [224]. 

Chemical Market Associates, Inc. (CMAI), Houston, TX. Provides market intelligence with such information as worldwide capacities, production prices, and process economics of various petrochemicals in either single-or multiclient studies. Multiclient studies are available to subscribers. 

Although these technologies are associated with the held of inorganic chemistry and consequently have no theoretical link with petrochemical processes, it appeared to be indispensable to discuss briefly the technical and economic problems of chlorine manufacture in connection with the production of vinyl chloride. In fact, any complex of even average size, which considers this outlet for ethylene, must include chlorine-producing facilities, if only because of storage and transport problems. 

ChauveL A. Leprince, P, BartheL Y, RaimbaulL C. Ariie, J. P Manual if Economic Analysis of Chemical Processes, Feasibility Studies in Refinery and Petrochemical Processes, McGraw Hill Inc, New York (1981) Boyd, N., Cose and price indices Engineering Costs and Production Economics, 8 (1,2) 3-14 (1984)... 

Hydrt en sulfide, H2S, is sometimes contained in natural gas with a fraction up to 25 % or is a byproduct of various petrochemical processes and is usually considered a waste gas. The widely used treatment of H2S according to the Claus process only allows for sulfur production plus it leaves waste in the form of SO and polluted water. Therefore H2S is projected to gain economic importance if decomposed in a waste-free process to hydrogen and sulfur. Achievable hydrogen from this resource is estimated to amount to 1 million tons per year [12]. The endothermal reaction... 

It was shown how industrial waste like surplus whey, crude glycerol phase, lignocellu-loses, molasses and residues from the slaughtering and biodiesel industry can be upgraded to substrates for biopolymer production. Applying such waste streams as carbon source can be regarded as the most promising route to make the entire PHA biopolymer production process economically competitive this is valid for bulk plastics made of petrochemical competitors as well as for special polymers currently used for niche products. 

Dr. Derek Bew Formerly of ICI Petrochemicals Plastics Division, Wilton Derek Bew obtained his M.Sc. in 1951 and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1954. He then joined Id s Billingham Division and spent periods in Research and Market Development, Process Development and Plant Management and then in Project Management in the Technical Department. There followed an extended period in the Research and Technology Department working on Process Economics and Evaluation. Derek retired from ICI in 1990. 

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