Process intensification benefits

PROCESS INTENSIFICATION BENEFITS FOR PASSIVE AND ACTIVE LAYERS OF PROTECTION... 

Whiting, M. J. L. (1992). The Benefits of Process Intensification for Caro s Acid Production. Trans. IChemE 70 (March), 195-96. 

Phillips of the BHR Group, UK, provides a compact definition of process intensification, saying it is ... a design philosophy whereby the fluid dynamics in a process are matched to its chemical, biological and/or physical requirements,. .. [27]. In this way, significant benefits are gained, those listed above. 

The use of multiple otherwise incompatible catalysts allows multistep reactions to proceed in one reaction vessel, providing many potential benefits. In this chapter, literature examples of nanoencapsulation for the purpose of process intensification have been discussed comprehensively. Current efforts in the literature are mostly concentrated in the areas of LbL template-based nanoencapsulation and sol-gel immobilization. Other cascade reactions (without the use of nanoencapsulation) that allow the use of incompatible catalysts were also examined and showcased as potential targets for nanoencapsulation approaches. Finally, different methods for nanoencapsulation were investigated, thereby suggesting potential ways forward for cascade reactions that use incompatible catalysts, solvent systems, or simply incompatible reaction conditions. 

Heat transfer has been identified by Rlay 13 as an important area in which process intensification is expected to offer major benefits in terms of energy efficiency, pollution control and plant operating costs. So-called passive techniques including modifying the walls of a plant unit, for example, are routinely used to improve heat transfer coefficients in... 

The concept of process intensification does not need to apply to the whole of an API production process. There is merit in looking at hybrid reaction schemes, which retain the benefits of, or capital investment in, batch equipment but use continuous processes for the generation of hazardous intermediates [17] or for certain unit processes. Of these, hydrogenation [18], filtration [19], phase separation [20], crystallisation [21] and drying [22] are good examples. 

Figure 4 Main benefits from process intensification.

Process intensification can bring many benefits regarding business, legislative, and environmental aspects and is therefore very worthwhile to be implemented. 

The intensification of chemical processes can help reduce the risks of chemical processing and lower the energy demand and waste production. These positive possibilities, which are evidently also linked to the business aspects, have contributed to the growing use of process intensification. This is also expressed in the paper of Elverding (2) at the Defacto conference on Profit, Planet, and People in combination with process intensification, reflecting the benefits for business and environment. 

Many different aspects relating to business, legislation, and environment can be defined. These are given in Table 1. In this important table one can find many of the benefits of process intensification summed up. All of these aspects in the end have to do with business, legislation, or the environment and show how process intensification can have a strong positive influence on these three main drivers and answers the question of why one would one choose to intensify a process. 

The objective of the Process Intensification (PI) Cluster is to promote PI and its benefits to a wide industrial audience by ... 

Whiting MJL. The benefits of process intensification for Caro s acid production. Trans IChemE 1992 70(March) 195-196. 

Minimize Significantly reduce the quantity of hazardous material or energy in the system, or eliminate the hazard entirely if possible. It is necessary to use small quantities of hazardous substances or energy in (i) storage, (ii) intermediate storage, (iii) piping and (iv) process equipment, as discussed in the previous sections. The benefits are to reduce the consequence of incident (explosion, fire, toxic material release), and improve the effectiveness and feasibility of other protective systems (e.g. secondary containment, reactor dump or quench systems). Process intensification (see below) is also a way to reach this objective. 

Miniaturization in biocatalysis and fermentation is another necessary step. This will allow continuous processes with the benefits that could derive in terms of process intensification and reduction of waste. Miniature (less than 10 mL) stirred reactors and microtiter plates (MTP) have been introduced mainly with the idea of allowing high-throughput screening to speed up bioprocess development, even though they are available now also for production uses [172-174]. Notably, problems emerge with these miniature bioreactors (MBRs), such as evaporation and surface tension, which determine the performances, but which are masked in larger bioreactors. 

Figure 3.3 PI provides radically innovative principles in process and equipment design that can benefit process and chain efficiency, capital and operating expenses, quality, wastes, process safety and more, and align perfectly with the Triple-P philosophy of sustainable industrial chemistry. Source adapted from EU Roadmap for Process Intensification (www.creative-energy.org).

Chapter 3 gives an overview of the possibilities offered by new equipment for process intensification, including microdevices. Membranes - also a key tool to achieving sustainable development through process intensification - are covered in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 is dedicated to techno-economic aspects, and more specifically to the accounting for chemical sustainability, because sustainability requires the capability to assess different alternatives and to account for the effective global impact and benefits of the adoption of new solutions. 

Process intensification is one of the chemical engineering solutions to clean technology. The main benefits are often lower energy uses, lower capital costs and increased throughput from a smaller plant derived from different engineering conceptual designs. The next generation of plants will be smaller, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly to run. 

In many cases where mass transfer occurs between a liquid and a vapor, micro technology offers the advantage of process intensification through control of the liquid phase thickness. This intensification often occurs because the diffusivity is typically orders of magnitude lower in the liquid phase than in the gas phase hence, control of the liquid thickness decreases the primary impedance to mass transfer. This control benefits operations such as absorption and desorption, and processes based on these phenomena. 

Monographs, and review and recent papers on various aspects of Process Intensification are listed below for the benefit of readers new to this area. 

Membrane reactor technology is certainly a promising process intensification solution which should lead to crucial benefits toward a more efficient steam reforming process conduction. 

Micro-technology is an important area in process intensification, which offers numerous potential benefits for the process industries. The pressing demands for sustainable, efficient, and safer flow processes make micro-fluidic devices an... 

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