Process plant, capital costs

The best-established wood modification process is the Finnish ThermoWood process. One of the major factors in the snccess of this technology in the commercial arena is the relatively low capital expense of the eqnipment reqnired for processing. The capital cost of plant for fnrfnrylation is also relatively low compared to fuU chemical modification, and commercialization of this process is well developed. Other processes involving higher capital expenditure (such as acetylation and the Plato process) have seen rather more hesitant development. However, once these processes have been established for a few years and the capital costs are paid off, there wiU be a reduction in the price of the prodncts, leading to an increase in demand. 

Plant capital costs in the USA have been estimated at As8 million (USS5.1 million) for the single-pressure process and AS9.1 million (USS5.8 million) for the dual-pressure process. The AS1. I million higher cost of the dual-pressure process is accounted for by the larger vessels required at lower operating pressures. Estimates made for the two plants in European locations show a differential of AS0.8 million, also in favour of the single-pressure process. 

To adjust for the cost estimating having been done at around the time of the peak in the commodity bubble , three cost factors were considered. In mid-2008 the price of carbon steel plate as an index was up a factor of 1.7 from its average in 2005 to 2007. The price of nickel, which is reflected in the cost of stainless steel and might more accurately track the cost of the process plant capital... 

The Safer Piping module instructs the viewers that piping systems typically represent 30 percent of total plant capital costs and that property insurance statistics claim that 40 percent of all major process plant losses are due to piping failures. This is worth repeating 40 percent of all major process plant losses are due to piping failures. 

Example 1 Estimation of fixed-capital investment using ranges of process-plant component costs. Make a study estimate of the fixed-capital investment for a process plant if the purchased-equipment cost is 100,000. Use the ranges of process-plant component cost outlined in Table 4 for a process plant handling both solids and fluids with a high degree of automatic controls and essentially outdoor operation. 

Piping is a major item in the cost of chemical process plants. These costs in a fluid-process plant can run as high as 80 percent of the purchased equipment cost or 20 percent of the fixed-capital investment. There are essentially two basic methods for preparing piping-cost estimates-the percentage of installed equipment method and the material and labor take-off method. Several variations of each method have appeared in the literature. 

The process design and economics are closely related in electrodialysis. The total process costs are the sum of flxed charges associated with amortization of the plant capital costs and operating costs, such as energy and labour costs. Membrane replacement costs are sometimes regarded as a separate item because of their relatively short life of 5 to 7 years. 

Although electrolytic hydrogen is ideal for ammonia synthesis because of its purity it accounts for only 15 per cent of the ammonia produced by the direct synthetic ammonia process. The capital cost of a plant for the electrolysis is high, and except for a few especially favorable locations, electrical energy is more valuable for other industries. Although better results are claimed for certain cells, experience shows that the larger installations in this country have consumed... 

Select manufacturing process Provide required size and configuration Tooling and plant capital costs to be appropriate for number of pieces and rate of production Compatible with available plant and marketing plan Provides required structural properties and quality control... 

It can be seen that the plant capital cost is high for all the processes shown and the processing cost is generally about equal to the cost of raw coal. However, since all the processes are still in the development stage and the optimum operating conditions are unknown, the above cost estimates may change considerably in the future. 

Plant capital cost, million Processing cost, /metric ton Processing cost, /metric ton ... 

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) [17] - Ammonia is used as a reducing agent over a catalyst to convert the NOx gases to nitrogen. These processes can reduce the concentration of NO in tail gas to 100 ppmv and lower. Existing plants with medium-pressure absorption can be economically revamped using this process. The capital cost of the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) process to remove NO from a concentration of 500-200 ppmv would increase the capital costs of a dual-pressure nitric acid plant by 2% and operational costs by US 0.30/tonne of nitric acid. The SCR method needs ammonia for reduction of NOx- The following reactions occur in the process of selective reduction of NO ... 

The adoption of direct smelting methods is not dictated by energy savings but by other issues such as the reduction in the vast volumes of gas to be handled by the sinter-blast furnace process and the consequent reduction in plant capital cost. Elimination of the use of coke as a high cost reductant can be a key consideration. Environmental containment and occupational health issues are also a major factor in adoption of direct smelting methods. 

The one factor which militates against the CO2 process is capital cost. This is some 20-25% higher for a CO2 based plant than for an ethyl acetate plant... 

Anhydrous Acetic Acid. In the manufacture of acetic acid by direct oxidation of a petroleum-based feedstock, solvent extraction has been used to separate acetic acid [64-19-7] from the aqueous reaction Hquor containing significant quantities of formic and propionic acids. Isoamyl acetate [123-92-2] is used as solvent to extract nearly all the acetic acid, and some water, from the aqueous feed (236). The extract is then dehydrated by azeotropic distillation using isoamyl acetate as water entrainer (see DISTILLATION, AZEOTROPIC AND EXTRACTIVE). It is claimed that the extraction step in this process affords substantial savings in plant capital investment and operating cost (see Acetic acid and derivatives). A detailed description of various extraction processes is available (237). 

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