Process results, mixing

Process results, mixing, 316, 323, 324 Process safely, 399 Properties of gases/vapors, 439 Pumping of liquids, l60 Pumps centrifugal, 161-164 ANSI Standards, 161 Bearings, 168... 

Mona.Zlte, The commercial digestion process for m on a site uses caustic soda. The phosphate content of the ore is recovered as marketable trisodium phosphate and the rare earths as RE hydroxide (10). The usual industrial practice is to attack finely ground m on a site using a 50% sodium hydroxide solution at 150°C or a 70% sodium hydroxide solution at 180°C. The resultant mixed rare-earth and thorium hydroxide cake is dissolved in hydrochloric or nitric acid, then processed to remove thorium and other nonrare-earth elements, and processed to recover the individual rare earths (see... 

In batch operations, mixing takes place until a desired composition or concentration of chemical products or solids/crystals is achieved. For continuous operation, the feed, intermediate, and exit streams will not necessarily be of the same composition, but the objective is for the end/exit stream to be of constant composition as a result of the blending, mixing, chemical reaction, solids suspension, gas dispension, or other operations of the process. Perfect mixing is rarely totally achieved, but represents the instantaneous conversion of the feed to the final bulk and exit composition (see Figure 5-26). 

Scale-up techniques for using the results of pilot plant or bench scale test w ork to establish the equivalent process results for a commercial or large scale plant mixing system design require careful specialized considerations and usually are best handled by the mixer manufacturer s specialist. The methods to accomplish scale-up will vary considerably, depending on whether the actual operation is one of blending, chemical reaction tvith product concentrations, gas dispersions, heat transfer, solids suspensions, or others. 

Because the most common impeller type is the turbine, most scale-up published studies have been devoted to that unit. Almost all scale-up situations require duplication of process results from the initial scale to the second scaled unit. Therefore, this is the objective of the outline to follow, from Reference [32]. The dynamic response is used as a reference for agitation/mixer behavior for a defined set of process results. For turbulent mixing, kinematic similarity occurs with geometric similarity, meaning fixed ratios exist between corresponding velocities. 

Test data should be planned by know ledgeable specialists in order to obtain the range, accuracy, and scope of needed data to achieve a pre-established mixing process result... 

Figure 5-30. Effect of power on process result with constant D/T ratio. By permission. Fluid Mixing, Lightnin (formerly Mixing Equipment Co.), a unit of General Signal.

WTien heat transfer occurs in the presence of suspended solid particles, the chemical reacdon may require mass transfer, etc. However, the mixing part of the operation must be designed to accomplish the process results, which may be those named above (and others) plus the required heat transfer affecting the outside film coefficient, hg, across/around any coils, flat surfaces, or wall jackets. 

Chemical engineers could also work to devise processes to improve the flow characteristics of powders after they are formed. Such research would help control agglomeration of particles in subsequent processing steps as well as facilitate the production of compacted ceramic preforms. For example, gas-solid chemical reactions might be used to tailor the chemical composition of powders. As another example, better methods of componnding powders with binders might be achieved by processes that mix powders with suitable binders in a liquid and then spray dry the resulting suspension. 

The solution to this problem has been to isolate the lactide and to polymerize this directly using a tin(ii) 2-(ethyl)hexanoate catalyst at temperatures between 140 and 160 °C. By controlling the amounts of water and lactic acid in the polymerization reactor the molecular weight of the polymer can be controlled. Since lactic acid exists as d and L-optical isomers, three lactides are produced, d, l and meso (Scheme 6.11). The properties of the final polymer do not depend simply on the molecular weight but vary significantly with the optical ratios of the lactides used. In order to get specific polymers for medical use the crude lactide mix is extensively recrystallized, to remove the meso isomer leaving the required D, L mix. This recrystallization process results in considerable waste, with only a small fraction of the lactide produced being used in the final polymerization step. Hence PLA has been too costly to use as a commodity polymer. 

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