Product-line analysis

Stephenson, Z.R., de Souza, S., McDermid, J.A. Product Line Analysis and the System Safety Process. In 22nd International System Safety Conference (2004)... 

Stephenson Z, de Souza S, McDermid J (2004) Product line analysis and the system safety process. Proceedings of the International System Safety Conference... 

An extraction plant should operate at steady state in accordance with the flow-sheet design for the process. However, fluctuation in feed streams can cause changes in product quaUty unless a sophisticated system of feed-forward control is used (103). Upsets of operation caused by flooding in the column always force shutdowns. Therefore, interface control could be of utmost importance. The plant design should be based on (/) process control (qv) decisions made by trained technical personnel, (2) off-line analysis or limited on-line automatic analysis, and (J) control panels equipped with manual and automatic control for motor speed, flow, interface level, pressure, temperature, etc. 

The design objectives of the analyst and the production line engineer are generally quite different. For analysis the primary concern is typically resolution. Hence operating conditions near the minimum value of the HETP or the HTU are desirable (see Fig. 16-13). 

Some special requirements of continuous systems are (1) Metering the feed. A continuous system must be fed at a precise, uniform rate. (See Sec. 21.) (2) Dust collection. This is a necessary part of most diy-processing systems. Filters are available that can effectively remove dust down to 10 mg/m or less, and operate automatically. (Dust collection is covered in Sec. 17.) (3) Ondine analysis. For more precise operation, on-line analysis of product particle size and composition may be desirable. (4) Computer control. SiiTuilation can aid in optimizing system design and computer control. 

Application of rotating coiled columns has become attractive for preparative-scale separations of various substances from different samples (natural products, food and environmental samples) due to advantages over traditional liquid-liquid extraction methods and other chromatographic techniques. The studies mainly made during the last fifteen years have shown that using rotating coiled columns is also promising for analytical chemistry, particularly for the extraction, separation and pre-concentration of substances to be determined (analytes) before their on-line or off-line analysis by different determination techniques. 

Like XPS, the application of AES has been very widespread, particularly in the earlier years of its existence more recently, the technique has been applied increasingly to those problem areas that need the high spatial resolution that AES can provide and XPS, currently, cannot. Because data acquisition in AES is faster than in XPS, it is also employed widely in routine quality control by surface analysis of random samples from production lines of for example, integrated circuits. In the semiconductor industry, in particular, SIMS is a competing method. Note that AES and XPS on the one hand and SIMS/SNMS on the other, both in depth-profiling mode, are complementary, the former gaining signal from the sputter-modified surface and the latter from the flux of sputtered particles. 

For organic SEC separations the use of polystyrene/divinylbenzene (PS/ DVB) particles is almost universal throughout the industry. Polymer Laboratories PS/DVB material, PLgel, which is produced in a series of individual pore sizes, formed the basis for the original product line of SEC columns. Developments in the refinement of particle sizing introduced the benefits of smaller particle size and more efficient columns, which significantly reduced SEC analysis time through a reduction in the number of columns required for... 

As can be noted in Figure 21.7.2, steam and ediane are mi.xed before entering die reactor tubes where pyrolysis reacdons take place. All feed and product lines must be equipped with appropriate control devices to ensure safe operation. The FTA flow chart breaks down a TOP event (see descripdon of fault tree in Unit II) into all possible basic causes. Aldiough, diis mediod is more structured than a PHA, it addresses only one individual event at a dine. To use an FTA for a complete liazard analysis, all possible TOP events must be identified and investigated this would be extremely time consuming and perhaps urmecessary in a preliminary design. 

A successful program of quality control also involves maintenance of sanitary conditions and production of products free from adulteration, contamination, and filth. Methods given by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (1) should be applied to the finished product to ensure against seizure and prosecution by federal and state food and drug authorities. In many instances such methods of analysis are not adaptable to production-line control and less accurate but more rapid methods must be substituted. With such procedures, more severe tolerances must be used to provide a sufficient margin of safety. 

Statistical process control (SPC) is an important on-line method in real time by which a production process can be monitored and control plans can be initiated to keep quality standards within acceptable limits. Statistical quality control (SQC) provides off-line analysis of the big picture such as what was the impact of previous improvements. It is important to understand how SPC and SQC operate. 

Green chemistry also calls for design for biodegradable end products, principally, by employing chemicals from renewable sources, and dictates the use of real-time, on-line analysis for better process control. 

OS 87] [R 35] [P 67] Generally, on-line analysis allows one to determine product concentrations, giving proper conversion [72, 74], A limit is given by intermediates which also absorb in the same spectral range, also shifting the maximum of the absorption curve. It was assumed that the product pinacol does not contribute to the absorption, only the reactant and the intermediates. In addition, a delay arises between the end of irradiation and on-line analysis as the reaction mixture has to pass a conduit between the two locations. Hence the reaction proceeds further and this is dependent on the flow rate and residence time. 

It is desirable that the process variable to be monitored be measured directly often, however, this is impractical and some dependent variable, that is easier to measure, is monitored in its place. For example, in the control of distillation columns the continuous, on-line, analysis of the overhead product is desirable but difficult and expensive to achieve reliably, so temperature is often monitored as an indication of composition. The temperature instrument may form part of a control loop controlling, say, reflux flow with the composition of the overheads checked frequently by sampling and laboratory analysis. 

This non-destructive technique is a very suitable tool for rapid in-line analysis of inorganic additives in food products (Price and Major, 1990 Anon, 1995). It can be readily used by non-skilled operators, and dry materials can be pressed into a pellet or simply poured into a sample cup. The principles of this technique related to food analysis are described by Pomeranz and Meloan (1994). A useful Internet site is http //www.xraysite.com, which includes information about different XRF instruments from various companies. Wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF) or bench-top energy dispersive (ED-XRF) instruments are available. XRF is a comparative technique, thus a calibration curve needs to be established using food products of the same type as those to be... 

First and most importantly, real-time NIR monitoring enabled real-time control of the process. For a given product, the molecular weight and end-group balance in the prepolymer exiting the front end or melt part of the process must be controlled at specified levels in order for the back end or solid-phase part of the process to successfully produce the intended polymer composition. In addition, the variability in prepolymer composition must be controlled with very tight tolerances to keep the variation in final product composition within specification limits. Since the process dynamics in the front end were more rapid than those in conventional PET processes, the conventional analytical approach involving off-line analysis of samples obtained every 2-A hours was not sufficient to achieve the desired product quality. 

TG-FT-IR, Pyrolysis analyses were performed on the preliquefaction solids using thermogravimetric (TG) analysis with on-line analysis of the evolved products (including an infrared spectrum of the condensables) by FT-IR. The TG-FTIR method has been described previously (23-25). The Bomem TG/plus instrument was employed. A sample is continuously weighed while it is heated. A flow of helium sweeps the products into a multi-pass cell for FT-IR analysis. Quantitative analysis of up to 20 gas species is performed on line. Quantitation of the tar species is performed by comparison with the balance reading. 

The CLD methods for HPLC using isoluminol (190) with microperoxidase catalysis, for determination of lipid hydroperoxides in clinical fluids, have been reviewed. Determination of phospholipids hydroperoxides by luminol (124) CL has been reviewed . A fast RP-HPLC method (retention times 1 to 2 min) for determination of hydroperoxides and other peroxide compounds includes UVD, which is not always effective, and CLD, attained on injection of luminol (124), the CL reagent (Scheme 3), hemin (75a), a catalyst, and NaOH to raise the pH of the solution. A FLD cell may act as CLD cell if the excitation source is turned off. The selectivity of CLD is of advantage over UVD in industrial analysis thus, for example, UVD of a sample from a phenol production line based on cumene oxidation (equation 13) shows peaks for cumyl hydroperoxide (27), unreacted cumene, cumyl alcohol and acetophenone, whereas CLD shows only the 27 peak. The... 

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