Production flowsheet

In practice, the production of vanadium by aluminothermic reduction is also governed by some other considerations. The reduction has to be carried out under an inert atmosphere (helium or argon) to avoid nitrogen pick-up from the air by vanadium metal. The composition of the oxide-aluminum charge has to be so chosen that the thermit (metal obtained by aluminothermic reduction) contains between 11 and 19% aluminum. This is necessary for the subsequent refining step in the vanadium metal production flowsheet. Pure vanadium pentoxide and pure aluminum are used as the starting materials, and the reduction is conducted in a closed steel bomb as shown in Figure 4.17 (C). 

Figure 1.2. Nitrogen production flowsheet in a cryogenic separation plant.

Fig. 23.1. Simplified single contact sulfuric acid production flowsheet. Its inputs are moist feed gas and water. Its outputs are 98 mass% H2S04, 2 mass% H20 sulfuric acid and dilute S02, 02, N2 gas. The acid output combines gas dehydration tower acid, H2S04 making tower acid and liquid water. The equivalent sulfur burning acid plant sends moist air (rather than moist feed gas) to dehydration. Appendix V gives an example sulfur burning calculation.

Figure 10.1-8. Adenoviral vector production flowsheet showing the cell culture and virus propagation section (implemented with the process simulator software SuperPro Designer [Intelligen, Inc., Scotch Plains, NJ]).

The p-gal production flowsheet can be divided into three sections. (1) Fermentation, where E. coli cells are used to produce the P-gal through a fermentation process. The fermentation process consists of four operations charge, reaction, discharge, and clean. 

At South Africa s National Chemical Products, the production flowsheet showed the following main pathways ... 

Once the flowsheet structure has been defined, a simulation of the process can be carried out. A simulation is a mathematical model of the process which attempts to predict how the process would behave if it was constructed (see Fig. 1.1b). Having created a model of the process, we assume the flow rates, compositions, temperatures, and pressures of the feeds. The simulation model then predicts the flow rates, compositions, temperatures, and pressures of the products. It also allows the individual items of equipment in the process to be sized and predicts how much raw material is being used, how much energy is being consumed, etc. The performance of the design can then be evaluated. 

The secondary reactions are parallel with respect to ethylene oxide but series with respect to monoethanolamine. Monoethanolamine is more valuable than both the di- and triethanolamine. As a first step in the flowsheet synthesis, make an initial choice of reactor which will maximize the production of monoethanolamine relative to di- and triethanolamine. 

Where possible, introducing extraneous materials into the process should be avoided, and a material already present in the process should be used. Figure 4.6h illustrates use of the product as the heat carrier. This simplifies the recycle structure of the flowsheet and removes the need for one of the separators (see Fig. 4.66). Use of the product as a heat carrier is obviously restricted to situations where the product does not undergo secondary reactions to unwanted byproducts. Note that the unconverted feed which is recycled also acts as a heat carrier itself. Thus, rather than relying on recycled product to limit the temperature rise (or fall), simply opt for a low conversion, a high recycle of feed, and a resulting small temperature change. 

Figure 4.8 A flowsheet for the production of benzene uses a purge to remove the methane, which enters as a feed impurity and also is formed as a byproduct.

Figure 4.16 Final flowsheet for the production of butadiene sulfone in a batch process.

Consider again the simple process shown in Fig. 4.4d in which FEED is reacted to PRODUCT. If the process usbs a distillation column as separator, there is a tradeofi" between refiux ratio and the number of plates if the feed and products to the distillation column are fixed, as discussed in Chap. 3 (Fig. 3.7). This, of course, assumes that the reboiler and/or condenser are not heat integrated. If the reboiler and/or condenser are heat integrated, the, tradeoff is quite different from that shown in Fig. 3.7, but we shall return to this point later in Chap. 14. The important thing to note for now is that if the reboiler and condenser are using external utilities, then the tradeoff between reflux ratio and the number of plates does not affect other operations in the flowsheet. It is a local tradeoff. 

Figure 10.3 Outline flowsheet for the production of isopropyl alcohol by direct hydration of propylene. (From Smith and Petela, Chem. Eng., 513 24, 1991 reproduced by permission of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.)...

With the introduction of new antipollution standards as well as limitations envisaged for the chemical composition of finished products, current refining flowsheets and especially those beyond the year 2000 will have to adapt to the new specifications using new processes. 

Fi ire 8.7 Simplified flowsheet for viscose rayon production (from El-Halwagi and Srinivas, Synthesis of reactive mass-exchange networks, Chem. Eng. Set., 47(8), p. 2116, Copyright 1992, with kind permission from Elsevier Science Ltd., The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington 0X5 1GB, UK). 

Batch versus continuous Flowsheet input-output structure Crystallizer and recycle considerations Separation systems specification Product drying Energy systems... 

Chemical engineering performance design for specific items of equipment required for a flowsheet, and mechanical interpretation of this to a practical and reasonable specification. Here the process requirements are converted into hardware details to accomplish the process end results at each step in the product production process. 

The process engineer identifies heat exchange equipment in a process by the operation or function it serves at a particular location in the flow cycle. For example, the bottom vaporizer on a product finishing distillation column is usually termed Finishing Column ReboUer E-16, or Reboiler E-16 the overhead vapor condenser on this column is termed Condenser E-17 etc. The usual operations involved in developing a process flowsheet are described in Table 10-11, or Chapter 1, Volume 1. 

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