Recycle process

Processes in which a flow stream is returned (recycled) to an earlier stage in the processing sequence are frequently used. If the conversion of a valuable reagent in a reaction process is appreciably less than 100 per cent, the unreacted material is usually separated and recycled. The return of reflux to the top of a distillation column is an example of a recycle process in which there is no reaction. 

In mass balance calculations the presence of recycle streams makes the calculations more difficult. 

Without recycle, the material balances on a series of processing steps can be carried out sequentially, taking each unit in turn the calculated flows out of one unit become the feeds to the next. If a recycle stream is present, then at the point where the recycle is returned the flow will not be known as it will depend on downstream flows not yet calculated. Without knowing the recycle flow, the sequence of calculations cannot be continued to the point where the recycle flow can be determined. 

The cut and try method. The recycle stream flows can be estimated and the calculations continued to the point where the recycle is calculated. The estimated flows are then compared with the calculated and a better estimate made. The procedure is continued until the difference between the estimated and the calculated flows is within acceptable limits. 

The formal, algebraic, method. The presence of recycle implies that some of the mass balance equations will have to be solved simultaneously. The equations are set up with the recycle flows as unknowns and solved using standard methods for the solution of simultaneous equations. 

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Polymer recycling process costs for various operations are summarized in Table 6. 

The stripper off-gas going to the high pressure carbamate condensers also contains the carbamate recovered in the medium and low pressure recirculation sections. Both of these systems ate similar to those shown in the total-recycle process. 

Other Processes. Flow sheets for typical partial-recycle process and typical once-through urea process are given in Figures 9 and 10, respectively. 

Because an excess of ammonia is fed to the reactor, and because the reactions ate reversible, ammonia and carbon dioxide exit the reactor along with the carbamate and urea. Several process variations have been developed to deal with the efficiency of the conversion and with serious corrosion problems. The three main types of ammonia handling ate once through, partial recycle, and total recycle. Urea plants having capacity up to 1800 t/d ate available. Most advances have dealt with reduction of energy requirements in the total recycle process. The economics of urea production ate most strongly influenced by the cost of the taw material ammonia. When the ammonia cost is representative of production cost in a new plant it can amount to more than 50% of urea cost. 

The environmental appHcations of infrared spectrometry are many and varied. Many appHcations at industrial sites are analogous to those for on-line process analysis waste streams and recycling processes can be monitored in the same way. Commercial infrared stack-gas monitors are based on either an extractive probe attached to a long-path gas ceU or an open-path (across stack) configuration (69). Stack plume and flare monitoring can be done externally... 

The surviving U.S. plants have embraced all types of waste treatment processes (see Wastes treatment, hazardous waste Wastes, industrial). The most desired poUution prevention processes are those which reduce the total amount of waste discharged. Treatment and disposal are less strongly emphasized options. Zero wastewater discharge faciHties and water recycling processes are becoming more common (55,56). 

The minerals processing industry has made contributions to all areas of technology, both in terms of products and processing. Technologies developed in the mineral industry are used extensively in the chemicals industry as well as in municipal and industrial waste treatment and recycling industry, eg, scrap recycling, processing of domestic refuse, automobiles, electronic scrap, battery scrap, and decontamination of soils. 

Lewis acids, such as the haUde salts of the alkaline-earth metals, Cu(I), Cu(II), 2inc, Fe(III), aluminum, etc, are effective catalysts for this reaction (63). The ammonolysis of polyamides obtained from post-consumer waste has been used to cleave the polymer chain as the first step in a recycle process in which mixtures of nylon-6,6 and nylon-6 can be reconverted to diamine (64). The advantage of this approach Hes in the fact that both the adipamide [628-94-4] and 6-aminohexanoamide can be converted to hexarnethylenediarnine via their respective nitriles in a conventional two-step process in the presence of the diamine formed in the original ammonolysis reaction, thus avoiding a difficult and cosdy separation process. In addition, the mixture of nylon-6,6 and nylon-6 appears to react faster than does either polyamide alone. 

Fig. 3. Used aluminum beverage cans (UBC) recycling process.

The hterature is hiU of detailed evaluations of recycled petroleum products (2,6,17,18,23,28) and investigations into the environmental ramifications of the recycling processes themselves (30). 

The initial use was as a blow moulded vessel for vegetable oil candles. However, because of its biodegradability it is of interest for applications where paper and plastics materials are used together and which can, after use, be sent into a standard paper recycling process. Instances include blister packaging (the compound is transparent up to 3 mm in thickness), envelopes with transparent windows and clothes point-of-sale packaging. 

Adhesives and resins are one of the most important raw materials in wood-based panels. Thus, each question concerning the life cycle assessment and the recycling of bonded wood panels does bring into question the adhesive resins used. This includes, for example, the impact of the resin on various environmental aspects such as waste water and effluents, emission of noxious volatile chemicals during production and from the finished boards, or the reuse for energy generation of wood panels. The type of resin has also a crucial influence on feasibility and efficiency for several material recycling processes. 

Urea Plant 6. Use total recycle processes in the synthesis process reduce microprill formation and carryover of fines in prilling towers. 

In the living cells of luminous bacteria, FMNH2 is produced by the reduction of FMN with NADH catalyzed by FMN-reductase. This process is, in effect, the recycling of FMN. In the cells, a long-chain aldehyde is produced by the reduction of the corresponding long-chain acid, which is also a recycling process. 

Plastics have many advantages. Included are the facts that they have the lowest energy consumption in the recycling processes of about 2 MJ/kg (2 to 2.5 MJ/I) and when incinerated the highest recovery energy content exists of about 42 MJ/kg. Some comparisons with other materials are provided. (1) Processing waste paper requires 6.7 MJ/kg and as a general rule about twice as much paper is needed compared to plastics for... 

Developments in the Hot-Gas-Recycle Process, Bureau of Mines Rep. Invest. (1965) 6609. 

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