Scales unit-operation

Micro-fabrication technology and micro-reaction engineering will be explored extensively so that reaction processes can be conducted on much smaller physical scales and with high precision controls. Micro-scale unit operations are likely to gain acceptance for the manufacturing of fine and specialty chemicals. 

Huge number of products Large numb of processes Varied production scales Unit operations required Diversified technologies... 

Gas-phase adsorption is widely employed for the large-scale purification or bulk separation of air, natural gas, chemicals, and petrochemicals (Table 1). In these uses it is often a preferred alternative to the older unit operations of distillation and absorption. 

Although bulk polymerization of acrylonitrile seems adaptable, it is rarely used commercially because the autocatalytic nature of the reaction makes it difficult to control. This, combined with the fact that the rate of heat generated per unit volume is very high, makes large-scale commercial operations difficult to engineer. Lastiy, the viscosity of the medium becomes very high at conversion levels above 40 to 50%. Therefore commercial operation at low conversion requires an extensive monomer recovery operation. 

Hydrothermal Synthesis Systems. Of the unit operations depicted in Figure 1, the pressurized sections from reactor inlet to pressure letdown ate key to hydrothermal process design. In consideration of scale-up of a hydrothermal process for high performance materials, several criteria must be considered. First, the mode of operation, which can be either continuous, semicontinuous, or batch, must be determined. Factors to consider ate the operating conditions, the manufacturing demand, the composition of the product mix (single or multiple products), the amount of waste that can be tolerated, and the materials of constmction requirements. Criteria for the selection of hydrothermal reactor design maybe summarized as... 

In some respects, hydrometallurgy can be described as wet analytical chemistry carried out on a large scale. Many different dow sheets can be designed with various types of unit operations and most metals can be extracted from a complex ore and recovered at the desired level of purity. A viable hydrometaHurgical process, however, must achieve that goal at an economically acceptable cost. 

This section describes the use of separation processes which utilize membranes. Placement in this chapter is in recognition of the recent ascendency of industrial-scale rnernbrane-based separations, but it also reflects the iew that within a decade, many of these separation processes will be mainstream unit operations. Some approach that status already. Figure 22-46 shows the relath e size of things important in membrane separations. 

The ROTOBERTY internal recycle laboratory reactor was designed to produce experimental results that can be used for developing reaction kinetics and to test catalysts. These results are valid at the conditions of large-scale plant operations. Since internal flow rates contacting the catalyst are known, heat and mass transfer rates can be calculated between the catalyst and the recycling fluid. With these known, their influence on catalyst performance can be evaluated in the experiments as well as in production units. Operating conditions, some construction features, and performance characteristics are given next. 

For non-New tonian fluids, viscosity data are very important. Every impeller has an average fluid shear rate related to speed. For example, foi a flat blade turbine impeller, the average impeller zone fluid shear rate is 11 times the operating speed. The most exact method to obtain the viscosity is by using a standard mixing tank and impeller as a viscosimeter. By measuring the pow er response on a small scale mixer, the viscosity at shear rates similar to that in the full scale unit is obtained. 

The team is now at the point where it can prepare a material balance at a scale appropriate to the level of detail required in the assessment. For example, you may require a material balance for each unit operation, or one for a whole process may be sufficient. Decide on various levels of detail that may be needed. 

The first two categories, clarifying and crossflow filters, have been very well developed and optimized for use in biotechnology and standard wastewater treatment applications. Equipment is easily available for these applications, whether as small 0.2 micron sterilizing filter used to terminally sterilize 100 ml of product solution, or a small 500 ml crossflow filter used to concentrate a small amount of antibody solution. Many vendors of this equipment to wastewater treatment applications have their origins in the CPI (Chemical Process Industries), and have incorporated many of the scale-up and optimization properties developed in much larger units used in large scale chemical production. As a result, these two filtration unit operations are one of the most optimized and efficient used in wastewater treatment. 

Catalytic crackings operations have been simulated by mathematical models, with the aid of computers. The computer programs are the end result of a very extensive research effort in pilot and bench scale units. Many sets of calculations are carried out to optimize design of new units, operation of existing plants, choice of feedstocks, and other variables subject to control. A background knowledge of the correlations used in the "black box" helps to make such studies more effective. 

The chemical engineer is concerned with the industrial application of processes. This involves the chemical and microbiological conversion of material with the transport of mass, heat and momentum. These processes are scale-dependent (i.e., they may behave differently in small and large-scale systems) and include heterogeneous chemical reactions and most unit operations. Tlie heterogeneous chemical reactions (liquid-liquid, liquid-gas, liquid-solid, gas-solid, solid-solid) generate or consume a considerable amount of heat. However, the course of... 

Chemical Flowsheet Basic unit operation selection with flow rates, conversion factors, temperatures, pressures, solvents and catalyst selection Process synthesis route Laboratory and pilot scale trials Knowledge of existing processes... 

The scale-up criterion that is probably most widely used for mixing-limited unit operations is based on constant power input per unit volume according to (Harnby etal., 1992). 

Crystallization Process Systems brings together essential aspects of the concepts, information and techniques for the design, operation and scale up of particulate crystallization processes as integrated crystal formation and solid-liquid separation systems. The focus of the book, however, is on crystallization only dealing with related unit operations as far as is necessary. It is therefore... 

The optimization of chromatographic separations can generally be seen as a compromise between speed, i.e., to produce the largest possible amount of data or substance per unit time, and resolution, i.e., to produce the highest possible quality of data or purity of substance. Obviously the goal for optimization differs according to the purpose of the separation and also between scale of operation. Therefore, different parameters are critical for different situations. Still, some basic rules for optimization may be applied. 

The vertical thermosiphon reboiler is a popular unit for heating distillation column bottoms. However, it is indeed surprising how so many units have been installed with so little data available. This indicates that a lot of guessing, usually on the very conservative side, has created many uneconomical units. No well-defined understanding of the performance of these units exists. Kern s recommended procedure has been found to be quite conservative on plant scale units yet it has undoubtedly been the basis for more designs than any other single approach. For some systems at and below atmospheric pressure operation, Kern s procedure gives inconsistent results. The problem is in the evaluation of the two-phase gas-liquid pressure drop under these conditions. 

Bench-Scale Reactor. The bench-scale reactor is 0.81 in. i.d. and 48 in. long. The nominal feed gas rate for this unit is 30 standard cubic feet per hour (scfh) the feed gas is supplied from premixed, high-pressure gas cylinders. Except for reaction temperature, the bench-scale unit is substantially manually operated and controlled. The catalysts used in these studies were standard commercial methanation catalysts ground to a 16-20 mesh size which is compatible with the small reactor diameter. 

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