Solvent recycle stream

Following the path of the MIBK-butanol mixture from the feed to the HMF product stream, we notice that the process in Figure 3.5 is in effect a process with significant material recycling. Specifically, it features a large solvent recycle stream. 

The bottom product of the pre-evaporation stage (Figure 6.7) can eventually be sub] ected to hydrogenation in a trickle bed reactor, to purify the solvent recycle stream by eliminating impurities in the form of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, reducing them to methanol and ethanol, and also to eliminate traces of unconverted HP. Moreover, traces ofhydroperoxypropanol and hydroxyacetone are converted into 1,2-propanediol. This allows a considerable decrease in catalyst deactivation in the epoxidation reactor and the improvement of product quality [20k]. 

Mole fractions in stream B2 (solvent recycle stream)... 

High purity acetaldehyde is desirable for oxidation. The aldehyde is diluted with solvent to moderate oxidation and to permit safer operation. In the hquid take-off process, acetaldehyde is maintained at 30—40 wt % and when a vapor product is taken, no more than 6 wt % aldehyde is in the reactor solvent. A considerable recycle stream is returned to the oxidation reactor to increase selectivity. Recycle air, chiefly nitrogen, is added to the air introducted to the reactor at 4000—4500 times the reactor volume per hour. The customary catalyst is a mixture of three parts copper acetate to one part cobalt acetate by weight. Either salt alone is less effective than the mixture. Copper acetate may be as high as 2 wt % in the reaction solvent, but cobalt acetate ought not rise above 0.5 wt %. The reaction is carried out at 45—60°C under 100—300 kPa (15—44 psi). The reaction solvent is far above the boiling point of acetaldehyde, but the reaction is so fast that Httle escapes unoxidized. This temperature helps oxygen absorption, reduces acetaldehyde losses, and inhibits anhydride hydrolysis. 

Effects of Impurities nd Solvent. The presence of impurities usually decreases the growth rates of crystalline materials, and problems associated with the production of crystals smaller than desired are commonly attributed to contamination of feed solutions. Strict protocols should be followed in operating units upstream from a crystallizer to minimize the possibiUty of such occurrences. Equally important is monitoring the composition of recycle streams so as to detect possible accumulation of impurities. Furthermore, crystalliza tion kinetics used in scaleup should be obtained from experiments on solutions as similar as possible to those expected in the full-scale process. 

For gas absorption, the water or other solvent must be treated to remove the captured pollutant from the solution. The effluent from the column may be recycled into the system and used again. This is usually the case if the solvent is costly (e.g., hydrocarbon oils, caustic solutions, amphiphilic block copolymer). Initially, the recycle stream may go to a treatment system to remove the pollutants or the reaction product. Make-up solvent may then be added before the liquid stream reenters the column. 

Transition metal oxides or their combinations with metal oxides from the lower row 5 a elements were found to be effective catalysts for the oxidation of propene to acrolein. Examples of commercially used catalysts are supported CuO (used in the Shell process) and Bi203/Mo03 (used in the Sohio process). In both processes, the reaction is carried out at temperature and pressure ranges of 300-360°C and 1-2 atmospheres. In the Sohio process, a mixture of propylene, air, and steam is introduced to the reactor. The hot effluent is quenched to cool the product mixture and to remove the gases. Acrylic acid, a by-product from the oxidation reaction, is separated in a stripping tower where the acrolein-acetaldehyde mixture enters as an overhead stream. Acrolein is then separated from acetaldehyde in a solvent extraction tower. Finally, acrolein is distilled and the solvent recycled. 

Inherent safety can rarely be attained in an established process by simple measures. In cases of process modification, one of the following must be involved to make the process safer (Sharkey et ciL, 1992) (1) new chemistry, (2) new reaction solvent, (3) added recycle streams, and (4) major concentration changes (reactants, products, by-products, solvents). 

Sodium hydrosulfite is produced through the Formate process where sodium formate solution, sodium hydroxide, and liquid sulfur dioxide reacted in the presence of a recycled stream of methanol solvent. Other products are sodium sulfite, sodium bicarbonate, and carbon monoxide. In the reactor, sodium hydrosulfite is precipitated to form a slurry of sodium hydrosulfite in the solution of methanol, methyl formate, and other coproducts. The mixture is sent to a pressurized filter system to recover sodium hydrosulfite crystals that are dried in a steam-heated rotary drier before being packaged. Heat supply in this process is highly monitored in order not to decompose sodium hydrosulfite to sulfite. Purging is periodically carried out on the recycle stream, particularly those involving methanol, to avoid excessive buildup of impurities. Also, vaporized methanol from the drying process and liquors from the filtration process are recycled to the solvent recovery system to improve the efficiency of the plant. 

The general flow scheme of a production liquid chromatograph is similar to that of the corresponding GC unit, shown in Figure 19.5, with four main differences. First, thermostatting requirements for the column are less strict, and may sometimes even be dispensed with. Secondly, the feed is injected as a liquid, and not vaporised. Thirdly, if the product is to be separated from the mobile-phase solvent, distillation or evaporation and solvent recycle are incorporated in the loop(28,41,42). Finally, the liquid streams are filtered to ensure column longevity, and de-aerated to prevent air bubbles forming. 

Finally, if the organic-solvent concentration in the recycled CO2 stream is too high for the particular system considered, a small distillation tower may be needed. Preliminary studies show that a tower with only six ideal trays, operating at 50 bars, can reduce the THF percentage in the CO2 recycled stream to 0.1 % [4]. This option should also be applied if CO2 is to be used to remove the residual THF content from the solid product. 

To a plastic producer (i.e. processor), melt index is one property that is needed in order to evaluate whether the same process can be used irrespective of whether it uses virgin or recycled polymers. This will tell if it is possible to process the recycled polymeric materials in the same set-up as usual. Several other properties are needed in order to quality mark the materials. The melt index is related to what final tensile properties a product obtains, this in turn has an impact on the expected life-time. The purity of a recyclate stream with respect to the amount of foreign polymer in the stream has an impact on melt-index, but will also be an important factor for the final mechanical properties. Another very important property is the amount of low molecular weight compounds, which may be of vastly different types. Typically such an analysis will show the presences of additives and their degradation products, degradation products of the polymeric matrices, traces of solvents, initiators, or catalysts, compounds related to the use of the plastics and others. 

Recycle. A large number of manufacturing facilities, especially chemical plants, have internal recycle streams that are considered part of the process. In this case, recycle refers to the external recycle of materials, such as polyester film and bottles, Tyvek envelopes, paper, and spent solvents. 

Liquid-liquid extraction, using one or two solvents respectively, is widely used when distillation is impractical, especially when the mixture to be separated is temperature-sensitive and/or more than 100 distillation stages would be required. When one solvent is used, it selectively dissolves only one or a fraction of the components in the feed mixture. In a two-solvent extraction system, each solvent has its own specific selectivity for dissolving the components of the feed mixture. Additional separation operations are generally required to recover, for recycling, solvent from streams leaving the extraction operation. 

Finally, as SMB is now proposed for biochemical applications, great care must be taken for all the good manufacturing practice (GMP) issues (cleaning, reproducibility, software validation, etc.). Moreover, as SMB is probably always linked with a device enabling product recovery in the extract-raffinate streams and/or solvent recycling, these solvent-handling devices should be considered as part of the SMB. 

Extraction. Solvent extraction processes are usually fairly expensive because of the cost in recovering the solvent, such as by heating or chilling, and usually with some loss of solvent. In SARP we have a unique and quite favorable situation. The solvent is a recycle stream of isobutane from the alkylation section, which, after it is used to extract DIPS, is returned along with the DIPS to alkylation, where the isobutane is processed as usual in alkylation. 

The essentially pure, liquid, MTBE leaves the base of the distillation column and is sent to storage. The methanol and C4 compounds leave the top of the column as vapor and pass to a column where the methanol is separated by absorption in water. The C4 compounds leave the top of the absorption column, saturated with water, and are used as a fuel gas. The methanol is separated from the water solvent by distillation and recycled to the reactor stage. The water, which leaves the base of the column, is recycled to the absorption column. A purge is taken from the water recycle stream to prevent the buildup of impurities. 

A liquid-liquid extraction process produces a solvent-rich stream called the extract that contains a portion of the feed and an extracted-feed stream called the raffinate. A commercial process almost always includes two or more auxiliary operations in adcfition to the extraction operation itself. These extra operations are needed to treat the extract and raffinate streams for the purposes of isolating a desired product, recovering the solvent for recycle to the extractor, and purging unwanted components from the process. A typical process includes two or more distillation operations in addition to extraction. 

If the emission factor were lower, the flowrates to the solvent recovery unit and the recycle stream would be higher. Additionally, there would be less PCE lost from the system. To determine the effect of the emissions factor on the system flow streams, the equations above were solved using three different emission factors 0.78, 0.60, and 0.40. These results are summarized below. 

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