Vaporization, automatic

Enclosed agitated filters are useful when volatile solvents are in use or when the solvent gives off toxic vapor or fume. Another significant advantage is that their operation does not require any manual labor. Control can be manual or automatic, usually by timers or by specific measurements of the product. Most filters are made of mild steel, with the exposed surfaces protected by lead, tile, mbber lining, or by coating or spraying with other substances as necessary. Filtration areas up to 10 m are available and the maximum cake thickness is 1 m. Apphcations are mainly in the chemical industry for the recovery of solvents. 

Most small Hquid helium containers are unpressurized heat leak slowly bods away the Hquid, and the vapor is vented to the atmosphere. To prevent plugging of the vent lines with solidified air, check valves of some sort are included in the vent system. Containers used for air transportation are equipped with automatic venting valves that maintain a constant absolute pressure with the helium container in order to prevent Hquid flash losses at the lower pressures of flight altitudes and to prevent the inhalation of air as the pressure increases during the aircraft s descent. Improved super insulation has removed the need for Hquid nitrogen shielding from almost all small containers. 

Solvent Process. In the solvent process, or solvent cook, water formed from the reaction is removed from the reactor as an a2eotropic mixture with an added solvent, typically xylene. Usually between 3 to 10 wt % of the solvent, based on the total charge, is added at the beginning of the esterification step. The mixed vapor passes through a condenser. The condensed water and solvent have low solubiUty in each other and phase separation is allowed to occur in an automatic decanter. The water is removed, usually to a measuring vessel. The amount of water collected can be monitored as one of the indicators of the extent of the reaction. The solvent is continuously returned to the reactor to be recycled. Typical equipment for this process is shown in Figure 2. The reactor temperature is modulated by the amount and type of refluxing solvent. Typical conditions are ... 

Sample Transport Transport time, the time elapsed between sample withdrawal from the process and its introduction into the analyzer, shoiild be minimized, particiilarly if the analyzer is an automatic analyzer-controller. Any sample-transport time in the analyzer-controller loop must be treated as equivalent to process dead time in determining conventional feedback controller settings or in evaluating controller performance. Reduction in transport time usually means transporting the sample in the vapor state. 

Capability of systems for fully automatic, unattended operation Capability to remove gaseous or vapor contaminants from process streams to extremely low levels... 

Flevated or Remote Air Intakes Elevated or remote air intakes for control rooms will help in reducing ingress of dense, flammable vapors into those rooms. Ordinarily, elevating the tip of the air intake duct 9 m (30 ft) above the ground is sufficient. Installing flammable vapor detectors in the air intake ducts provides additional protection. Controls that automatically stop air to control rooms if vapor concentrations reach 25 percent of their LFL should also be considered. 

Install flame arresters on atmospheric vents to prevent fire on the outside of the tank from propagating back into the vapor space inside the tank. Provide fire resistant insulation for critical vessels, piping, outlet valves on tanks, valve actuators, instruments lines, and key electrical facilities. Provide remote controlled, automatic, and fire-actuated valves to stop loss of tank contents during an emergency provide fire protection to these valves. Valves should be close-coupled to the tank, and must be resistant to corrosion or other deleterious effects of spilled fluids. Vessels should be provided with overpressure relief protection. 

General. With simple instrumentation discussed here, it is not possible to satisfactorily control the temperature at both ends of a fractionation column. Therefore, the temperature is controlled either in the top or bottom section, depending upon which product specification is the most important. For refinery or gas plant distillation where extremely sharp cut points are probably not required, the temperature on the top of the column or the bottom is often controlled. For high purity operation, the temperature will possibly be controlled at an intermediate point in the column. The point where AT/AC is maximum is generally the best place to control temperature. Here, AT/AC is the rate of change of temperature with concentration of a key component. Control of temperature or vapor pressure is essentially the same. Manual set point adjustments are then made to hold the product at the other end of the column within a desired purity range. The technology does exist, however, to automatically control the purity of both products. 

The volatile solvents recoverable by the activated carbon system or any other system are nearly all organic, and many of them form flammable or explosive mixtures with air. Such mixtures may lie between upper and lower explosive limits. The activated carbon system can avoid the explosive range by staying well below the lowest percentage of vapor which is still explosive it functions well at very low concentrations. The system also recovers solvents efficiently even in the presence of water the recovery efficiency is high (98 percent and 99 percent are not unusual) it may be fully automatic. The annual maintenance charge rarely exceeds 5 percent of the cost of equipment. The recovery expense may be as low as 0.2 cent per pound in some installations it rarely exceeds 1 cent per pound. 

Safety Relief Valve - A safety relief valve is an automatic pressure-relieving device suitable for use as either a safety valve or relief valve, depending on application. (In the petroleum industry it is normally used in gas and vapor service or for liquid.) Safety relief valves are classified as "Conventional" or "Balanced", depending upon the effect of back pressure on their performance. 

Accumulation of Noncondensihles - Noncondensibles do not accumulate under normal conditions since they are released with the process vapor streams. However, with certain piping configurations, it is possible for noncondensibles to accumulate to the point that a condenser is "blocked". Such a condition could occur if an automatic vent control valve failed closed for a period of time. This effect is equal to a total loss of coolant, and thus need not be considered separately. 

Bums and Hazzan demonstrated tlie use of event tree and fault tree analysis in tlie study of a potential accident sequence leading to a toxic vapor release at an industrial chemical process plant. The initiator of tlie accident sequence studied is event P, the failure of a plant programmable automatic controller. Tliis event, in conjunction willi the success or failure of a process water system (a glycol cooling system) mid an operator-manual shutdown of tlie distillation system produced minor, moderate, or major release of toxic material as indicated in Fig. 21.4.1. The symbols W, G, O represent tlie events listed ... 

In Section 21.4 tlie effects of the release of toxic vapors were considered in connection witli an accident sequence initiated by the failure of a plant programmable automatic controller. In tliis study, event tree analysis and fault tree analysis led to identification of tlie glycol cooling system circulation pumps as components meriting high priority for inspection. 

These units cannot handle liquid slugs or dirt particles hence, they require gas/vapor cleaning before entering the unit. For units with cooling jackets and automatic temperature regulation of the process gas, the temperature can range as high as 302°F [20]. 

Safety-Relief Valve this is an automatic pressure-relieving device actuated by the static pressure upstream of the valve and characterized by an adjustment to allow reclosure, either a pop or a non-pop action, and a nozzle type entrance and it reseats as pressure drops. It is used on steam, gas, vapor and liquid (with adjustments), and is probably the most general tyqDe of valve in petrochemical and chemical plants (Figures 7-3, 7-3A, and 7-4). Rated capacity is reached at 3% or 10% overpressure, depending upon code and/or process conditions. It is suitable for use either as a safety or a relief valve [1,10]. It opens in proportion to increase in internal pressure. 

As this vapor is compressed, its volume is reduced while at the same time the temperature automatically increases. As a result, the vapor becomes superheated. More pounds of vapor are now contained in one cubic foot than when originally entering the compressor. 

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