Chemical Engineering Process Design

PROCESS SYNTHESIS
Keith Marchildon
David Mody

Process synthesis has been defined as

the science of arriving in a systematic
manner at a flowsheet which is optimized
with respect to some objective function.

What objective function?

Any constraints?
Is a systematic manner possible?

Process synthesis is more akin to the work of

an artist who, while drawing on common principles
of technique and using tools that are available to all,
uses his or her experience and inner imagination
to create an original work.

Combining

Capital Cost

Operating Cost
-------

with

** Depreciation **
Raw materials
Energy and other services
Human resources
Maintenance
Waste disposal

Typical Optimization Choices

Adding equipment (capital cost) to capture process heat
and reduce energy consumption (operating cost)
Using energy to power purification columns that increase
yield from raw materials i.e., increasing one operating
cost to reduce another
Automating to reduce the number of operating personnel
Increasing vessel size and hold-up time to allow a decrease
in reactor temperature that lessens waste production.

Ways to Keep the Plant Operating

(out of 8766 days per year)
adequate process monitoring and sampling,
for early detection and diagnosis of problems
storage capacity for raw materials, product, and
intermediate streams, in order to buy time and keep
the plant operating if there is a difficulty at one point
redundancy of ancillary equipment such as pumps
ability to handle a range of throughputs, below and
above the flowsheet values.

Externally Set Parameters

production rate
product quality
unit cost for raw materials and for services
raw material characteristics
environmental regulations.

Raw materials

Human
resources

Energy and
other services

Maintenance

Capital
Facility

Product

Up-time
Useful
co-products

Depreciation
Physical loss of
reactant,
product,
intermediates

Chemical loss of
non-useful products

Disposal
Figure 3.1 Cash-Carrying Streams in a Chemical Process

2007 June 2
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROCESS DESIGN
Preface
Introduction
Part I Principles of Chemical Process Design
1. The Process Design Mandate
2. Documentation and Communication
3. Synthesis
4. Theory and Experiment in Support of Design
5. Operating Problems: Solution by Design
6. Process Monitoring and Control
7. Designing for Health and Safety
8. Environmental Protection; Conservation
9. Project Economics
10. Estimation of Capital and Operating Costs

Part II Operations and Equipment

11. Bulk Transport and Storage
12. In-Plant Transfer of Solids and Liquids
13. Transfer of gases; Compression and Vacuum
14. Formation and Processing of Solids
15. Heating, Cooling and Change of Phase
16. Mixing and Agitation
17. Mechanical Separations
18. Molecular Separations
19. Chemical Reaction
20. Integrated Reaction and Separation

Appendices
A Estimation of Chemical and Physical Properties
B Mathematical Support and Methods
C Materials of Construction
D Services and Utilities
E Equipment Drives
F Six Sigma and ISO
G Project Management
H Process Simplification and Value Engineering
I Patents
J Plant Location and Lay-Out

The Rate Concept

Rate = Rate Coefficient x
zone of action x
driving force
For convective heat transfer this becomes
Rate of heat transfer =
Heat transfer coefficient x
area normal to the flow of heat x
temperature difference

Two key characteristics:

if any one of the three terms on the right side is
increased, the whole rate is increased proportionately,
if any one of the three terms goes to zero,
the rate goes to zero.

Look for the Controlling Rate

Ambient
gas

Temperature
2
1

Pellet
center

Figure 3.2 Pellet Heating

Look for the Controlling Rate

C

RATE OF
REACTION

2
RATE OF
MASS
TRANSFER

[C]

[C] vle

Figure 3.3 - Reaction and Mass Transfer in a Bubbling Reactor

ACHIEVING DRIVING FORCE:

SOME PATTERNS IN

SINGLE-STREAM PROCESSES
Batch and continuous
Plug and back-mixed
Multi-stage back-mixed, the stages being
similar or stages being dissimilar
Separation and recycle.

Some Advantages of Batch Processing

It is generally simpler, with less vessels or at least
less vessel types
Process development tends to be done by changing
operating conditions rather than the design of vessels
There is relatively easy transition between
successive product types
Incremental expansion can be low-cost:
just add duplicate vessels

Batch Processing Today

Modern-day systems of distributed control
incorporate recipe handling and automated
addition of raw materials and additives,
which relieve many operator functions
Advanced control schemes, particularly
model-based control, can track batches and
keep them all to an identical process path
and/or detect any that stray and require segregation.

Batch-Continuous Hybrids
A continuous processes that has batch operation
somewhere along its length, usually for raw
material introduction or for product handling
A batch process that has a continuous feed of
some component during all or part of its course.
(a fed-batch process)

Three Continuous Styles

For single-component first-order reaction

Rate of consumption of reactant C =
k x liquid mass x [C]

In general
Extent = ( [C] no reaction - [C] ) / [C]

no reaction

Comparisons
Required hold-up time falls off greatly as final extent
of reaction drops
All configurations behave about the same at extents
up to 0.5
At high (0.99) extent, the single well-mixed reactor
requires very large hold-up time
A sequence of well-mixed stages is much more
efficient than one stage and, with enough stages,
can even approach the performance of plug-flow.

Figure 3.5 Some Multi Well-Mixed-Stage Configurations

A Vari-Stage Process

Wt%water
96

20

83

6
Moving Fourdrinier wire

Press felts

Figure 3.6 Paper Making

Heated roll dryers

Separation plus Recycle

Situations favoring Separation + recycle

The process must be taken to a high final extent of
reaction, either for reasons of product purity or
because of high cost of the raw material
There is a significant reverse reaction which slows
the process and limits the achievable extent
The product is susceptible to a further undesired
reaction if it remains at reactor conditions
The product has a poisoning effect on a catalyst.

A Physical example of Sepn + Recycle

ACHIEVING DRIVING FORCE:

SOME PATTERNS IN

TWO-STREAM PROCESSES
Batch and continuous
Plug and back-mixed
Multi-stage back-mixed
Co-current, cross-current, and counter-current

A Two-Stream Process

H
Figure 3.9 Two-Liquid Heat Exchange

G,

L,

G, A

Absorption

G, A

L, A

Stripping

L, A

G,

L,

L1, A

L1, A
Extraction

L2, A

L2, A
Pneumatic Conveying

Figure 3.10 Other Two-Stream Operations

Counter - Current

Co-Current

Cross-Current

Figure 3.11 Hot-Air Drying of Solids

250

Counter-Current operation

200

Hot Air

150
100

Solids

50
0
0

10

15

20

25

250

Co-Current Operation

200

Hot Air

150
100

Solids

50
0
0

250

10

15

20

25

Cross-Current Operation

200

Hot Air in
150

Hot Air out

100

Solids
50
0
0

10

15

20

25

A Batch Two-Stream Process

Clean
Solvent

26

25

24

To Waste

Figure 3.13 Single-Flush Batch Cleaning

Batch Cross-Current Analogue

Clean
Solvent

26

25

To Waste

To Waste

Clean
Solvent

28

27

To Waste

To Waste

Figure 3.14 Cross-Current Flushing

Batch Counter-Current Analogue

C
26

Clean
solvent

C
RINSE

25

To
waste

C
C

C
26

DRAIN

25

Re-FILL

27

O
O

O
28
C

Figure 3.15 Counter-Current Flushing

(D is the amount of fouled material)

50 kg liq, 0.0D

1.0D

26

27
5 kg liq, 0.01D

45kg liq,
0.99D

50 kg liq, 0.1D

Figure 3.16 Material Balance for Counter-Current Flushing

108 C
20 C

Counter-Current

20 C

200 C

Co-Current
200 C
20 C

Plug-Mixed
200 C
20 C

Mixed-Mixed

152 C
200 C

122 C
128 C

109 C
138 C
102 C
143 C

Figure 3. Efficacy of Various Two-Stream Configurations