Seider/Seader/Lewin: Product and Process Design Principles Chapter 5

Heuristics for Process Synthesis

Cheng-Liang Chen
LABORATORY

PSE

Department of Chemical Engineering National TAIWAN University

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Design teams use heuristics when generating alternatives that make up a synthesis tree

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Heuristics for Process Synthesis

This lecture deals with the heuristic rules that expedite the selection and positioning of processing operations as owsheets are assembled. These rules are based on experience and hold in general, but should be tested (e.g., by simulation) to ensure that they apply in the specic application.

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Heuristics for Process Synthesis

When you have nished studying this unit, you should:
Understand the importance of selecting reaction paths that do not involve toxic or hazardous chemicals, and when unavoidable, to reduce their presence by shortening residence times in the process units and avoiding their storage in large quantities. Be able to distribute the chemicals in a process owsheet, to account for the presence of inert species, to purge species that would otherwise build up to unacceptable concentrations, to achieve a high selectivity to the desired products. Be able to apply heuristics in selecting separation processes to separate liquids, vapors, and vapor-liquid mixtures. Be able to distribute the chemicals, by using excess reactants, inert diluents, and cold shots, to remove the exothermic heats of reaction. Understand the advantages of pumping a liquid rather than compressing a vapor.

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Raw Materials and Chemical Reactions

Heuristics 1 Select raw materials and chemical reactions to avoid, or reduce, the handling and storage of hazardous and toxic chemicals. Example: Manufacture of Ethylene Glycol (EG).

Since both reactions are highly exothermic, they need to be controlled carefully. But a water spill into an ethylene-oxide storage tank could lead to an accident similar to the Bhopal incident. Often such processes are designed with two reaction steps, with storage of the intermediate, to enable continuous production, even when maintenance problems shut down the rst reaction operation.

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Raw Materials and Chemical Reactions

Heuristics 1 Alternatives to the two-step EG process
 Alternative 1: Use costly chlorine and caustic in a single reaction step, to avoid the intermediate:

 Alternative 2: As ethylene-oxide is formed, react it with carbon dioxide to form ethylene-carbonate, a much less active intermediate that can be stored safely and hydrolyzed, to form the ethylene-glycol product, as needed:

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 2 Use an excess of one chemical reactant in a reaction operation to completely consume a second valuable, toxic, or hazardous chemical reactant. Example: Using excess ethylene in dichloroethane ( vinyl chloride) production to consume completely the hazardous and toxic chlorine (Q: ethylene/chlorine ratio ?)

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 3 Inert Species: When nearly pure products are required, eliminate inert species before the reaction operations, when the separations are easily accomplished, or when the catalyst is adversely aected by the inert. Do not do this when a large exothermic heat of reaction must be removed.

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Distribution of Chemicals

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Distribution of Chemicals

By positioning the distillation column rst, a nearly pure feed is sent to the reaction operation, providing a higher conversion to iso-butane.

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 4 Purge Streams: Introduce liquid or vapor purge streams to provide exits for species that
 enter the process as impurities in the feed  produced by irreversible side-reactions

when these species are in trace quantities and/or are dicult to separate from the other chemicals. Lighter species leave in vapor purge streams, and heavier species exit in liquid purge streams. Example: NH3 Synthesis Loop.

Note: Purge ow rate selection depends on economics!

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 4
Example: Ammonia Process Purge The ammonia reactor loop is simulated to examine the eect of purge-to-recycle ratio on the compositions and ow rates of the purge and recycle streams. The following specications are made: Simulation Unit R1 F1 T (oF) 932 28 P (atm) 200 136.3

The combined feed stream, at 77oF and 200 atm, is comprised of lbmol/hr 24. 74.3 0.6 1.1 100.0 Mole Fraction 0.240 0.743 0.006 0.011 1.000

N2 H2 Ar CH4

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 4
Example: Ammonia Process Purge Several variables are tabulated as a function of the purge/recycle ratio:
Purge/Recycle Ratio PROD Flow Rate (lbmole/hr) Recycle Flow Rate (lbmole/hr) Purge Flow Rate (lbmole/hr) Purge mole Fraction Purge Mole Fraction CH4

0.1 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02

39.2 40.75 42.4 44.3 45.8

191.0 209.3 233.9 273.5 405.6

19.1 16.7 14.0 10.9 8.1

Ar 0.028 0.033 0.040 0.053 0.072

0.052 0.060 0.074 0.093 0.133

In all cases, the mole fraction of Ar and CH4 in the purge are signicantly greater than in the feed. As the purge/recycle ratio is decreased, the vapor euent from the ash vessel becomes richer in the inert species and less H2 and N2 are lost in the purge stream. However, this is accompanied by a signicant increase in the recycle rate and the cost of recirculation, as well as the reactor volume. The capital and operating costs should be estimated and a protability measure should be optimized as a function of the purge/recycle ratio.

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 5 Do not purge valuable species or species that are toxic and hazardous, even in small concentrations.
 Add separators to recover valuable species.  Add reactors to eliminate toxic and hazardous species.

Catalytic converter in car exhaust system

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 6 Byproducts that are produced in reversible reactions, in small quantities, are usually not recovered in separators or purged. Instead, they are usually recycled to extinction.
Example: Reversible Production of Biphenyl in toluene hydrodealkylation process 2C6H6 C12H10 + H2

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 7 For competing series or parallel reactions, adjust the temperature, pressure, and catalyst to obtain high yields of the desired products. In the initial distribution of chemicals, assume that these conditions can be satised - obtain kinetics data and check this assumption before developing a base-case design. Manufacture of allyl-chloride

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Manufacture of allyl-chloride: Kinetic Data Reaction 1 2 3 HR Btu/lb-mole 4, 800 79, 200 91, 800 ko lb-mole/(hr ft3atm2) 206, 000 11.7 4.6 108 E/R o R 13, 600 3, 430 21, 300

What range of operating temperatures favor production of Allyl Chloride ?

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Distribution of Chemicals
Heuristics 8 For reversible reactions, especially, consider conducting them in a separation device capable of removing the products, and hence, driving the reactions to the right. Such reaction-separation operations lead to very dierent distributions of chemicals. Example: Manufacture of Ethyl-acetate using reactive distillation.
Conventionally, this would call for reaction: M eOH + HOAc M eOAc + H2O

followed by separation of products using a sequence of separation towers.

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Separations
Heuristics 9 Separate liquid mixtures using distillation and stripping towers, and liquid-liquid extractors, among similar operations, and so on, with the unreacted chemicals recovered in a liquid phase and recycled to the reaction operation. Heuristics 10 Attempt to (partially) condense vapor mixtures with cooling water (typically to 35oC) or a refrigerant. Then, use Heuristic 9. Vapor/liquid purges are added when necessary to remove inerts that concentrate in the vapor/liquid and are not readily separated. Heuristics 11 Separate vapor mixtures using partial condensers, cryogenic distillation, absorption towers, adsorbers, membrane devices.

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Separations
Heuristics 9-11 Flowsheet to separate liquid reactor euents

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Separations
Heuristics 9-11 Flowsheet to separate vapor reactor euents

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Separations
Heuristics 9-11 Flowsheet to separate vapor/liquid reactor euents

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Crystallization occurs in three dierent modes:
 Solution Crystallization applies mainly to inorganic chemicals, which are crystallized from a solvent (often water) with an operating temperature far below the melting point of the crystals.  Precipitation is fast solution crystallization that produces large numbers of very small crystals. It usually refers refers to the case where one product of two reacting solutions is a solid of low solubility (e.g., precipitation of insoluble silver chloride when aqueous solutions of silver nitrate and sodium chloride are mixed together).  In Melt Crystallization, two or more chemicals of comparable melting points are separated at an operating temperature in the ranges of melting temperatures (e.g., production of pure silicon wafers from a melt consisting of SiO2).

Crystallization is capable of producing very pure chemicals when conducted according to the following heuristics:

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Heuristics 12 Crystallize inorganic chemicals from a concentrated aqueous solution by chilling when solubility decreases signicantly with decreasing temperature. Keep the solution at most 1 to 2oF below the saturation temperature at the prevailing concentration. Use crystallization by evaporation, rather than chilling, when solubility does not change signicantly with temperature.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Heuristics 13 Crystal growth rates are approximately the same in all directions, but crystals are never spheres. Crystal growth rates and sizes are controlled by limitlllg the extent of supersaturation. S = C/Csaturation, where C is concentration, usually in the range 1.02 < S < 1.05. Growth rates are inuenced greatly by the presence of impurities and of certain specic additives that vary from case to case.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Heuristics 14 Separate organic chemicals by melt crystallization with cooling, using suspension crystallization, followed by removal of crystals by settling, ltration, or centrifugation. Alternatively, use layer crystallization on a cooled surface, with scraping or melting to remove the crystals. If the melt forms a solid solution instead of a eutectic, use repeated melting and freezing steps, called fractional melt crystallization, or zone melting to obtain nearly pure crystalline products.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Prior to crystallization, it is common to employ evaporation to concentrate a solution, particularly an aqueous solution of inorganic chemicals. Because of the relatively high cost of evaporating water with its very large heat of evaporation, the following heuristics are useful for minimizing the cost.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Heuristics 15 Using multiple evaporators (called eects) in series, the latent heat of evaporation of water is recovered and reused. With a single evaporator, the ratio of the amount of water evaporated to the amount of external steam supplied to cause the evaporation is typically 0.8. For two eects, the ratio becomes 1.6; for three eects 2.4, and so forth. The magnitude of the boiling point elevation caused by the dissolved inorganic compounds is a controlling factor in selecting the optimal number of eects. The elevation is often in the range of 3 to 10oF between solution and pure water boiling points. When the boiling point rise is small, minimum evaporation cost is obtained with 8 to 10 eects. When the boiling-point rise is appreciable, the optimal number of eects is small, 6 or less. If necessary, boost interstage steam pressures with steam-jet or mechanical compressors.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Heuristics 16 When employing multiple eects, the liquid and vapor ows may be in the same or dierent directions. Use forward feed, where both liquid and vapor ow in the same direction, for a small number of eects, particularly when the liquid feed is hot. Use backward feed, where liquid ows in a direction opposite to vapor ows, for cold feeds and/or a large number of eects. With forward feed, intermediate liquid pumps are not necessary, whereas they are for backward feed.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Solution Crystallization produces a slurry of crystals and mother liquor, which is partially separated by ltration or centrifugation into a wet cake and a mother liquor.
 Filtration through a lter medium of porous cloth or metal may be carried out under gravity, vacuum, or pressure.  Centrifugation may utilize a solid bowl or a porous bowl with a lter medium.

Important factors in the selection of equipment include:

(1) moisture content of the cake, (2) solids content of the mother liquor, (3) fragility of the crystals, (4) crystal particle size, (5) need for washing the crystals to replace mother liquor with pure water, and (6) ltration rate.

Filtration rate is best determined by measuring the rate of cake thickness buildup using a small-scale laboratory vacuum leaf lter test with the following criteria:
Rapid, 0.1 to 10 cm/s; Medium, 0.1 to 10 cm/min; Slow, 0.1 to 10 cm/hr.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Heuristics 17 When crystals are fragile, eective washing is required, and clear mother liquor is desired, use gravity, top-feed horizontal pan ltration for slurries that lter at a rapid rate; vacuum rotary drum ltration for slurries that lter at a moderate rate; and pressure ltration for slurries that lter at a slow rate. Heuristics 18 When cakes of low moisture content are required, use solid-bowl centifugation if solids are permitted in the mother liquor, centrifugal ltration if eective washing is required.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Wet cakes from ltration or centrifugation operations are sent to dryers for removal of remaining moisture. A large number of dierent types of commercial dryers have been developed to handle the many dierent types of feeds, which include not only wet cakes, but also pastes, slabs, lms, slurries, and liquids. The heat for drying may be supplied from a hot gas in direct contact with the wet feed or it may be supplied indirectly through a wall. Depending on the thickness of the feed and the degree of agitation, drying times can range from seconds to hours. The following heuristics are useful in making a preliminary selection of drying equipment.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Heuristics 19 For granular material, free owing or not, of particle sizes from 3 to 15 mm, use continuous tray and bell dryers with direct heat. For free-owing granular solids that are not heat sensitive, use an inclined rotary cylindrical dryer, where the heat may be supplied directly from a hot gas or indirectly from tubes, carrying steam, that run the length of the dryer and are located in one or two rings concentric to and located just inside the dryer rotating shell. For small, free-owing particles of 1 to 3 mm in diameter, when rapid drying is possible, use a pneumatic conveying dryer with direct heat. For very small free-owing particles of less than 1 mm in diameter, use a uidized-bed dryer with direct heat.

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Separation Operations
involving solid particles
Heuristics 20 For pastes and slurries of ne solids, use a drum dryer with indirect heat. For a liquid or pumpable slurry, use a spray dryer with direct heat.

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 21 To remove a highlyexothermic heat of reaction, consider the use of excess reactant, an inert diluent, and cold shots. These aect the distribution of chemicals and should be inserted early in process synthesis.

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 21
Example: Excess Reactant Consider the reaction of carbon monoxide and hydroen to form methanol: CO + 2H2 CH3OH With the reactants fed in stoichiometric amounts at 25oC and 1 atm, the adiabatic reaction temperature (complete reaction, zero heat duty, pressure of methanol product stream is returned to 1 atm) will be 1158oC, which is far too high for the Cu-based catalyst and the materials of construction in most reactor vessels. Hence, a key question in the synthesis of methanol process, and similar processes involving highly exothermic reactions, is how to lower the product temperature. Now suppose an excess of H2 is specied such that the mole ratio of H2/CO is arbitrarily 10 , then, with a complete conversion of CO, the euent temperature will be reduced to 337oC.

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 21
Example: Excess Reactant Consider the reaction of carbon monoxide and hydroen to form methanol: CO + 2H2 CH3OH With the reactants fed in stoichiometric amounts at 25oC and 1 atm, the adiabatic reaction temperature (complete reaction, zero heat duty, pressure of methanol product stream is returned to 1 atm) will be 1158oC, which is far too high for the Cu-based catalyst and the materials of construction in most reactor vessels. Hence, a key question in the synthesis of methanol process, and similar processes involving highly exothermic reactions, is how to lower the product temperature. Now suppose 5 lbmole/hr of dodecane is added to the reactor feed (CO : H2 = 1 : 2), then, with a complete conversion of CO, the euent temperature will be reduced to 77.6oC.

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 21 Ex: N H3 synthesis converter cold-shot optimization

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 21 Ex: N H3 synthesis converter cold-shot optimization

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 22 For less exothermic heats of reaction, circulate reactor uid to an external cooler, or use a jacketed vessel or cooling coils. Also, consider the use of intercoolers.

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 22 Ex: TVA design for N H3 synthesis converters

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 23 To control temperature for a highly endothermic heat of reaction, consider the use or excess reactant, an inert diluent, or hot shots. These aect the distribution of chemicals and should be inserted early in process synthesis. Example: When ethylbenzene is pyrolyzed to produce styrene, Ethylbenzene Styrene + H2 superheated steam is added to provide the heat of reaction and keep the reaction temperature elevated.

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Heat Transfer in Reactors

Heuristics 24 For less endothermic heats of reaction, circulate reactor uid to an external heater, or use a jacketed vessel or heating coils. Also, consider the use of interheaters between adiabatic reaction stages.

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 25 Unless required as part of the design of the separator or reactor, provide necessary heat exchange for heating or cooling process uid streams, with or without utilities, in an external shell-and-tube heat exchanger using countercurrent ow. However, if a process stream requires healing above 750oF, use a furnace unless the process liquid is subject to chemical decomposition.

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 26 Near-optimal minimum temperature approaches in heat exchangers depend on the temperature level as follows: 10oF or less for temperatures below ambient. 20oF for temperatures at or above ambient up to 300oF. 50oF for high temperatures. 250 to 350oF in a furnace for ue gas temperature above inlet process uid temperature. Example:
Suppose it is desired to heat 25, 000 lb/hr of toluene at 100oF and 90 psia with 25, 000 lb/hr of styrene at 300oF and 50 psia. Assume both streams will be liquid, use a shell-and-tube HE with countercurrent ow and a minimum approach temperature of 20oF. Let the average specic heats of the two streams be 0.43 Btu/lb-oF for toluene and 0.44 Btu/lb-oF for styrene.

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 26 Example: (continued)
Initially it is not known to which end of the HE the 20oF minimum approach applies. Assume it applies at the toluene inlet end. If so, the styrene exit temperature is 100 + 20 = 120oF. This gives a HE duty, based on styrene of: Q = 25, 000(0.44)(300 120) = 1, 980, 000 Btu/hr Using this duty, the exit temperature of toluene can be computed. Q = 1, 980, 000 = 25, 000(0.43)(Ttoluene out 100) Btu/hr Solving, Ttoluene out = 284.2oF. But this gives a temperature approach of 300 284.2 = 15.8 < 20oF at the styrene inlet end. Therefore, the minimum approach must be applied to the styrene inlet end. Similar calculations give Ttoluene out = 280oF and Tstyrene out = 124.1oF. This corresponds to an approach temperature at the toluene inlet end of 24.1oF, which is greater than the minimum approach temperature and, therefore, is acceptable

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 27 When using cooling water to cool or condense a process stream, assume a water inlet temperature of 90oF (from a cooling tower) and a maximum water outlet temperature of 120oF.

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 28 Boil a pure liquid or close-boiling liquid mixture in a separate heat exchanger, using a maximum overall temperature driving force of 45oF to ensure nucleate boiling and avoid undesirable lm boiling.
When cooling and condensing a gas, both sensible and latent heat can be removed in a single heat exchanger. However, because of many two-phase ow regimes that can occur when boiling a uid, it is best to provide three separate heat exchangers when changing a subcooled liquid to a superheated gas, especially when the dierence between the bubble point and dew point is small. The rst exchanger preheats the liquid to the bubble point; the second boils the liquid; the third superheats the vapor.

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 29 When cooling and condensing a stream in a heat exchanger, a zone analysis should be made to make sure that the temperature dierence between the hot stream and the cold stream is equal to or greater than the minimum approach temperature at all locations in the heat exchanger. The zone analysis is performed by dividing the heat exchanger into a number of segments and applying an energy balance to each segment to determine corresponding stream inlet and outlet temperatures for the segment, taking into account any phase change. A process simulation program conveniently accomplishes the zone analysis.
Note: The minimum approach temperature in a countercurrent ow HE may occur at an intermediate location rather than at one of the two ends.

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 30 Typically, a hydrocarbon gives an adiabatic ame temperature of approximately 3, 500oF when using the stoichiometric amount of air. However, use excess air to achieve complete combustion and give a maximum ue-gas temperature of 2, 000oF. Set the stack gas temperature at 650 to 950oF to prevent condensation of the corrosive components of the ue gas. Heuristics 31 Estimate heat-exchanger pressure drops as follows: 1.5 psi for boiling and condensing. 3 psi for a gas. 5 psi for a low-viscosity liquid. 7-9 psi for a high-viscosity liquid. 20 psi for a process uid passing through a furnace.

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 32 Quench a very hot process stream to at least 1, 150oF before sending it to a heat exchanger for additional cooling and/or condensation. The quench uid is best obtained from a downstream separator. Alternatively, if the process stream contains water vapor, liquid water may be an eective quench uid.
Note: Unless exotic materials are used, HEs should not be used for cooling and/or condensing process streams with temperatures above 1, 150oF.

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 32 EX: Toluene HDA process C7H8 + H2 C6H6 + CH4

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 32 EX: Toluene HDA process heat recovery C7H8 + H2 C6H6 + CH4

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 32 EX: Quench stream from downstream separator C7H8 + H2 C6H6 + CH4

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Heat Exchangers and Furnaces

Heuristics 33 If possible, heat or cool a stream of solid particles by direct contact with a hot gas or cold gas, respectively, using a rotary kiln, a uidized bed, a multiple hearth, or a ash/pneumatic conveyor. Otherwise, use a jacketed spiral conveyor.
Note: Streams of solid particles are commonly heated or cooled directly or indirectly. Heat transfer is much more rapid and controllable when using direct heat exchange.

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Pressure Increase Operations

Heuristics 34 Use a fan to raise the gas pressure from atmospheric pressure to as high as 40 inches water gauge (10.1 kPa gauge or 1.47 psig). Use a blower or compressor to raise the gas pressure to as high as 206 kPa gauge or 30 psig. Use a compressor or a staged compressor system to attain pressures greater than 206 kPa gauge or 30 psig.

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Pressure Increase Operations

Heuristics 34
For the toluene hydrodealkylation process, the pressure of the recycle gas leaving the ash drum at 100oF and 484 psia is increased with a compressor to 569 psia, so that, after pressure drops of 5 psia through the HE and 70 psia through the furnace, it enters the reactor at a required pressure of 494 psia.

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Pressure Increase Operations

Heuristics 35 Estimate the theoretical compressing a gas from: adiabatic horsepower
a

(THp)

for

T1 THp = SCFM 8, 130a

P2 P1

where SCFM = standard cubic feet of gas per minute at 60oF and 1 atm (379 SCF/lbrmol), T1 = gas inlet temperature in oR, inlet and outlet pressures, P1 and P2, are absolute pressures, and a = (k 1)/k , with k = the gas specic heat ratio, Cp/Cv . Estimate the theoretical exit temperature, T2 for a gas compressor from: a P2 T2 = T1 P1

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Pressure Increase Operations

Heuristics 35 Example: If air at 100oF is compressed from 1 to 3 atm (compression ratio = 3), usin k = 1.4, the THp is computed to be 128 Hp/standard million ft3/day, with an outlet temperature = 306oF. When using a compressor, the gas theoretical exit temperature should not exceed approximately 375oF. This corresponds to a compression ratio of 4 for k = 1.4 and T2 = 375oF. multistage compression with intercoolers.

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Pressure Increase Operations

Heuristics 36 Estimate the number of gas compression stages, N , from the following table, which assumes a specic heat ratio of 1.4 and a maximum compression ratio of 4 for each stage. Final Pessure/Inlet Pressure Number of Stages <4 4 to 16 16 to 64 64 to 256 1 2 3 4

Optimal interstage pressures correspond to equal Hp for each compressor. Therefore, based on the above equation for theoretical compressor Hp, estimate interstage pressures by using approximately the same compression ratio for each stage with an intercooler pressure drop of 2 psi or 15 kPa.

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Pressure Increase Operations

Heuristics 36 Example: A feed gas at 100oF and 30 psia is to be compressed to 569 psia. With an overall compression ratio of 569/30 = 19, a 3-stage system is indicated. For equal compression ratios, the compression ratio for each stage of a 3-stage system = 191/3 = 2.7. The estimated stage pressures are as follows, taking into account a 2 psi drop for each intercooler and its associated piping: Stage Compressor Inlet P, psia Compressor Outlet P, psia 1 2 3 30 79 211 81 213 569

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Pressure Increase Operations

Heuristics 37 For heads up 103, 200 ft and ow rates in the range of to to 5, 000 gpm, use a centrifugal pump. For high heads up to 20, 000 ft and ow rates up to 500 gpm, use a reciprocating pump. Less common are axial pumps for heads up to 40 ft for ow rates in the range of 20 to 100, 000 gpm and rotary pumps for heads up to 3, 000 ft for ow rates in the range of 1 to 1, 500 gpm. Note: The head in feet is the pressure increase across the pump in pounds force/ft2 divided by the liquid density in lb/ft3. For liquid water, with a density of 62.4 lb/ft3, heads of 3, 000 and 20, 000 ft correspond to pressure increases across the pump of 1, 300 and 8, 680 psi, respectively.

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Pressure Increase Operations

Heuristics 38 For liquid ow, assume a pipeline pressure drop of 2 psi/100 ft of pipe and a control valve pressure drop of at least 10 psi. For each 10-ft rise in elevation, assume a pressure drop of 4 psi. Heuristics 39 Estimate the theoretical horsepower (THp) for pumping a liquid from: (gpm)(Pressure increase, psi) THp = 1, 714 Heuristics 40 Consider the use of an expander for reducing the pressure of a gas or a pressure recovery turbine for reducing the pressure of a liquid when more than 20 Hp and 150 Hp, respectively, can be recovered.

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Pressure Decrease Operations

Heuristics 41 Estimate the theoretical adiabatic horsepower (THp) for expanding a gas from: T1 THp = SCFM 8, 130a Heuristics 42 Estimate the theoretical horsepower (THp) for reducing the pressure of a liquid from: (gpm)(Pressure decrease, psi) THp = 1, 714 1 P2 P1
a

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Pumping and Compression

Heuristics 43 To increase the pressure of a stream, pump a liquid rather than compress a gas; that is, condense a vapor, as long as refrigeration (and compression) is not needed, before pumping.
Since work done by pumping or compressions is given by:
V2

W =
V1

V dP

It

follows that it is more ecient to pump a liquid than to compress a gas. Thus, it is almost always preferable to condense a vapor, pump it, and vaporize it, rather than compress it.

Exception: if condensation requiresrefrigeration.

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Pumping and Compression

Heuristics 43 Example: Feed Preparation of Ethylbenzene
Ethylbenzene is to be taken from storage at 25oC and 1 atm and fed to a styrene reactor at 400oC and 5 atm at 100, 000 lb/h. Alternative 1: Pump the liquid rst. 12.5 brake Hp to pump, 4.67 107 Btu/hr to vaporize

Alternative 2: Vaporize the liquid rst. 4.21 107 Btu/hr to vaporize, 1897 brake Hp to compress

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Vacuum
When process pressures less than the ambient pressure are required (common in crystallization, distillation, drying, evaporation, pervaporation), vacuum devices are needed. A vacuum system is used to remove the air together with any associated vapor in the process stream that pass through the equipment. A vacuum inside equipment causes inleakage of ambient-pressure air For continuous operation, vacuums are predominantly in the range of 1 to 760 torr (0.13 to 101.3 kPa). It is common to use a vacuum pump, which compresses the gas from vacuum (suction pressure) to ambient pressure; or a jet-ejector system, which uses a ow of pressurized water or steam to mix with and remove the gas to create the vacuum. To design the vacuum system, it is necessary to estimate the inleakage of air, determine the total amount of gas (inleakage plus associated vapor) to be removed, and select an appropriate system for the vacuum level required.

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Vacuum
Heuristics 44 Estimate inleakage of air by: w = kV 0.667 where w = lb/hr of air inleakage, V = ft3 of volume of the equipment under vacuum, and k = 0.20 for pressures greater than 90 torr, k = 0.15 for pressures between 21 and 89 torr, k = 0.10 for pressures between 3 and 20 torr, and k = .051 for pressures between 1 and 3 torr.

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Vacuum
Heuristics 45 To reduce the amount of gas sent to the vacuum system if its temperature is greater than 100oF, add a condenser using cooling water before the vacuum system. The gas leaving the condenser will be at a dew-point temperature of 100oF at the vacuum pressure. Heuristics 46 For pressures down to 10 torr and gas ow rates up to 10, 000 ft3/min at the inlet to the vacuum system, use a liquid-ring vacuum pump. For pressures down to 2 torr and gas ow rates up to 1, 000, 000 ft3/min at the inlet to the vacuum system, use a steam-jet ejeclor system (one-stage for 100 to 760 torr, two-stage for 15 to 100 torr, and three-stage for 2 to 15 torr). Include a direct-contact condenser between stages.

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Vacuum
Heuristics 47 For a three-stage steam-jet ejector system used to achieve a vacuum of 2 torr, 100 pounds of 100 psig steam per pound of gas are required. Heuristics 48 If the solid particles are small in size, low in particle density, and are not sticky or abrasive, use pneumatic conveying with air at 1 to 7 ft3/ft3 of solids and 35 to 120 ft/s air velocity for distances up to 400 ft. Otherwise, for sticky and/or abrasive solids of any size and density, use a screw conveyer and/or bucket elevator for distances up to 150 ft. For solid particles of any size and shape, and not sticky, use a belt conveyor, with inclination up to 30o if necessary, for long distances up to a mile or more.

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Solid Particle Size Change and Separation

It is frequently necessary to change the particle size of solids to meet product specications or change reaction or drying rate. Methods to accomplish changes in particle size include:  crushing, grinding, and disintegration to reduce particle size;  compression, extrusion, and agglomeration to increase particle size;  and size separation devices to obtain a narrow range of particle size. Crushers and grinders are used with screens in closed circuits, where oversize material is recycled. Grindability is determined mainly by hardness as measured by the following Mohs scale, which ranges from 1 for the softest material to 10 for the hardest:

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Solid Particle Size Change and Separation

Material Talc, M g3SiO10(OH )2 Gypsum, CaSO4 2H2O Calcite, CaCO3 Fluorite, CaF2 Apatite, Ca5(P O4)3(OH, F, Cl) Feldspar, N a, Ca, K , Al silicates Quartz, SiO2 Topaz, Al2SiO4(F, OH )3 Corundum, Al2O3 Diamond, C Mohs Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Materials with a Mohs scale from 1 to 3 are considered soft and include graphite, many plastics, asphalt, sulfur, many inorganic salts, marble, and anthracite coal. Intermediate hardness extends from Mohs scale of 4 to 6 and includes limestone, asbestos, and glass. Hard materials are characterized by a Mohs scale of 7 to 10 and include sand, granite, and emery.

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Solid Particle Size Change and Separation

Size of small particles is commonly stated in terms of screen mesh size according to the following U.S. standard (ASTM EII), where not all mesh sizes are given: Mesh (Openings/inch) 4 6 8 12 16 20 30 40 50 70 100 140 200 270 400 Sieve Opening, mm 4.75 3.35 2.36 1.70 1.18 0.841 0.600 0.420 0.300 0.212 0.149 0.106 0.074 0.053 0.037

The following heuristics apply to particle-size reduction.

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Solid Particle Size Change and Separation

Heuristics 49 Crushing of coarse solids. Use a jaw crusher to reduce lumps of hard, abrasive, and/or sticky materials of 4 inches to 3 feet in diameter to slabby particles of 1 to 4 inches in size. Use a gyratory clusher to reduce slab by materials of 8 inches to 6 feet in size to rounded particles of 1 to 10 inches in diameter. Use a cone crusher to reduce less hard and less sticky materials of 2 inches to 1 foot in diameter to particles of 0.2 inch (4 mesh) to 2 inches in diameter.

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Solid Particle Size Change and Separation

Heuristics 50 Gringing to ne solids. Use a rod mill to take particles of intermediate hardness as large as 20 mm and reduce them to pal1icles in the range of 10 to 35 mesh. Use a ball mill to reduce particles of low to intermediale hardness of 1 to 10 mm in size to very small particles of less than 140 mesh.

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Solid Particle Size Change and Separation

Heuristics 51 Particle-size enlargement. Use compression with rotary compression machines to convert powders and granules into tablets of up to 1.5 inches in diameter. Use extruders with cutters to make pellets and wafers from pastes and melts. Use roll compactors to produce sheets from nely divided materials; the sheets are then cut into any desired shape. Use rotating drum granulators and rotary disk granulators with binders to produce particles in the size range of 2 to 25 mm.

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Solid Particle Size Change and Separation

Heuristics 52 Size separation of particles. Use a grizzly of spaced, inclined, vibrated parallel bars to remove large particles greater than 2 inches in diameter. Use a revolving cylindriical perforated screen to remove intermediate-size particles in the size range of 0.25 inch to 1.5 inches in diameter. Use at, inclined woven screens (U.S. standard) that are vibrated, shaken, or impacted with bouncing balls to separate small particles in the size range of 3 to 80 mesh. Use an air classier to separate ne particles smaller than 80 mesh.

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Removal of Particle from Gases and Liquids

Heuristics 53 Use a cyclone separator to remove, from a gas, droplets or solid particles of diameter down to 10 microns (0.01 mm). Use a hydroclone separator to remove, from a liquid, insoluble liquid droplets or solid particles of diameter down to 5 microns (0.005 mm). However, small amounts of entrained liquid droplets are commonly removed from gases by vertical knock-out drum equipped with mesh pads to help coalesce the smallest droplets Fine particles are most eciently removed from dilute suspensions in gases and liquids by using centrifugal force in cyclones and hydroclones, respectively.

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Heuristics for Process Synthesis: Summary

We have focused some design heuristics, enabling you to:
Understand the importance of selecting reaction paths that do not involve toxic or hazardous chemicals, or to reduce their presence by shortening residence times in the process units and avoiding their storage in large quantities. Be able to distribute the chemicals in a process owsheet, to account for the presence of inert species, to purge species that would otherwise build up to unacceptable concentrations, to achieve a high selectivity to the desired products. Be able to apply heuristics in selecting separation processes to separate liquids, vapors, and vapor-liquid mixtures. Be able to distribute the chemicals to remove exothermic heats of reaction. Understand the advantages of pumping a liquid rather than compressing a vapor.

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Thank You for Your Attention

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