Chemical Process Industry Flashcards
Intro
Raw materials to useful products
Rare earth: not very rare but present in small quantities and difficult to mine (hazardous and costly to mine)
Samarium: high temp, permanent magnets
Neodymium – green technologies (wind turbines, hybrid cars)
Primary Industries
Converting raw material to primary form
Hard to scale up and down production
Massive capital infrastructure
Little variation
Slow to innovate
Plants tend to be large and integrated
Significant environmental impact
Generally commodities
Competition based on price
Globalisation, fewer, bigger market participation
Large efficient plants dominate
Secondary Indutries
Smaller volumes, higher product variation
Supply chain management
High V supply chain require excellent communication
Regionalisation
Product and process innovation
Mix and volume volatility
Automation and people skills
Specialty chemicals
Differences
Competition
1- price
2- features
Innovation
Low
High
Manufacturing
Efficient and scale
Flexibility and responsiveness
Marekt
Low growth
High
Demand Variety
low or predictable
Variable and volatile
Product
bulk commodity: plant is large, continuous efficient optimised and operations are integrated, predictable, focus on reliability
Infrequent NPI, spec based on analysis and function
Packed in small units, FMCG: plant is smaller, batch, flexible, people and automation and operations are less integrated responsive and flexible
Frequent NPI, spec driven by brand, packaging key
Supply chain
Commodity: simple and stable with long shelf life and stable ddemand
FMCG: dynamic and complex, lead times and velocity is key. Short shelf lif eof inventory and forecasting is difficult
Social and Environemtn
Comodity: large visually intrusive plants, effluent discharge
FMCG: smaller, local
Unit Operations
A vast array of processes across industries: Each is a series of steps, or “unit operations”
Common “unit operations” across industries include:
Transportation of solids or fluids
Transfer of heat
Reaction Engineering
Raw materials converted to the product
Most common reactor geometries:
Stirred tank
Tubular
Packed bed
Fluidised bed
Continuous and batch
Continuous
Product-specific and optimised
Control focuses on maintaining steady states accurately and coping with relatively small perturbations
all runs or all stops
Product specific
Poor colume flexibility
In line quality analysis
Batch
More flexible via different recipes
Control manages a wider range of conditions and recipes.
More control hierarchy and information management
Easy to stop and start
Handles flexibility
Sample off line to quality check
Process Design, Mass Balances
Design
Initial evaluation: sketch a rough block diagram showing the main stages in the process. Experience should then indicate what types of unit operations and equipment should be considered: the conversion of an ill-defined requirement into a satisfied customer
Material and energy balances: will determine the quantities of raw materials required and products produced and the process stream flow and compositions
Preliminary cost estimation
Detailed design of process, equipment, pipes and instrumentation
Infrastructure specification and design
Full cost estimation
Procurement
Start up, operation adn sales
Hazard Analysis
Hazard: potential condition, which if met becomes an event resulting in damage, loss, injury, and/or deaths.
Risk: the probability that a hazard occurs accompanied by the severity of the resulting outcome.
Forensic engineering: Detailed investigation after event, to determine the causes in order that corrective action can be applied.
System safety: pre-emptive forensic engineering, whereby potential events are identified, evaluated, and controlled before they occur
Safety is designed in, mishaps are designed out
Conceptual design hazard analysis: high level form of analysis and a basis for initially estimating the overall safety effort.
Preliminary design: identify system level hazards to obtain an initial risk assessment
Detailed design: Further evaluate hazards with the new detailed design information. This evaluates the functional relationships of components and equipment comprising each subsystem.
Hazard and Operability
analysis technique falls under the preliminary design hazard analysis type (PD-HAT) and the detailed design hazard analysis type (DD-HAT). It is a technique for identifying and analysing hazards and operational concerns of a system.
structured, systematic, and logical process
multidisciplinary team with experts in many areas
experienced team leader
controlled use of system design representations
The use of carefully selected system entities, attributes, and guide words to identify hazards
Describe the intention of the component/part of the process
List possible deviations from the intention, using guide words
Causes. How/why deviations could occur.
Consequences results that follow the deviation
Hazards
Disadvantages
HAZOP analysis focuses on single events rather than combinations of possible events.
HAZOP analysis focuses on guide words, so can overlook hazards not related to a guide word.
HAZOP analysis training is essential for optimum results.
The HAZOP analysis can be time consuming and expensive
Chemical Process Industry Trends
Digital transformations:
Leveraging new technologies
Sensors in dispensing equipment that allow its technical services people to optimise consumption
Bi-modal factory size trends
Manufactures of bulk chemicals attracted to regions with raw material sources
Green chemistry
Prevent waste
Maximize atom economy
Design syntheses to use and generate substances with little or no toxicity
Design safer chemicals and products
Use safer solvents and reaction conditions
Increase energy efficiency - run chemical reactions at RT, P.
Use renewable feedstocks
Avoid chemical derivatives
Use catalysts, not stoichiometric reagents
Design chemicals and products to degrade after use
Analyse in real time to prevent pollution
Minimize the potential for accidents
Disruptive Technologies
Nanotechnology: Using cerium oxide to add to diesel fuel to ensure a fuel-saving
Biotechnology: use of living cells to produce chemical products (programming a bacteria to produce it for you), insulin produced by the fermentation of sugars from maize
