Introduction to Chemical

Processes

Contents

Types of Chemical Engineering projects

The Anatomy of a Chemical Manufacturing Process
Batch Vs Continuous Processes
Process Flow Diagrams
Overview of Various Separation Operations

Types of Chemical Engineering Projects

1. Modifications, and additions, to existing plant;
usually carried out by the plant design group.
2. New production capacity to meet growing sales
demand, and the sale of established processes
by contractors. Repetition of existing designs,
with only minor design changes.
3. New processes, developed from laboratory
research, through pilot plant, to a commercial
process. Even here, most of the unit operations
and process equipment will use established
designs.
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Why Are ChEs Paid So Well

To Work in So Many Different Industries?
They can start from a vaguely defined problem
statement such as a customer need or a set of
experimental results
From the problem statement they develop an
understanding of the important underlying
physical science relevant to the problem
Using this understanding they can develop a
plan of action and set of detailed specifications,
which if followed will lead to a predicted financial
outcome

Why Are ChEs Paid So Well

To Work in So Many Different Industries?
They can start from a vaguely
defined problem statement such
as a customer need or a set of
experimental results
From the problem statement they
develop an understanding of the
important underlying physical
science relevant to the problem
Using this understanding they can
develop a plan of action and set of
detailed specifications, which if
followed will lead to a predicted
financial outcome

All the other ChE

courses teach you this

The design course

addresses these

The Design Process

Problem statement

XYZ Co.

Plan
Financial
outcome

Implementation

THE ANATOMY OF A CHEMICAL

MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Stage 1. Raw material storage

Unless the raw materials (also called essential materials,
or feed stocks) are supplied as intermediate products
(intermediates) from a neighboring plant, some provision
will have to be made to hold several days, or weeks,
storage to smooth out fluctuations and interruptions in
supply.
Even when the materials come from an adjacent plant
some provision is usually made to hold a few hours, or
even days, supply to decouple the processes.
The storage required will depend on the nature of the raw
materials, the method of delivery, and what assurance
can be placed on the continuity of supply.
If materials are delivered by ship (tanker or bulk carrier)
several weeks stocks may be necessary; whereas if they
are received by road or rail, in smaller lots, less storage
will be needed.
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Stage 2: Feed preparation

Some purification, and preparation, of the raw
materials will usually be necessary before they are
sufficiently pure, or in the right form, to be fed to the
reaction stage.
For example, acetylene generated by the carbide
process contains arsenical and sulphur compounds,
and other impurities, which must be removed by
scrubbing with concentrated sulphuric acid (or other
processes) before it is sufficiently pure for reaction
with hydrochloric acid to produce dichloroethane.
Liquid feeds will need to be vaporised before being
fed to gas phase reactors, and solids may need
crushing, grinding and screening.
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Stage 3: Reactor:
The reaction stage is the heart of a chemical
manufacturing process.
In the reactor the raw materials are brought
together under conditions that promote the
production of the desired product; invariably, byproducts and unwanted compounds (impurities)
will also be formed.

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Stages 4-5 Downstream Operations

Stage 4. Product separation: In this first stage
after the reactor the products and by-products are
separated from any unreacted material.
If in sufficient quantity, the unreacted material will
be recycled to the reactor.
They may be returned directly to the reactor, or to
the feed purification and preparation stage.
The by-products may also be separated from the
products at this stage.
Stage 5. Purification: The main product will
usually need purification to meet the product
specification.
If produced in economic quantities, the byproducts may also be purified for sale.
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Stage 6. Product storage

Some inventory of finished product must be held
to match production with sales.
Provision for product packaging and transport
will also be needed, depending on the nature of
the product.
Liquids will normally be dispatched in drums and
in bulk tankers (road, rail and sea), solids in
sacks, cartons or bales.
The stock held will depend on the nature of the
product and the market.

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Ancillary processes
In addition to the main process stages
shown in Figure 1.3, provision will have to
be made for the supply of the services
(utilities) needed; such as, process water,
cooling water, compressed air, steam.
Facilities will also be needed for
maintenance, firefighting, offices and other
accommodation, and laboratories.

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Continuous and batch processes

Continuous processes are designed to operate 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, throughout the year.
Some down time will be allowed for maintenance and, for
some processes, catalyst regeneration.
The plant attainment; that is, the percentage of the available
hours in a year that the plant operates, will usually be 90 to
95%.
Attainment % = (hours operated/8760) x 100
Batch processes are designed to operate intermittently.
Some, or all, the process units being frequently shut down
and started up.
Continuous processes will usually be more economical for
large scale production. Batch processes are used where
some flexibility is wanted in production rate or product
specification.
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To choose between batch or

continuous operation the following rules
can be used as a guide.
Continuous
Production rate greater
than 5 x 106 kg/h
Single product
No severe fouling
Good catalyst life
Proven processes
design
Established market

Batch
Production rate less than
5 x 106 kg/h
A range of products or
product specifications
Severe fouling
Short catalyst life
New product
Uncertain design
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Process Drawings
All project drawings are normally drawn on specially
printed sheets, with the company name; project title and
number; drawing title and identification number;
draughtsman's name and person checking the drawing;
clearly set out in a box in the bottom right-hand corner.
Provision should also be made for noting on the drawing
all modifications to the initial issue.
Drawings should conform to accepted drawing
conventions, preferably those laid down by the national
standards, BS 308.
The symbols used for flow-sheets and piping and
instrument diagrams will be discussed in Process Control.
In most design offices, increasing use is being made of
Computer Aided Design (CAD) methods to produce the
drawings required for all the aspects of a project: flowsheets, piping and instrumentation, mechanical and civil
work.
16

Manuals
Process manuals:
Process manuals are often prepared by the process
design group to describe the process and the basis of
the design. Together with the flow-sheets, they provide a
complete technical description of the process.
Operating manuals
Operating manuals give the detailed, step by step,
instructions for operation of the process and equipment.
They would normally be prepared by the operating
company personnel, but may also be issued by a
contractor as part of the contract package for a less
experienced client.
The operating manuals would be used for operator
instruction and training, and for the preparation of the
formal plant operating instructions.
17

Getting Started
To begin, we need to get an idea of the major
process steps the block flow diagram
We usually start from

The existing process diagram

The flowsheet of a similar known chemistry
A flowsheet given in a patent or encyclopedia
A novel reactor concept or chemists recipe

At this stage, we only consider reactions,

separations and high cost items (big compressors
and fired heaters). We will worry about adding
heat exchangers, pumps, controllers, etc. later
when we develop the full Process Flow Diagram.

Process Flowsheet Development

Objectives
How do we put together a combination of unit operations
that will convert the specified feeds into a desired
product?
What can the flowsheet tell us about the costs of making
different products or using alternative feeds?
How do we scale up a chemists recipe of steps into a
process for large-scale manufacture?
How do we consider innovative designs that might lead
to a more competitive position in the market?

FLOW-SHEET PRESENTATION
As the process flow-sheet is the definitive document on the
process, the presentation must be clear, comprehensive,
accurate and complete. The various types of flow-sheet are
discussed below.
Block diagrams
A block diagram is the simplest form of presentation. Each
block can represent a single piece of equipment or a
complete stage in the process.
Block diagrams are useful for representing a process in a
simplified form in reports and textbooks, but have only a
limited use as engineering documents.
The stream flow-rates and compositions can be shown on the
diagram adjacent to the stream lines, when only a small
amount of information is to be shown, or tabulated separately.
The blocks can be of any shape, but it is usually convenient to
use a mixture of squares and circles, drawn with
a template.
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Adipic Acid Plant- Block Diagram

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Pictorial representation
On the detailed flow-sheets used for design and
operation, the equipment is normally drawn in a
stylised pictorial form.
For tender documents or company brochures,
actual scale drawings of the equipment are
sometimes used, but it is more usual to use a
simplified representation.
The symbols given in British Standard, BS 1553
(1977) "Graphical Symbols for General
Engineering" Part 1, "Piping Systems and Plant"
are recommended; though most design offices
use their own standard symbols.
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Presentation of stream flow-rates

The data on the flow-rate of each individual component, on the
total stream flow-rate, and the percentage composition, can be
shown on the flow-sheet in various ways.
The simplest method, suitable for simple processes with few
equipment pieces, is to tabulate the data in blocks alongside
the process stream lines, as shown in Figure 4.1. Only a
limited amount of information can be shown in this way, and it is
difficult to make neat alterations or to add additional data.
A better method for the presentation of data on flow-sheets is
shown in Figure 4.2. In this method each stream line is
numbered and the data tabulated at the bottom of the sheet.
Alterations and additions can be easily made. This is the
method generally used by professional design offices.

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Figure 4.1. Flow-sheet: polymer production

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Figure 4.2. Flow-sheet; simplified nitric

acid process

25

Figure 4.2. Flow-sheet; simplified nitric

acid process

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Separation Processes
Separation processes are needed for feed
pretreatment, product recovery and waste
processing
Most separations are based on moving a
component from one phase to another
and then segregating the two phases
Driven by activity gradient as phases try to
reach equilibrium
Affected by rates of mass transfer and heat
transfer

Vapor-Liquid Separations
Flash
Single stage thermal
& phase eqbm

Distillation
Multiple stage separation
between identified light key
& heavy key components

Absorption
Removal of vapor
component using
non-volatile solvent
Evaporation
Single stage removal of
volatile solute or solvent

Fractionation
Separation of multicomponent
mixture into fractions by boiling
ranges (e.g. in oil refining)

Stripping
Multi-stage
removal of volatile
solute from solvent

Example: Crude Oil Fractionation

Crude
Column

Overhead
Receiver

Recontact
Drum

Stabilizer

First process in
oil refining

Sizes range
from 10 to 850
kbd

Consumes
0.8% of the
energy content
of the oil

Straight-run
products all
require further
processing

To Flare

LPG

Kerosene
Charge
Heater

Steam
Crude
Oil

Sidecut
Strippers

Steam

Light Gas Oil

Heavy Gas Oil

Splitter

Light
Naphtha

Reduced Crude

Heavy
Naphtha
2007 G.P. Towler / UOP. For educational use in conjunction with
Sinnott & Towler Chemical Engineering Design only. Do not copy

Chemical Engineering Design

Example: Acid Gas Scrubbing

Treated Gas
Water

Acid Gas
Knock-Out
Drum

Amine
Stripper

Amine
Absorber

Feed Gas

Cooler

Filter

Flash Gas
Water

Rich Flash Drum

Lean Amine
Cooler
Lean/Rich
Exchanger

Reboiler

For removal of H2S &/or CO2 from gases using solvents such as
methyldiethanolamine (MDEA)
2007 G.P. Towler / UOP. For educational use in conjunction with
Sinnott & Towler Chemical Engineering Design only. Do not copy

Chemical Engineering Design

Vapor-Vapor Separations
Membrane
Based on differences in relative
permeability of gases
Used for H2/CH4, CO2 removal,
air separation

Adsorption
Adsorb components selectively on a solid
Regenerate sorbent by temperature swing
(TSA) or pressure swing (PSA)
Used for air separation, H2/CH4, most
separations involving low concentrations

Absorption
Using a liquid solvent
in an absorberstripper loop
Used for acid gases,
drying, water wash

12-Bed PSA Unit

Surge Tank

Adsorber Vessels

Valve
Skid

Source: UOP

Liquid-Liquid Separations
Decanting
Single stage thermal
& phase eqbm

Extraction
Multi-stage
contacting of two
liquid phases

Mixer-Settler
Single theoretical stage
extraction process
Often 2 or 3 stages are still
cheaper than a column

Membrane
Based on differences in relative
permeability of components
Membrane can be used to keep
two solvents from mixing

Example: Sulfolane Process

Used for L/L extraction of

benzene and toluene from
gasoline using sulfolane solvent

Fluid-Solid Separations
Cyclone
For bulk solids
recovery from L or V

Centrifuge
Enhanced gravity
separation, usually
from liquid
Crystallization
Stirred tank designed to
have right residence time to
grow desired crystal size

Driers
Remove residual traces of
liquid from solid
Belt or rotary driers are
used in continuous plants

Filter
Used for recovery of fine
material from L or V.
Requires scraping or baghouse for continuous
operation

Liquid in

Disc-Bowl Centrifuge
Liquid out

Solid
out

Source: Alfa-Laval

Bowl containing a stack of

discs rotates
Liquid passes up between
plates, solids are pushed to
the outside
Some models allow
continuous solids removal,
others collect solids
All have moving parts
therefore need maintenance
on motors, bearings

Process flowsheet: Example 1

Process flowsheet: Example 2

Comparison of two processes

Units:

Actions:

- Heaters/heat exchangers
- Pumps
- Distillation units
- Reactors
-

- Heat exchange
- Material transport
- Separation
- Mixing
-

Unit Operations:

- Unit Operations is a method of analysis and design of chemical

engineering processes in terms of individual tasks/operations
- It is a way of organizing chemical engineering knowledge into
groups of individual tasks/operations
- A unit operation: basic step in a chemical engineering process

Unit Operations: Classification

Fluid flow processes
- fluid transport
- solids fluidization
- mixing

Thermodynamic processes
- liquifaction
- refrigeration
Mechanical processes

Heat transfer processes

- heating/cooling
- evaporation/condensation
Mass transfer processes
- absorption
- distillation
- extraction
- adsorption
- drying

- crushing
- sieving
- solid transportation

In unit operations the mass and

concentration change takes place (between
entrance and exit points)by providing
energy from an external source and no
chemical change takes place. Eg:
distillation, evaporation, mixing, etc.
While in case of unit process, processing
of reactant in the feed takes place i.e
reactants in feed get converted into products
(by chemical reaction)with the help of either
energy supplied to the system or generated
by the system.
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General Principles Applied in studying an industry

1.Market and Sales Justification of the industry
2.Methods of Production
a. Chemical reactions
.b. Process flow diagrams- flow sheets
c. Material requirement
3. Chemical Engineering problems
a. Manufacturing
b. Economics
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Methods of Production
1.Chemistry
a. Analytical Chemistry
b. Physical Chemistry
c. Organic Chemistry
d. Inorganic Chemistry
2. Thermodynamics
a. Chemical equilibria(Ideal System)
b. Energy application (Heat of reaction, compression and
expansion of real gas)
c. Laws of thermodynamics
(First law Sensible heat transferrin heating and cooling,
phase changes, heat os solution and absorption)
(Second Law- Calculation of equilibrium constant,
effect of
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temperature, yields , solvents, recycle streams)

d. Thermodynamic Functions
Enthalpy , Entropy, External work, internal energy,Gibbs
free energy
3. Reaction Kinetics
Heterogenous , Homogenous , Catalysis, Energy transfer,
Mechanism,
Effect of variables
4. Process and Mechanical Design
Block, Flow sheets
5. Economics
a. Capital Investment
Fixed Capital for plant facilities(Site, Buildings, utilities
plants, Process equipment, storage facilities, emergency
facilities
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Working capital
Raw materials inventory, In process inventory,
product inventory, Maintaince and repair
inventory, accounts, cash reserve
b.Total Product costs
Raw material, shipping containers, operating cost,
labor cost, utilities, purchasing)
General Expanses
c. Economic Analysis
Selling price, Market price, Profitability

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