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Assignment 2016
Assignment 2016
Assignment 2016
Course
Semester
January 2016
Lecturer
Due Date
24th March 2016 (Reminder: 1 mark reduction for each day delay)
Supreme Solution Inc is a consultancy film on chemical process development. Recently, they are awarded by a giant petrochemical
company to conduct a preliminary study on the vinyl acetate production process. Your team is so fortunate to be assigned by the
project director to handle the process control and instrumentation setup of the vinyl acetate production plant. Vinyl acetate is an
organic compound with the formula CH3COOCH=CH2, a colorless liquid with a pungent odor, it is the precursor to polyvinyl acetate,
an important polymer in industry. Your team is required to design the most appropriate process control strategies and the related
instrumentations for the vinyl acetate production as shown in the process flow diagram of Figure 1. The control system is preferred to
be as simple and economical as possible but sufficiently and efficiently to cater for the control purpose according the process
description and contraints. The final report which submitting to director should include the following:
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Some basic control requirements are provided by the manager as follows for the reaction process of vinyl acetate:
PROCESS REQUIREMENTS
Process constraints
1. O2 concentration must not exceed 8 mol% anywhere in the gas recycle loop to remain outside the explosivity envelope of
ethylene.
2. The pressure in the gas recycle loop and distillation column cannot exceed 965 kPa because of the mechanical construction
limit of the vessels.
3. The peak reactor temperature along the length of the tube must remain below 200 oC to prevent mechanical damage to the
catalyst.
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Since this system involves corrosive and highly flammable chemical. Please indicate the additional instrumentations required to
ensure safe operation during some unexpected circumstances such as malfunction of control system.
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Measuring device
1) Level sensor/switch (high level- HL & low level- LL), level sensor/transmitter (point type- LS or continuous type- CLT)
2) Flow meter (FM), flow sensor/indicator (FS/FI).
3) Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTD), thermocouple wires (T), temperature gauge (TG), temperature indicator (TI).
4) Pressure sensor/transmitter (PT), pressure indicator (PI), pressure gauge (PG)
5) Composition analyzer/transmitter (AT).
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NOTICE: Please refer to recommended references for a more precise/common symbol & abbreviation.
REMINDER: This assignment contributes 15% out of the 40% of the total coursework marks.
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2) Turton, R., Bailie, R. C., Whiting, W. B. and Shaeiwitz, J. A. (2009). Analysis, Synthesis and Design of Chemical Processes.
Prentice Hall.
3) McAvinew, T. and Mulley, R. (2004). Control System Documentation- Applying Symbols and Identification 2 edition. The
Instrumentation, System, and Automation Society.
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Figure 1 Process flow diagram of the vinyl acetate monomer production plant
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