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Chemical Engineering-Enero 2018 PDF
Chemical Engineering-Enero 2018 PDF
Chemical Engineering-Enero 2018 PDF
2018
www.chemengonline.com
Process
Commercialization page 22
Pumps
Pressure Measurement
Combustion Equipment
Career Guidelines
Focus on Solids
Handling
Activated Carbon
Production
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Cover Story
22 Part 1 Process Commercialization: The 2017
Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement
Award The technologies behind the award winner, as well as honoree
awards, are described here
29 Part 2 The Road to Commercialization:
Best Practices Experts share their best practices in
process commercialization
In the News
5 Chementator
Ceramic-membrane technology simplifies steam methane
reforming; Microbe-impregnated matrices reduce biosolids in
wastewater; Foam-dyeing process cuts water and chemicals in
denim production; A step closer for graphene-coated anodes; A
photocatalyst for reducing CO2 to CH4; and more
9 Business News
Covestro invests in debottlenecking and chlorine supply at
Tarragona site; Clariant selected by Xuzhou HaiDing for new PDH unit in
China; W.R. Grace awarded Unipol PP contracts in Kuwait and China; Lotte 22
Versalis Elastomers opens new production plant in South Korea; and more
Departments
3 Editor’s Page Starting strong
18 Positive signs in manufacturing, business investments and the oil-and-gas
sector point to a strong start for the CPI in 2018
64 Economic Indicators
Advertisers
55 Hot Products
60 Classified
62 Subscription Application
63 Ad Index
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Coming in February
Look for: Feature Reports on Distillation; and Personal Protective
Equipment; A Focus on Motors and Drives; A Facts at your
Fingertips on Flow Measurement; News Articles on Data Analytics;
and Milling and Particle Sizing; an Engineering Practice article on Level
Measurement; New Products; and much more
L
Editorial Director Graphic Designer ast month, the American Chemistry Council (ACC; www.
rhudgins@accessintel.com
dlozowski@chemengonline.com americanchemistry.com) issued its annual year-end report,
GERALD ONDREY (FRANKFURT) PRODUCTION which offers a positive outlook for the chemical process
Senior Editor
gondrey@chemengonline.com SOPHIE CHAN-WOOD industries (CPI). The report, “Year-End 2017 Chemical Industry
Production Manager
schanwood@accessintel.com Situation and Outlook,” was prepared by the ACC’s Economics and
SCOTT JENKINS
Senior Editor INFORMATION Statistics Department, with the ACC’s chief economist, Kevin Swift,
sjenkins@chemengonline.com SERVICES as lead author. According to Swift, “Manufacturing has turned a cor-
MARY PAGE BAILEY CHARLES SANDS ner, business investment is on the rise, and domestic oil and gas
Associate Editor Director of Digital Development
mbailey@chemengonline.com csands@accessintel.com production is on the rebound. It all sets the stage for tremendous
GROUP PUBLISHER CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
momentum, expansion, and capital investment.”
MATTHEW GRANT SUZANNE A. SHELLEY
mattg@powermag.com sshelley@chemengonline.com Industry outlook
AUDIENCE CHARLES BUTCHER (U.K.) In the U.S., the abundant and inexpensive feedstock and energy
cbutcher@chemengonline.com
DEVELOPMENT advantages offered by shale gas developments have led to sig-
SARAH GARWOOD
Audience Marketing Director
PAUL S. GRAD (AUSTRALIA) nificant capital investments, and continue to play a prominent role
pgrad@chemengonline.com
sgarwood@accessintel.com in the direction the CPI are taking. More than half of the invest-
JESSICA GRIER
TETSUO SATOH (JAPAN)
tsatoh@chemengonline.com
ments announced since 2010 are either under construction or
Senior Marketing Manager
jgrier@accessintel.com
have been completed.
JOY LEPREE (NEW JERSEY) The report estimates that chemical production volumes (excluding
jlepree@chemengonline.com
GEORGE SEVERINE
Fulfillment Manager pharmaceuticals) were up 0.8% in 2017 despite interruptions to pro-
gseverine@accessintel.com duction in the Gulf Coast region due to the severe hurricanes experi-
DANIELLE ZABORSKI enced in August. Production volumes are poised to go up more in the
List Sales: Merit Direct, (914) 368-1090
dzaborski@meritdirect.com
near future — by 3.7% in 2018. “In addition,” the report says, “a sec-
ond wave of investment is on the way.” And, the oil-and-gas sector,
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD which had been in a slump, is said to be on the rebound. Most of the
JOHN CARSON JOHN HOLLMANN CPI growth in the U.S. is expected to be in the Gulf Coast region, the
Jenike & Johanson, Inc. Validation Estimating LLC
Ohio Valley and the Southeast. Increased production would generate
DAVID DICKEY
MixTech, Inc.
HENRY KISTER
Fluor Corp.
materials for export, so any changes in trade policy, however, could
have a strong effect on projected growth.
HEADQUARTERS On a global view, the report cites a strengthening in manufacturing,
40 Wall Street, 50th floor, New York, NY 10005, U.S.
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In this issue
CIRCULATION REQUESTS: The overall optimistic message of the year-end report gives the CPI a
Tel: 847-564-9290
Fax: 847-564-9453 strong starting point for 2018. The challenges, however, are many —
Fullfillment Manager; P.O. Box 3588,
Northbrook, IL 60065-3588 particularly in keeping up with growing competition. Companies are
email: chemeng@omeda.com
looking to innovative process and product improvements, as well as
ADVERTISING REQUESTS: SEE P. 62 implementing new developments, such as in digitalization, to maintain
For reprints, licensing and permissions: Wright's Media, 1-877-652-5295,
sales@wrightsmedia.com a competitive edge. Our two-part Cover Story this month (pp. 22–32)
takes a close look at a select group of innovative processes that have
ACCESS INTELLIGENCE, LLC been developed, and commercialized in the past two years. The road
DON PAZOUR
Chief Executive Officer
JONATHAN RAY
Vice President, Digital
to commercializing a new process can be long and difficult, and so,
in addition to covering the impressive process and product develop-
HEATHER FARLEY MICHAEL KRAUS
Chief Operating Officer Vice President, ments, we compiled some of the best practices for commercialization
Production, Digital Media & Design
that were used in these accomplishments.
JAMES OGLE
Executive Vice President STEVE BARBER You will also find articles on pumps, pressure
& Chief Financial Officer Vice President,
Financial Planning and Internal Audit measurement, career guidelines for young engi-
MACY L. FECTO
Exec. Vice President, GERALD STASKO
neers, high-shear mixing and more in this issue. We
Human Resources & Administration Vice President/Corporate Controller look forward to bringing you the variety of topics
JENNIFER SCHWARTZ that we have planned for this year. We hope you
Senior Vice President & Group Publisher
Aerospace, Energy, Healthcare find the articles informative, and as always, we wel-
come your feedback.
ROB PACIOREK
Senior Vice President,
9211 Corporate Blvd., 4th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850-3240
Our best wishes to all of our readers for a happy,
Chief Information Officer www.accessintel.com
healthy and prosperous new year. ■
Dorothy Lozowski, Editorial Director
comimm.it
...the pumps
Our group constantly invests in people, state of the art machinery,
research & development, and marketing.
l’impegno di essere avanti
With pride and passion, our team works hard every day towards the
continuous improvement of a durable technology that has existed for 100 years. www.pompetravaini.it
Pompetravaini Spa • Via per Turbigo, 44 • 20022 Castano Primo (Mi)
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A
new type of
steam-reform- InletCH4
Outlet
CO2 3-D PRINTING
ing system + +
H20 H20 At the 3-D printing trade-
that produces show Formnext in Novem-
— in a single step — e- ber, GE Additive (Paris,
purified, compressed H France; www.ge.com) un-
hydrogen from meth- Compressed H2 C veiled a laser-powder addi-
ane has been devel- O
tive manufacturing machine
oped by a team of sci- with a 1-m3 build envelope.
entists from CoorsTek Membrane Sciences conversion. At the same time, the heat re- The machine, said to be the
AS (Oslo; www.coorstek.com), the Univer- quired for the highly endothermic reform- world’s largest laser-powder
sity of Oslo (both Norway; www.uio.no) and ing and water-shift reactions is supplied by system, will be used to make
structural components for
the Institute of Chemical Technology (Valen- the electrical operation of the membrane.
jet engines in the aerospace
cia, Spain; http://itq.upv-csic.es). In a labo- The added bonus is that the product H2 industry, as well as parts for
ratory-scale system, the so-called protonic is also compressed (electrochemically) to the power, oil-and-gas and
membrane reformer (PMR) has been shown a pressure of 50 bars. In contrast, alter- automotive industries. GE
to achieve complete conversion of CH4 into native membrane-reactor systems, such says the build geometry of
two separate streams: wet CO2 and H2 with as those based on palladium membranes, the machine will be custom-
impurity levels of less than 4 parts per million are driven by partial pressure differences izable and scalable for each
(ppm) — clean enough for fuel-cell opera- across the membrane, and thus require project, and its feature reso-
tion. The system has an overall energy ef- additional multistage compressors, with lution and build-rate speeds
ficiency of more than 87%. the associated capital and operating will equal or exceed current
additive machines. GE also
As described in a recent issue of Nature costs, to produce compressed H2.
says the machine, known
Energy, the PMR is a tubular electrochemi- CoorsTek Membrane Sciences believes as Atlas, is designed to be
cal cell with a proton-conducting electro- such ceramic membrane systems can be a used with multiple materials,
lyte (BZCY: BaZr0.8-x-yCexYyO3-) sand- cost-competitive technology for H2 produc- including non-reactive and
wiched between two porous electrodes of tion with integrated CO2 capture, even at a reactive materials (such as
BZCY and Ni. Methane and steam pass scale required for cost-effective ammonia aluminum and titanium).
through the center of the reformer tube at production. The company says it has the
a temperature of 700–850°C and a pres- manufacturing capabilities to make ceramic ‘DIGITAL FERTILIZER’
sure of 5–30 bars. By applying a voltage membranes cost competitive with traditional Toyo Engineering Corp.
across the electrolyte, H2 is selectively ex- energy conversion technology for both in- (Toyo; Chiba, Japan; www.
tracted from the inner reforming chamber dustrial- and small-scale H2 production. “A toyo-eng.co.jp) has devel-
by migrating through the proton-conduct- prototype membrane-manufacturing line is oped and launched the first
ing membrane to generate pure H2 on the already operational, and an H2 mini-plant commercial application of its
other side of the membrane. The H2 sepa- is now under construction with capacity to “Digital Fertilizer” technology
— an internet of things (IoT)
ration also serves to drive the thermody- make up to 5 kg/d of H2,” says CoorsTek
namically limited reaction to full methane managing director Per Vestre. (Continues on p. 6)
H
igh-surface-area beads (cfu) per gram, or about 100 times the water and can grow quickly. In addi-
filled with microbes are concentration of liquid products. tion, the process of introducing the
being used to eliminate pol- The non-genetically modified mi- microbes to the solid-bead matrix
lutants in wastewaters. In crobes convert solid sludge mass into and the method of use for sludge
one case, Drylet LLC (San Francisco, gases and water, reducing sludge vol- treatment ensures that first-genera-
Calif.; www.drylet.com) has devel- umes by up to 50% with no capital in- tion microbes are added each day,
oped engineered porous particles vestment, according to the company. Erceg says. These are more active
that provide large surface areas (the “We are looking to reprogram the than “older” microbes, he says.
equivalent of 12 football fields of sur- microbial communities at wastewater The reduction of biosolids lowers
face area per pound of material). treatment plants to promote the mi- disposal costs, and decreases main-
Using a proprietary process, the crobial activity of beneficial microbes tenance requirements and electrical
chemically inert particles are loaded and help them outcompete those costs, Erceg says. He adds that the
with microbes that consume biosolids that are less useful,” explains Luka impact of the product on reduced
(sludge) in wastewater applications. Erceg, president and CEO of Drylet. ammonia emissions also leads to
The large surface area allows for the Microbes within the porous net- lower chemical bleach usage. (For a
remarkably large microbe concentra- work are protected from attack by related sludge-reducing technology,
tion of 1 1011 colony-forming units other bacteria and protists in the see p. 25).
F
continuously monitoring and
oam dyeing, a new technology for dye-
analyzing plant operations ing cotton yarn that is being applied
and key performance indica- to denim production for the first time,
tors (KPls) of the plant. The eliminates the use of several chemicals
system has been applied and can reduce water use by up to 90% com-
in a 2,750-ton/d urea plant pared to traditional dyeing. The foam-dyeing
owned and operated by PT process, known as IndigoZERO, was devel-
Pupuk Sriwidjaja Palembang oped at the Fiber and Biopolymer Research
in Palembang in South Su- Institute at Texas Tech University (Lubbock;
matra, Indonesia as a sub-
www.texastech.edu) and is being commercial-
sidiary of the state-owned
Indonesian fertilizer com-
ized by Indigo Mill Designs LLC (IMD; Greens-
pany, PT Pupuk Indonesia. boro, N.C.; www.indigomilldesigns.com). dye the cotton blue. The Texas Tech/IMD pro-
In December 2016, Toyo Traditional dyeing of denim involves dye cess has allowed foam dyeing to be used to
and General Electric Co. baths, in which the indigo dye is treated with a color yarn with indigo, opening its use in denim
(GE; Boston, Mass.; www. reducing agent (sodium hydrosulfite) and pH- production. Previously it could only be used on
ge.com) signed a memo- adjusting sodium hydroxide to render it solu- already woven fabric.
randum of understanding ble in water. The cotton yarns used for making The new process has a host of environmental
(MoU) for a joint project to denim are dipped continuously as ropes into benefits without adding cost. Traditional denim
explore digital solutions for the baths, and then removed and exposed to production requires 400 gal of water for each
the fertilizer and petrochem-
air in a step called skying to oxidize the in- 100 yards of fabric, also with 370 lb of NaOH
icals industries. Under the
MoU, Toyo and GE jointly
digo back into its raw form to color the yarn. and 39 lb of reducing agent for 100 lb of raw
developed Digital Fertil- Making denim typically requires six or more indigo dye, explains Sudhakar Puvvada, an
izer on GE Predix, which dip-and-skye cycles and several rinses, all advisor to IMD and the leader of the denim
is a unique cloud-based of which require substantial amounts water, global innovation center for Wrangler and Lee
platform built exclusively which then must be treated. brands, which have invested in the technology.
for industry by using Toyo’s The foam-dyeing process, on the other hand, Foam-dyeing eliminates the need for NaOH and
expertise in processes and uses surfactants to generate an aqueous dye- sodium hydrosulfite, and reduces the water re-
plant operations as licensor containing foam, which is then pushed into quirements to 3.5 gal per 100 yards of fabric, he
of urea synthesis and granu- intimate contact with cotton yarn in an oxygen- says. Electricity consumption and physical foot-
lation technologies and as
free chamber. The dye is converted back to print of the dyeing operation are both reduced
engineering procurement
and construction (EPC) con-
indigo in a subsequent oxidation chamber to substantially as well, Puvvada adds.
tractor of fertilizer and petro-
chemical plants. System in- A step closer for graphene-coated anodes
tegration of Digital Fertilizer
A
on Predix was conducted new collaboration between PPG carbon atoms and hydrogen, and in a spe-
by NEC Corp. (NEC; Tokyo; (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com), cially designed reactor, the carbon atoms are
www.nec.com), which has SiNode Systems (Chicago, Ill.; www. combined into graphene as they cool. “This
entered into a comprehen- sinodesystems.com) and Raymor continuous manufacturing process from a
sive alliance with GE. Industries (Boirsbriand, Que., Canada; www. low-cost carbon source results in consistent-
raymor.com) aims to accelerate commercial- quality graphene,” says Olson.
FLUOR PILOT PLANT ization for battery anodes made of a silicon- According to the research team, graphene
The newly-named Fluor Pilot
Plant is now being used by
graphene composite. “These materials can produced in this manner possesses composi-
chemical engineering stu- achieve significantly higher capacities than tion, morphology and uniformity that make it
dents at the University of current graphite-based anodes, allowing for better suited to improve anode performance
Surrey's Department of higher cell-level energy density,” explains when compared to other graphene sources.
Chemical and Process En- Kurt Olson, PPG corporate research fel- Graphene produced via traditional “top-
gineering (Guilford, U.K.; low. In electric-vehicle batteries, these traits down” batch processes require several liquid
www.surrey.ac.uk). A do- lead to lighter-weight batteries and increase dispersion steps, as well as purification, re-
nation of $300,000, made the distance vehicles can travel on a single sulting in more waste and product variability
through Fluor’s philanthropic charge. “Traditionally, the addition of silicon when compared to the single-step approach.
organization, the Fluor
causes a decrease in a battery’s cycle life Olson expects the plasma-based process to
Foundation, was provided to
the university earlier this year
because the silicon expands during charg- be quite cost-competitive as production vol-
to upgrade and refurbish the ing and breaks into tiny particles that are no umes increase.
plant to produce industry- longer effective,” says Olson. Coating silicon In order to lower battery costs and increase
prepared engineers. particles with a layer of graphene effectively the cycle life of batteries containing the silicon-
The Fluor Pilot Plant also increases the life of batteries. graphene electrodes, the team is simultaneously
provides realistic indus- SiNode produces few-layer graphene nano- working to scale up the graphene production
try experience to trainee platelets from methane via an atom-by-atom, process, optimize the particle-coating process
chemical weapons inspec- “bottom-up” plasma process. The plasma’s and develop stable dispersion technologies that
(Continues on p. 7) high temperature breaks the methane into are tailored for the anode composition.
6 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
Waste coffee grounds are used tors who use the facility to
to make biodiesel blend gain practical hands-on ex-
perience in preparation for
A
biodiesel fuel blend known as B20 Bio-bean works with waste management their field work. The trainees
contains oils derived from waste partners to collect waste coffee grounds are from the Nobel Peace
coffee grounds, and will be used to from coffee chains, independent coffee Prize-winning Organization
power mass transit buses in Lon- shops, transport hubs, office blocks and in- for the Prohibition of Chemi-
don. The fuel is made through a partner- stant coffee factories. The grounds are dried cal Weapons (The Hague,
ship among bio-bean ltd. (London, U.K.; and processed at bio-bean’s Alconbury fac- the Netherlands).
www.bio-bean.com), which has developed tory, before a specialized solid-liquid extrac-
a process for extracting useful oils from tion process is used to isolate the oils from FLOWER POWER
waste grounds, biodiesel producer Argent the waste grounds. The solvent is fully re- Researchers at Karlsruhe
Energy and Royal Dutch Shell. covered and recycled, bio-bean says. Institute of Technology (KIT;
Germany; www.kit.edu)
The B20 biofuel is made by combining oil Argent Energy blends this coffee oil with
have discovered that the tex-
from the waste coffee grounds with other other biologically derived fats and oils and ture of the viola petal (Viola
recycled waste fats and oils, and blending then combines this mixture with mineral wittrockiana) drastically
that with mineral diesel fuel. Because re- diesel to create a B20 blended biofuel. The reduces reflection losses.
cycled waste oils, including the coffee oil, fuel is then supplied directly into the Lon- In nature, this effect leads
makes up 20% of the B20 biofuel, it is 85% don bus network. With Shell’s help, bio- to a bright and saturated
more carbon efficient than standard diesel bean and Argent Energy have produced color impression, which
and achieves a 10–15% CO2 reduction 6,000 L of pure coffee oil, enough to pro- the flowers use to attract
over standard diesel. duce 30,000 L of B20 biofuel. possible pollinators, says
KIT. The researchers have
demonstrated a 6% relative
A photocatalyst for reducing CO2 to CH4 improved performance of a
silicon solar cell by mimick-
ing the viola as front-side
P
hotocatalytic reduction of CO2 (DGIST, Daegu, South Korea; https:// texture. The results are de-
into a fuel is an attractive way to en.dgist.ac.kr), led by professor Su-Il In, scribed in ACS Photonics.
reduce CO2 emissions into the has succeeded in developing a TiO2- Analysis of the surface tex-
atmosphere, and there are many based high-efficiency photocatalyst that ture of the viola flower reveals
projects underway around the world to converts CO2 to CH4 by means of a that it exhibits a hierarchical
find ways of converting CO2 into chemi- simple reduction reaction. The catalyst is texture consisting of cones
cals, such as H2, CH4, ethanol, methanol made by treating TiO2 with a strong reduc- (on the order of tens of mi-
crometers) and nanoscopic
and butanol. However, in order to utilize ing agent — sodium borohydride (NaBH4)
wrinkles adorned on top of
CO2 as a resource, it is essential to im- — at 350°C for half an hour. the cones. This hierarchical
prove the light-absorption efficiency and Sensitized with Pt nanoparticles, the texture is able to efficiently
the CO2-conversion efficiency, and to en- material promotes solar spectrum photo- increase light incoupling
sure that the photocatalyst helps prevent conversion of CO2 to CH4 with an appar- when used as coating on
the production of secondary harmful sub- ent quantum yield of 12.40% and a time- top of solar cells. In addition,
stances. Although a number of active pho- normalized CH4-generation rate of 80.35 it reduces the loss of light at
tocatalysts have been reported, they suffer µmol/g.h. Professor In says to the best of the interface between the
from low product yield, instability and low his knowledge this is a record for photo- encapsulation and the solar
quantum efficiency. catalytic-based CO2 reduction. He plans cell, by redirecting escaping
light. According to the scien-
Now a team from the Daegu Gyeong- to further improve the CO2-conversion ef-
buk Institute of Science and Technology ficiency with a view to commercialization. (Continues on p. 8)
A
team from the National Univer- CO2 to H2O. The team used oxide- to the system. The introduction of in-
sity of Singapore (www.nus. derived copper as electrocatalyst soluble chelating agents in the elec-
edu.sg) led by professor Boon in the cathode and iridium oxide as trolyte improved the longevity of the
Siang Yeo has developed a electrocatalyst in the anode. Coupling cell, by capturing contaminants, such
prototype device that mimics natural the cell with silicon solar panels under as dissolved iridium ions.
photosynthesis to produce ethylene sunlight (100 mW/cm2), the team A prototype system incorporates
using only sunlight, water and CO2, at showed that CO2 could be easily re- a battery, which stores excess solar
room temperature and pressure. duced to ethylene with an efficiency energy, thereby enabling the stable,
The team designed a two-elec- of 31.9%, when operating the sys- continuous production of ethylene.
trode cell and optimized cell param- tem with a partial current density of The team believes its work has
eters such as electrolyte and volt- 6.5 mA/cm2. Under these conditions, helped solve many problems associ-
age. A photovoltaic cell is first used the overall photosynthetic efficiency ated with the implementation of an
to convert solar energy to electricity, (solar-to-ethylene) was 1.5%, but this artificial photosynthesis system and
and the electricity powers the elec- could be increased to 2.9% by the represents a major step forward in
trolyzer to produce substances from addition of ethanol and n-propanol the field of solar energy utilization.
P
erovskite solar cells have attracted and protect against water ingress. The cells
solar cells, but also applicable
to other technologies, where
much interest in the past few years achieved 82% stability relative to initial per-
reflection losses occur. as the next-generation solar cells formance over 30 days of air exposure with-
capable of surpassing silicon cells’ out encapsulation.
DIRECT FtoC MOLDING efficiency. However, because the perovskite The enhanced stability resulted from
Adeka Corp. (www.adeka.
materials are easily decomposed in moist fluorine-substitution on EFGnPs. “By sub-
co.jp) and GH Craft Ltd., the conditions, they must be properly encapsu- stituting carbon for fluorine, we have cre-
composite structure design, lated, which results in low stability. ated a two-dimensional material with high
development and evaluation To overcome those limitations and speed hydrophobicity, like Teflon, and then applied
business unit of Teijin Group up the commercialization of perovskite solar it to perovskite solar cells,” says a member
(both Tokyo, Japan; www. cells, professor Jin Young Kim from the of the research team, professor Gwi-Hwan
teijin.com), have jointly devel- School of Energy and Chemical Engineer- Kim at UNIST.
oped the world’s first fiber- ing at Ulsan National Institute of Science and The newly-developed perovskite solar
to-composite (FtoC) molding Technology (UNIST, Ulsan, South Korea; cell device was fabricated using a solution
process to laminate fiber-rein-
www.unist.ac.kr) and associates from process, in which the perovskite material is
forced plastics (FRP) in open
molds. The FtoC molding pro-
Wonkwang University (Iksan) and the Korea coated onto on a flexible film. This process
cess automates resin impreg- Institute of Energy Research (KIER; Ulsan, will allow applying solar cells to wearable
nating, curing and laminating both South Korea) have used fluorine-func- devices. A simple manufacturing process
processes while aligning highly tionalized graphene nanoplatelets (EFGnPs- and a low manufacturing cost distinguishes
oriented fibers. A new, rapid- F) with a p-i-n structure of perovskite solar the new devices from existing silicon-based
curing epoxy resin developed cells to fully cover the perovskite active layer inorganic electronic devices.
by Adeka enables FRP to be
cured in just tens of seconds
with GH Craft’s new molding
process using infrared radia- Testing tide power
tion. Large-scale equipment,
A
such as curing ovens and
counter-rotating propeller technol- www.nedo.go.jp), with partners EIM Electric
press molds, are not needed ogy that is being developed to har- Co., Maeda Corp. Kyushu Institute of Tech-
because the FRP can be lami- ness the energy from tidal currents nology and Waseda University. The unit has
nated in an open mold. has been field tested off the coast two 5-m-dia. propellers that rotate in op-
By extending and highly ori- of Nagasaki Bay, near Iwo Jima, Japan. The posite directions when water flows through.
enting fibers, the process pro- prototype, which is one seventh the size of a The design has the advantages that not
duces glass-fiber-reinforced commercial unit, has a rated power of 500 only the output is sufficiently higher without
plastics (GFRP) that offer kW and was shown to have a 43.1% power supplementary equipment (such as a gear-
significantly improved perfor- generation efficiency for a water flowrate of box), but also the rotational moment hardly
mance, including 100% more
4 m/s, which exceeded the estimates (42%) affects the support structure because the ro-
bending strength, 40% more
tensile strength and 75% more
based on the design. The device was de- tational torque of both propellers/armatures
interlayer shear strength com- veloped by a Japanese industry-academia- are counter-balanced in the unit.
pared to conventional GRFP government collaboration, led by Kyowa The tests were conducted by towing the
made with conventional resin- Engineering Consultants Co. (Tokyo) and the device by a ship, but ultimately stationary
transfer molding, says Teijin. New Energy and Industrial Technology De- (floating) devices can utilize the ocean cur-
velopment Organization (NEDO; Kawasaki; rents to generate next-generation electricity.
MOLTEN Na MAKES NH3
Fumio Kawamura and cowork-
ers at the National Institute for A promising zeolite for ethylene separation
Materials Science (NIMS; Tsu-
S
kuba City,Japan; www.nims. cientists from ExxonMobil (Irving, silica zeolite that can selectively adsorb eth-
go.jp/high-pressure) have Tex.; www.exxonmobil.com) and ylene over ethane as a result of its unique
discovered that molten so- the Institute of Chemical Technol- flexible pore structure. Built from heart-
dium can be used as a new
ogy (ITQ; Valencia, Spain; http://itq. shaped cages interconnected by flexible
catalyst for making ammonia.
The scientists simply bubble a
upv-csic.es) have discovered a new material elongated pore openings, the material allows
mixture of 4 vol.% H2 and 96 that could significantly reduce the amount the diffusion of the flatter ethylene molecules
vol.% N2 at atmospheric pres- of energy and emissions associated with as opposed to the more cylindrical-shaped
sure through molten sodium at the production of ethylene. Depending on ethane molecules. The new material acts as
500–590°C in a quartz reactor the application, use of the new material, in a flexible molecular sieve, and has an un-
tube. Under these conditions, conjunction with other novel separation pro- precedented degree of selectivity at ambient
N2 molecules dissociate and cesses, could result in up to a 25% reduction temperature, says ExxonMobil.
react with H2 to form NH3. in both the energy needed to separate eth- Although more work is required before the
However, because the yield is ylene from ethane, as well as the associated new technology can be applied industrially,
only 0.1% so far, it will be a while
CO2 emissions. Results of the research have it could become an economically superior
before the technology replaces
the century old, energy-inten-
been published in a recent issue of Science. alternative to conventional cryogenic distilla-
sive Haber-Bosch process.❏
The patented new material, ITQ-55, is a tion, when further developed. n
8 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
Business News
Plant Watch partner to produce dioctyl terephthalate LINEUP
Covestro invests in debottlenecking and (DOTP), a non-ortho-phthalate plasticizer. By
2019, Oxea will produce 60,000 m.t./yr of DOTP. 3M
chlorine supply at Tarragona site
December 11, 2017 — Covestro AG (Leverkusen, For this project, Oxea’s cooperation partner will AKZONOBEL
Germany; www.covestro.com) will invest around construct a modular DOTP production unit at its
manufacturing site in Germany. ATLAS COPCO
€200 million in improvement projects at its
production site in Tarragona, Spain, including BP
construction of an onsite chlorine-production thyssenkrupp to build two major
CB&I
plant and a debottlenecking project to increase polymer plants for SASA in Turkey
methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) November 30, 2017 — thyssenkrupp Industrial CLARIANT
production by 50,000 metric tons per year Solutions’ (Essen Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-
COVESTRO
(m.t./yr) to 220,000 m.t./yr. The chlorine industrial-solutions.com) subsidiary Uhde
plant is planned to start up in 2020, and the Inventa-Fischer signed a contract to build ENI
debottlenecking will occur through 2022. two new world-scale polymer plants for SASA EVONIK
Polyester Sanayi A.S. in Adana, Turkey. One
NOVA announces plans for cracker plant is planned to produce 380,000 m.t./yr LOTTE CHEMICAL
expansion and new PE plant in Sarnia of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for low- LYONDELLBASELL
December 8, 2017 — NOVA Chemicals Corp. viscosity applications. The second plant
will use proprietary technology to produce NOVA CHEMICALS
(Calgary, Alta., Canada; www.novachem.com)
announced two significant capital-investment 216,000 m.t./yr of resin for the production OXEA
projects in the Sarnia-Lambton region of Ontario, of PET bottles.
SUEZ
Canada. The expansion of NOVA Chemicals’
Corunna cracker by approximately 50% will W.R. Grace awarded Unipol PP THYSSENKRUPP
provide ethylene for a new polyethylene (PE) contracts in Kuwait and China INDUSTRIAL SOLUTIONS
production facility. The new plant is designed November 28, 2017 — W.R. Grace & Co.
UMICORE
to increase NOVA Chemicals’ PE production (Columbia, Md.; www.grace.com) will license
capacity by approximately 450,000 m.t./yr. Siteits Unipol PP process to Kuwait Integrated W.R. GRACE
preparations are currently underway for both Petroleum Industries Co. (KIPIC) for the integrated
projects, with startup targeted for late 2021. petrochemical complex at its Al-Zour petroleum
refinery. Expected to open in 2023, the facility
Clariant selected by Xuzhou HaiDing is designed to produce 940,000 m.t./yr of
for new PDH unit in China polypropylene. W.R. Grace also announced
December 8, 2017 — Clariant AG (Munich, two Unipol PP licenses in China — one from
Germany; www.clariant.com) will develop a Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical Co. and
custom-built Catofin catalyst and propane one from Oriental Energy Co. in Ningbo.
dehydrogenation (PDH) unit in cooperation
with CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi. Lotte Versalis Elastomers opens new
com) for Xuzhou HaiDing Chemical Technology production plant in South Korea
Co. The project includes the license and November 27, 2017 — Lotte Versalis Elastomers,
engineering design of the unit, which is to be a 50-50 joint venture (JV) between Eni S.p.A.
built in Pizhou, Jiangsu Province, China. The (Rome, Italy; www.eni.com) and Lotte Chemical
Xuzhou HaiDing plant is designed to produce (Seoul, South Korea; www.lottechem.com),
600,000 m.t./yr of propylene (PP). opened a new integrated industrial complex
for the production of elastomers in Yeosu,
BP to build its third South Korea. The industrial complex has a
lubricants plant in China nameplate capacity of 200,000 m.t./yr of
December 7, 2017 — BP plc (London; www. elastomers, including ethylene-propylene
bp.com) plans to build a new lubricants- diene monomer (EPDM) and solution-styrene
blending plant in China. The new plant will be butadiene rubber (s-SBR).
BP’s third lubricants-blending plant in China,
and with an expected investment of around Mergers & Acquisitions
$230 million, will also represent BP’s single Atlas Copco acquires mining equipment
largest blending-plant investment worldwide. businesses in the U.S. and South Africa
The new plant, expected to start operation December 4, 2017 — Atlas Copco AB (Stockholm,
before the end of 2021, will have a production Sweden; www.atlascopco.com) intends to
capacity of 200,000 m.t./yr. acquire Cate Drilling Solutions LLC, a distributor
of mining equipment, and Renegade Drilling
Oxea to begin DOTP Supplies Proprietary Ltd., a manufacturer
production in Europe of mining equipment and accessories. The
December 5, 2017 — Oxea GmbH (Monheim acquisition of Utah-based Cate Drilling Solutions Look for more
am Rhein, Germany; www.oxea-chemicals. is expected to close in early 2018. Based latest news on
com) entered into a cooperation with a German in Johannesburg, South Africa, Renegade chemengonline.com
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018 9
Drilling specializes in consuables, such as drill rods and
diamond drill bits.
When it has to work. 50-50 JV will own and operate the Terminal Copersucar
de Etanol in Paulínia in the state of São Paulo. The Paulínia
terminal has ten ethanol tanks with a total storage capacity
The first time... of 180 million L and transports around 2.3 billion L/yr,
with the potential for further expansion.
HVAC 105B
SiO2
Evonik to acquire additive
ORP
ORP
104A IMMERSION HEA
50 GAL. CAPACITY
IMMERSION HEATER
H2SO4
to introduce large volumes of additives into a polymer
ACID STORAGE TANK
METERING PUMP (OPERATING)
matrix via a solid polymer carrier.
AI
104B 2"
ORP
AkzoNobel acquires powder coatings
H2SO5
METERING PUMP (STAND-BY)
company in Thailand
November 27, 2017 — AkzoNobel N.V. (Amsterdam,
the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) has agreed to
acquire the business of V.Powdertech Co., a leading
PT PI PT PI manufacturer of powder coatings in Thailand. The
2 1
MIST ELIM.
2 1 transaction includes all relevant technologies, patents
and trademarks, as well as a manufacturing plant in
3" 3/4" MAG
Samutsakhon, Thailand. In addition, all employees from
FAL
1
FT
1
FE
1
V.Powdertech will be joining AkzoNobel.
TE TIT
3 3
TE TIT
1st JET 1st JET
1 1 LyondellBasell and SUEZ buy European
PACKING
36" GAS INLET 12" GAS INLET
plastics-recycling business
(EMERGENCY) (NORMAL) 4"
November 27, 2017 — LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, the
Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) has entered into
4" a definitive agreement to purchase a 50% stake in Quality
BY-PASS
PT
7
PI Circular Polymers (QCP), a plastics recycling company in
7
Sittard-Geleen, the Netherlands. Under the terms of the
4"
AI
ORP agreement, LyondellBasell will be a 50-50 partner in QCP
Call us: (973) 947-8787 4
AI
ORP with SUEZ (Paris, France; www.suez-environnement.fr).
3
Email us: info@crcleanair.com
TE
4
TI
4 3/4" DRAIN
Starting in 2018, QCP’s Sittard-Geleen facility will begin
Address: Six Campus
TE
2
TI
2
TIC
Drive
2
converting consumer waste into 35,000 m.t./yr of
CAUSTIC FILL
MANWAY Parsippany,
AI
pH NJ 07054 (FROM CHEM. STORAGE TANK)
4"
PT
4 PP and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). ■
pH
75,000 GAL MAX. CAPACITY 2 4" Mary Page Bailey
10 Visit us at: www.CRCleanAir.com
WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
For details visit adlinks.chemengonline.com/70302-24
Newsfront
Pressure Measurement
Gets Rugged, Goes Digital
Innovations place more robust instruments in demanding applications and enable
processors to take advantage of the industrial internet of things
B
ecause pressure is one FIGURE 1. WIKA’s double-diaphragm design
with diaphragm monitoring system offers a so-
of the most common
lution for applications where the product must IN BRIEF
and important mea- not find its way into the environment, or where CAPTURING DEMANDING
surement parameter in the fill fluid in the diaphragm seal assembly
APPLICATIONS
a chemical processing plant, the must not come in contact with the product for
established technology has been any reason THE AGE OF
providing top-notch accuracy of manager, with WIKA Instrument, DIGITALIZATION
readings for some time now. How- LP (Lawrenceville, Ga.; www.wika.
ever, because the chemical pro- com) adds that in addition to devel-
cess industries (CPI) are always oping new technologies designed
evolving, so too must the devices. to address more challenging appli-
For this reason, providers of pres- cations, increasing safety concerns
sure measurement equipment are and the needs of niche applications
tweaking standard technologies in are also driving innovation.
an effort to meet the requirements “One of the most important
of more demanding chemical ap- characteristics of pressure mea-
plications. At the same time, digi- surement devices is reliability in
talization is being added to many notoriously harsh conditions, in-
devices, providing more advanced WIKA Instrument
cluding high temperatures, high
diagnostics and allowing users to pressures and corrosive materials,”
dive into the industrial internet of things (IIoT). says David Wilson, product manager for pres-
sure and temperature products with SOR Inc.
Conquering demanding applications (Lenexa, Kan.; www.sorinc.com). “Since most
“In the chemical and [petroleum] refining in- devices are currently very accurate, the focus
dustries, we are seeing the pressure devices is on making sure the device remains stable,
exposed to much more demanding process efficient and safe in these difficult conditions.”
conditions and applications,” says Scott One of the ways equipment providers are
Nelson, vice president and general manager doing that is through providing diaphragm
of pressure products with Rosemount, Inc., seals with the devices and making those
(Shakopee, Minn.; www.emerson.com), a seals in a variety of materials or with innova-
subsidiary of Emerson. “As our customers tions that allow them to withstand the chemi-
try to drive less variability, run cleaner pro- cal-processing environment. “The diaphragm
cesses and achieve higher efficiencies, they seal protects the instrument from tempera-
tend to run at higher operating temperatures ture, corrosive media and other process con-
and higher pressures, which greatly exceed ditions that could damage or affect the sen-
the normal limits of field instrumentation.” sor’s accuracy or the life of the sensor itself.
For example, Nelson says, in the chemical Diaphragm seals are add-on accessories,
industry, a typical pressure instrument will but selecting the right material and design will
have a process temperature limit of 120°C, help prolong the life and increase the safety of
so manufacturers of pressure instrumenta- challenging applications,” says Wilson.
tion have been tasked with developing solu- In chemical processes, fluctuating tem-
tions that will allow operation in much hotter peratures, aggressive media or strong vi-
processes, some as high as 410°C. “That is brations often decrease safety and accu-
really pushing the envelope to what we’ve racy of readings, says Ehren Kiker, product
seen in the past,” he says. marketing manager with Endress + Hauser
Tony Maupin, chemical market segment (Greenwood, Ind.; www.us.endress.com).
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Bulk-Solids Handling
Hoppers promote effective many more). It is also appropriate for Vibra Screw
flow of challenging materials use in applications that call for ex-
The Live Bin product line (photo) in- tremely large valves or diverters, sit-
cludes fully assembled and self-con- uations that require a valve to func-
tained vibrating hoppers that are de- tion reliably under especially harsh
signed to promote the reliable flow of conditions, and other specialized
any dry material. Available capacities heavy-duty applications. The body
range from 3 to 100 ft3 of bulk-sol- is constructed from carbon steel and
ids storage. These bins can handle the wetted parts are lined with one of
a diverse array of bulk solids, rang- many choices of abrasion-resistant
ing from micron-sized particles to metal. Its independent, internal piv-
fibrous and flaky materials, and they oting chute is designed to improve
discharge the contents on a “first-in/ processing speeds and provide a
first-out” basis, ensuring mass flow valve with longevity when operating
and eliminating material segregation in particularly wearing environments,
during operation, says the company. says the manufacturer. Inspection,
They can be used to discharge to maintenance and repairs can be
any feeder or process line, or wher- quickly and easily performed while
ever a surge bin is required. Its de- the diverter remains inline, thanks to
sign does not require a flexible seal, an access panel on the front of the
so it is especially suitable for sani- diverter. It is available in either a two-
tary applications, according to the way or three-way configuration. —
manufacturer. — Vibra Screw, Inc., Vortex, Salina, Kan.
Totowa, N.J. www.vortexglobal.com
www.vibrascrew.com
Dump station eliminates dust
Pneumatic control system escape when handling solids
ensures reliable discharging The Flexicon Bag Dump Station
The patented LAS-EC Big Bag (photo) with NEMA 7/9 explosion-
Connection System (photo) pro- proof electrical system is designed Hecht Technologie
vides an easy, ergonomic and safe to contain dust emitted from manual
way to discharge powders from Big dumping stations, and help opera-
Bags. Its patented pneumatic con- tors handle the empty bags (by com-
trol system is simple to operate and pacting and consolidating them) and
has only three buttons — for con- convey the materials to an elevated
necting, sealing and disconnecting destination. Bags are staged on the
bags to the unit. During operation, tray and transferred into a hooded
the Big Bag is positioned and con- glove box and onto a grate, which
nected and its inner liner is fixed with supports the grate and prevents
the pneumatic sealing device. After unintended operator contact with
the Big Bag is discharged, the bag moving parts. The hood has a poly-
is closed and the containment sys- carbonate skylight that illuminates Vortex
tem is closed. — Hecht Technologie the interior of the enclosure for im-
GmbH, Pfaffenhofen, Germany proved bag slitting, dumping and
www.hecht.eu disposal. A bag infeed chute through
the sidewall of the glove box permits
Heavy-duty chute diverter is the operator to pass empty bags di-
undaunted by abrasive solids rectly into the integral bag compac-
The Pivoting Chute Diverter (photo), tor, helping any dust to be directed
which is part of this company’s Titan into the system’s two filter car-
Series product line, is suitable for tridges. Useable product that builds
use with applications that involve up on the filter surfaces is periodi-
the handling of materials that pose cally returned to the hopper, using
excessive abrasion and wear issues timer-activated solenoid valves to
(such as alumina, bauxite, cement, release short blasts of compressed
clinker, coal, flyash, gravel, rock and air inside the cartridges. The hopper Flexicon
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit number on p. 62, or use the website designation.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018 15
Beumer Group discharges into an enclosed flexible grinding system that provides ex-
screw conveyor for dust-free transfer tremely high grinding intensity. The
of free-flowing and non-free-flowing horizontal orientation guarantees
materials to an elevated destination. a homogeneous fill of the grind-
— Flexicon Corp., Bethlehem, Pa. ing media in the grinding tank, says
www.flexicon.com the manufacturer. For precise tem-
perature control, the agitator mill is
System lets you fill, package equipped with an optimized cool-
and palletize bulk-solids bags ing system. The forced conveyance
This company supplies complete of the product through the grinding
packaging lines that carry out fill- media fill guarantees a uniform load
ing, packaging and palletizing in a inside the mill, while the dynamic
single, integrated system. The Pal- separation system retains the grind-
etpac (photo) creates precise, stable, ing media in the grinding zone. This
space-saving bag stacks, handling enables extremely high throughput
bags made of different paper and rates without pressure buildup and
plastic materials and designs (such allows for multipass operation. —
as flat-valve bags or valve-bottom Netzsch Premier Technologies LLC,
bags). The Paletpac can be installed Exton, Pa.
quickly, is intuitive to use, provides www.netzsch.com
easy access for maintenance and
can be flexibly adapted to different Compact spray dryer boasts
packing patterns, says the company. increased throughput
It can be equipped with a clamp-type The Mobile Minor MM-100 spray
turning device or a twin-belt turning dryer (photo) has a compact foot-
device, to ensure gentle, fast, precise print, and is equipped with a new
positioning of the bags. — Beumer and highly efficient cyclone, dubbed
Group GmbH & Co. KG, Beckum, the Cyclone Extra Efficiency (CEE).
Germany The CEE offers a higher separation
www.beumergroup.com efficiency than standard cyclones,
over a range of particle sizes, air
Pneumatic cover lift provides flows and powder loadings, which in-
safe access for dryer cleaning creases the yield and reduces emis-
The Witte Co.
The vibrating fluid-bed dryer (photo), sions, according to the manufacturer.
which is designed for fine particle The Mobile Minor MM-100 can oper-
drying, has an integral baghouse dust ate with process gas flowrates of up
collector, and now offers an optional to 100 kg/h at an inlet temperature
pneumatic cover lift that automatically of 200°C, which, for many products,
raises the cover with just the push of means a 30% increase in powder
a button. This provides easy access production compared to the previous
and allows one person to roll the version. Higher-capacity HEPA filters
dryer forward on rails, out from under are available, and powder-collection
the dust collector, providing easy glasses in sizes from 250 to 3,500 mL
access for inspection and cleaning. can be supplied as standard. — GEA
This new feature eliminates the need Group AG, Düsseldorf, Germany
Netzsch Premier Technologies for an overhead crane or other costly www.gea.com
lift system, says the company. — The
Witte Co., Washington, N.J. Single unit provides mixing and
www.witte.com pumping of ingredients
The Hybrid Powder Mixer (photo; p.
Circulating grinding system 17) is designed to accomplish several
offers multi-pass operation key functions — mixing and pump-
The Grinding System Zeta (photo) is ing of both wet and dry ingredients
designed to maximize size-reduction to produce a homogeneous blend
volume throughput without overheat- — using only a single motor drive;
ing the product. It uses extremely conventional systems can require
small (0.1– to 3–mm dia.) grinding up to four separate electric motors,
media, and ensures reproducible consuming a lot of energy. This unit
product quality, says the company. can reduce power consumption by
The closed horizontal agitator bead 50% compared to the conventional
mill is designed for the highest prod- approach, and fewer components
GEA Group AG uct throughput rates and has a peg helps to reduce maintenance require-
16 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
ments. This mixer combines pump Dense-phase conveyor system Alfa Laval Kolding A/S
and powder-dissolving technologies protects fragile materials
in a single versatile unit. It is said to The E-finity low-pressure dense-
be the only hygienic powder mixer phase conveyor system (photo) is
capable of drawing powder into the designed to handle fragile materials
unit while simultaneously pumping safely, reliably and continuously. Pre-
the resulting process liquid at pres- cise pressure monitoring and airflow
sures up to 4 bars, eliminating the corrections allow the system to op-
need for a separate discharge pump. erate efficiently under a wide range
It effectively pre-blends the powder of conditions, while gently inducing
and liquid before the mixture enters materials through the convey line
the high-shear stage, which con- in slug form. It is suited for granular
tributes to faster and more-effective and pelleted materials. The E-finity
dissolution, according to the manu- air controls can employ a single air
facturer. — Alfa Laval Kolding A/S, source to operate two to three dif-
Kolding, Denmark ferent systems simultaneously. This
www.alfalaval.dk results in significant cost savings
in both equipment and installation,
Peruse the many offerings for with continued savings in operation
hygienic powder processing and maintenance moving forward.
This company offers a diverse port- — Schenck Process LLC, Kansas
folio of engineering solutions to ad- City, Mo.
dress the entire process chain for www.schenckprocess.com
manufacturing and packaging of
powders, pellets and tablets in the Vibratory feeder is the largest
pharmaceutical, food and chemi- model in this product family
cal industries. This includes systems The Eriez 76 Series Vibratory Feeder
for granulation, tabeleting, coating (photo) is a versatile device that has
and primary, secondary and final applicability across a broad range Coperion K-Tron
packaging. —Romaco Group, Karl- of industries. It has become widely
sruhe, Germany used with bucket elevators, as well
www.romaco.com as bulk-bag unloading, scale feed-
ing and other challenging applica-
Quick-change feeder can tions. This feeder supports trays of
handle a large array of products up to 200 lbs, and is offered in most
The T35/S60 Quick Change Feeder common voltages. It easily handles
(photo) is designed for applications larger trays with multiple features,
requiring the material-handling and such as screens, covers, inlet spouts
changeover flexibilty along with the and downspouts, with a single com-
convenience of easy cleaning capa- pact drive unit that is required by
bility. It enables a fast disassembly, most bulk bag dischargers. — Eriez,
exchange and cleaning of the feeding Erie, Pa.
module, which minimizes downtime www.www.eriez.com
and eliminates the risk of cross-con-
tamination while allowing one feeding This unit provides reliable
station to handle many different ma- handling of long, uneven fibers
terials. Whereas single-screw feed- This company’s innovative fiber
ing elements are ideal for handling feeder is designed for reliable feed-
free-flowing powders, granules, pel- ing of carbon fibers, wood fibers,
lets and other non-flooding materi- long carbon fibers and shred- Schenck Process
als, they often don’t work very well ded film strips (waste from plas-
with more difficult-to-handle materi- tic film-production processes).
als. Twin screw elements employing To handle long fibers, the screw
two self-wiping, closed-flight screws, feeder uses a special screw, and
intermeshed side by side, efficiently a large, steep-walled hopper. Its de-
transport floodable powders, as well sign includes special postioning of
as sticky or otherwise hard-to-flow the agitator in the hopper to promote
materials to the discharge. The QC- optimal ingredient flow into the screw,
Feeder is available in both volumen- says the manufacturer. — Brabender
tric and loss-in-weight configurations. Technologie, Duisburg, Germany
—Coperion K-Tron, Sewell, N.J. www.brabender-technologie.com
www.coperion.com Suzanne Shelley Eriez
T
he path to commercialization can
CB&I AND ALBEMARLE
be long and arduous, which means
the engineers and chemists taking
CHEMETRY the path must have a good deal of
DOW (CANVERA) patience, dedication and fortitude. To honor
the efforts of those chemical engineers and
DOW (PARALOID)
their companies that have sucessfully com-
MICROVI mercialized a new process for the first time,
PRAXAIR Chemical Engineering magazine has been
bestowing its Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineer-
ing Achievement Award since 1933.
The aim of the Award is to recognize and
honor the most noteworthy chemical-engi-
neering technology commercialized anywhere
in the world during the two years prior to a
given award year. The results for the 2017
Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achieve-
ment Award are as follows:
Winning Award
• CB&I (The Woodlands, Texas; www.cbi. rylate (2009); Cargill Dow LLC for its pro-
com) and Albemarle Corp. (Charlotte, duction of thermoplastic resin from corn
N.C.; www.albemarle.com), for the Al- (2003); Monsanto hollow-fiber membranes
kyClean process — the world’s first solid for gas separation (1981); Union Carbide
catalyst alkylation process low-pressure low-density polyethylene
Honor Awards (1979); M.W. Kellogg single-train ammo-
• Chemetry Corp. (Moss Landing, Calif.; nia plants (1967); Linde zeolite adsorbents
www.chemetrycorp.com): eShuttle tech- (1961); the U.S. synthetic rubber industry
nology (1943); and Standard Oil Development Co.
• The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, aviation fuels (1939). A complete list of all
Mich.; www.dow.com): Canvera polyolefin past winners can be found online at: www.
dispersion technology chemengonline.com/kirkpatrick-award.
• The Dow Chemical Company: Paraloid Although the staff of Chemical Engineering
Edge Technology organizes and bestows the award, neither the
• Microvi Biotech Inc. (Union City, Calif.; editors nor others associated with the maga-
www.microvi.com): Denitrovi biocatalytic zine play any role in the selection or judging of
nitrate removal the winner. Instead, the winner is selected by
• Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair. a Board of Judges (BOJ) comprised of current
com): Oxygen-fired combustion process chairs of chemical engineering departments
with thermochemical regenerators at accredited U.S. and E.U. universities. The
These companies join the long and distin- members of the BOJ are, in turn, selected by
guished roster over a hundred chemical engineering depart-
2017 BOARD OF JUDGES of past winners, ment chairs of accredited U.S. and E.U. uni-
Lorenz T. Biegler, Carnegie Mellon University which includes versities. It is this unbiased selection process,
Richard B. Dickinson, University of Florida such milestones combined with a more than 84-year tradition
Mario Richard Eden, Auburn University as Lucite In- that makes the Kirkpatrick Award one of the
Chris Hardacre, The University of Manchester ternational for most prestigious honors that a chemical pro-
Geoffrey L. Price, University of Tulsa its Alpha pro- cess industries (CPI) company can receive.
Nilay Shah, Imperial College London
cess for making This article presents more details about
Michael S. Wong, Rice University
methyl methac- the process technologies honored in 2017.
22 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
Hydrogen-rich fuel gas
WINNING ACHIEVEMENT
CB&I and Albemarle: i-Butane
AlkyClean® alkylation technology
AlkyClean gasoline alkylation technology is an Make-up
i-Butane
advanced solid-catalyst alkylation process for Product
Feed Reaction fractionation
Olefin feed
the production of motor fuel alkylate. With Al- pretreatment section section n-Butane product
kyClean technology, light olefins from typical
petroleum-refinery sources, such as fluid cat-
alytic cracking (FCC) units react with isopar- Alkylate product
by about 30% for steel re- cycles, so that one is always storing heat while
heat furnaces equipped the other is supplying preheated syngas to the
with metallic recuperators to furnace. Water vapor and CO2 in the oxy-fuel
preheat air. For glass melt- combustion fluegas are synergistically utilized as
Fluegas
recycle Cold ing, in furnaces equipped reactants so the steam generation normally re-
natural with efficient regenerators quired for reforming reactions is eliminated. The
gas
for waste-heat recovery, up syngas created from the reforming of natural
Cooled fluegas (C02, H20) to stack,
~1,300°F (700°C) to 10 to 15% fuel savings gas contains hydrogen, carbon monoxide and
are achieved by oxy-fuel conversion and NOx a significant fraction of carbon (soot) particles.
FIGURE 7. The overall concept emissions are reduced by as much as 80%. Soot particles are advantageous in the com-
for the Optimelt thermochemi-
cal regenerator is shown here In the U.S., about 30% of container glass bustion process to produce a highly luminous
furnaces have been converted to the “best flame for efficient heat transfer.
available technology” for NOx control. How- The Optimelt regenerators are similar in de-
ever, less than 10% of the world’s glass is sign to those used for conventional air heating
produced using oxy-fuel combustion. but only require one third of the checker volume
Metallic recuperators were recently devel- due to the reduced fluegas volume from oxy-fuel
oped to preheat both oxygen and fuel for re- combustion, making retrofit an economically at-
covering waste heat from oxy-fuel fired glass tractive option, especially when space is limited.
furnaces. Air is heated first by hot fluegas in Commercialization. After verifying the techni-
a radiant-type recuperator and then the pre- cal feasibility, a pilot plant was constructed at
heated air is used as the heat-transfer me- the Praxair Technology center in Tonawanda,
dium to heat both fuel and O2 in separate N.Y., with testing starting in 2012. The pilot scale
recuperators. The indirect heating design TCR was about 1/40th of the expected size for
addresses corrosion and fouling concerns a typical 300-ton/d commercial glass-container
for the heat exchangers for O2 and fuel. The furnace, and utilized a natural gas flowrate for
maximum O2 preheating temperature is lim- the reforming reactions of about 30 Nm3/h.
ited to about 600°C due to material compat- The demonstration of the Optimelt TCR pro-
ibility with high-temperature O2. The maxi- cess started in a 50-ton/d container-glass fur-
mum natural gas preheating temperature is nace at Pavisa in Mexico in late 2014 (adopted
limited to about 450°C due to cracking of hy- for commercial operation in mid-2015). Fuel and
drocarbons and soot buildup. The maximum O2 savings of 15 to 18% and low NOx emis-
heat recovery efficiency is only about 24% of sions were demonstrated. For a larger-scale
the sensible heat in the fluegas. Fuel savings commercial furnace, expected fuel savings are
achieved with this heat-recovery system are about 20% compared to oxy-fuel and about
reported to be 8 to 9%. To date, there are 30% compared to air-regenerator furnaces.
only a few commercial systems installed due A larger commercial system was installed
to the high capital cost of the system and its for a tableware furnace at Libbey Glass in
relatively low heat recovery efficiency. Holland in late 2017. Application of the tech-
Optimelt™ TCR. Praxair has developed nology to steel and other high-temperature
a novel heat-recovery technology, the Op- industrial furnaces are also being planned. n
timelt Thermochemical Regenerator (TCR) Edited by Gerald Ondrey
28 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
Cover Story
Part 2
The Road to
Commercialization:
Best Practices
Experts share their best practices in process commercialization
IN BRIEF
E
very day, scientists and engineers Identification of raw materials is also done
in the chemical process industries at an early stage. Bernhard Kainz, global
THE EARLY STAGES
(CPI) work on innovative ideas, technology leader packaging coatings at The
DECISION POINTS seeking the ones that can be Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.;
SCALEUP turned into successful commercial prod- www.dow.com) says, “Once we identify suit-
ucts and processes. Many factors help able raw materials we obviously need to as-
STARTUP determine which innovations progress be- sess their availability — for example, whether
yond research and development (R&D) into they have already been commercialized or if
production, and relatively few make it that they are still experimental, and how the avail-
far. The technologies that were awarded ability may differ across regions.” He also
the 2017 winning and honoree Kirkpatrick points out the need to develop techniques to
Awards (pp. 22–28) are outstanding ex- test a product early on, “Lab experiments will
amples of processes that have been suc- then give a first indication of suitability, but
cessfully commercialized. We have asked beyond that you need to ensure you have
the experts behind these success stories to the appropriate testing capabilities to evalu-
share their best practices for process com- ate whether developmental lab prototypes
mercialization with our readers. A compila- will meet performance expectations.”
tion of their responses follows. It is also in the early stages of develop-
ment when an assessment should be made
The early stages of how much a fit the overall project is for a
In the initial stages of laboratory and pilot company. Joaquim Portela, senior vice pres-
plant development, several areas were ident for technology, refining and gasification
identified as being key considerations: at CB&I (The Woodlands, Texas; www.cbi.
1) technical feasibility; 2) economics; and com) says that early on, questions such as
3) a well-defined understanding of the end the following are explored: “Do we have the
users’ needs (Figure 1). capability in terms of resources and skill sets
Technical feasibility. Margarete Leclerc, di- to complete the development? Does the
rector of catalysis R&D for Chemetry Corp. product have a good fit within our overall
(Moss Landing, Calif.; www.chemetrycorp. licensing portfolio?” He also says that the
com) explains that key reaction variables, potential for partnering with another com-
such as selectivity and yield, are studied pany, where it makes good business sense,
on the laboratory scale, often using high- is considered.
throughput techniques. Relevant kinetic Economics. Technical feasibility and eco-
rates are then studied on a more traditional nomics go hand-in-hand and both are evalu-
laboratory scale. She highlights the impor- ated early in R&D. Hisashi (Sho) Kobayashi,
tance of analysis, “Throughout the laboratory senior corporate Fellow at Praxair Inc. (Dan-
experiments, it is important to develop suit- bury, Conn.; www.praxair.com), explains that
able analytical methods to help close mate- “An engineering analysis and a preliminary
rial balances. Frequently, we use redundant economic analysis are conducted to check
techniques, such as gas chromatography the techno-economic feasibility of an idea
and total organic carbon to make sure that proposed before laboratory or pilot-scale
the results are consistent across multiple work. Since the process economics depend
analytical platforms.” on the technical performance (efficiency,
Decision points
Almost all of the experts use stage-gating
procedures within their companies to make
decisions along the developmental path.
FIGURE 1. The groundwork yields, etc.) of the idea proposed, labora- These well-defined decision points typically
for technical feasibility, eco-
nomics and goal definition
tory work is conducted to address important involve technical, economic and market
is laid in the early stages of technical issues influencing the technical checks. Potential regulatory issues, where
development and economic feasibility.” applicable, were also cited as part of the
And Kyle Self, vice president of process check. In some cases, direct customer feed-
technology at Chemetry offers this approach back is sought.
to early-stage economic evaluations, “The Microvi’s Razavi agrees that re-evaluations
ability to vet the economics of early stage are necessary, but he takes a different ap-
ideas from a technical perspective is critical. proach, which uses milestones for evalua-
Initial economic assessments should focus tions rather than a fixed stage-gating pro-
on opex [operating expense] advantages cedure. He defines a factor called “level
against competing technologies, based on of confidence,” which “is one of the con-
a set of underlying assumptions . . . capex siderations we use in holistically analyzing
[capital expense] estimates are re-examined whether a project should continue or not.”
as the initial technical targets are achieved
and the process flow diagram becomes Scaleup
clearer. The remainder of the development During the scaleup phase of development,
process is spent reducing technical risk, numerous challenges to the development
which is defined in terms of uncertainty in ei- may be confronted and need to be resolved.
ther the opex or capex calculations.” Often, these challenges are encountered in
Well-defined goals. Understanding the the pilot-plant (Figure 2). Additional labora-
market needs for the product or process tory testing may be required to resolve is-
under development, and what the require- sues, such as those caused by raw material
ments for the final product or process are, variations. Understanding basic chemical
30 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
engineering principles is vital, as Chemetry’s
Self points out: “Chemical engineers under-
stand that scaleup challenges typically result
from issues related to the interplay between
heat transfer, mass transfer and reactor ki-
netics. Successful scaleup typically de-
pends on the extent those effects are under-
stood and minimized before transitioning to
the next scale.”
A number of our interviewees described a
traditional scaleup procedure, moving from
small scale through a bench or pilot stage
to a commercial development scale. Randy
Seeker, chief technology officer at Chemetry
advises to “include at least a year of pilot
plant work in the plan — rushing to demo/
commercial scale before completing pilot further points out the value of computational FIGURE 2. Hurdles in process
testing will result in expensive modifications fluid dynamic (CFD) models using the data development are often ad-
dressed on the pilot-plant and
at the demo scale.” from the pilot tests. demonstration scales
Pilot plant testing can be expensive, and Chemetry’s Self affirms the usefulness
as Praxair’s Kobayashi highlights, “The cost of CFD models, “When executed properly,
of pilot-scale work increases sharply with the CFD modeling is an investment in devel-
scale of the pilot system and the decision on opment that can pay off in multiples at the
what scale to choose is important. We con- demonstration scale and beyond.” Self also
duct pilot scale tests at the smallest scale stresses that more specialized unit opera-
possible to represent the commercial-scale tions, such as electrochemical cells, require
process and generate process data.” He particularly careful attention during scaleup.
www.cashco com
Cashco, Inc. Innovative Solutions
Container
Drum Discharger
Discharger
Bulk Bag
Filler
Bulk Bag
Material
Conditioner
Direct Lift
Drum
Discharger Bulk Bag
Discharger
H
igh-shear, high-speed mix- Multi-stage rotor/stator
ing equipment supplies the 15
Colloid mill
mechanical energy necessary Ultra-high shear mixer
A B
C D
A
ctivated carbon, also known
Coconut shell Carbonization/
as activated charcoal or ac- Activation Coconut shell
charcoal activation
tivated coal, is an inert solid
composed mostly of carbon Powdered activated
atoms, processed to have porous carbon
structure and a large internal sur-
face area. These unique character- Coal Carbonization/ Carbonization/
Wood
activation activation
istics impart adsorptive properties
that make activated carbon attractive n Raw material n Pathway n Main product
for use in a range of liquid- and gas-
FIGURE 2. The diagram shows several possible production pathways for activated carbon
phase applications.
of 900–1,100°C under controlled at- two main activation methods: chemi-
The process mosphere. The activation promotes cal activation, based on the dehydrat-
The following paragraphs describe the elimination of volatile components ing action of chemicals; and physical
activated carbon production from co- and the simultaneous oxidation of the activation, based on the use of gases,
conut shells, which involves two main outer surface of the charcoal, forming such as steam or carbon dioxide.
steps: carbonization of coconut shells active sites. The gas escapes from Several different pathways for activat-
into shell charcoal, followed by steam the charcoal, leaving behind pores in ed carbon are presented in Figure 2.
activation at high temperatures. Figure the carbon solid. Air is also fed to the
1 presents a simplified flow diagram of reactor, for the combustion of the car- Economic performance
the process. bon monoxide and hydrogen formed The total operating cost (raw materials,
Carbonization. Initially, coconut during activation. Carbon monoxide utilities, fixed costs and depreciation
shells are fed to a crusher, where the and H2 are converted to steam and costs) estimated to produce activated
size of the shells are reduced. The carbon dioxide. carbon was about $2,400 per ton of
crushed material is fed to a flash dryer Then the activated carbon under- activated carbon in the first quarter
to remove moisture, and then fed to a goes a sequence of steps in which it of 2014. The analysis was based on
rotary kiln to be carbonized. The shell is cooled and ground to the desired a plant constructed in the U.S. with
fragments are heated under nitrogen particle size. The activated carbon is capacity to produce 10,000 metric ton
in such a way that non-carbonaceous cooled to ambient temperature by in- per year of activated carbon.
material — elements such as hydro- direct cooling, and then ground into This column is based on “Activated
gen and oxygen — is volatilized and powder of specified mesh size. At Carbon Production Process – Cost
eliminated from the precursor. Car- this point, the finished powdered ac- Analysis,” a report published by In-
bonization produces charcoal, with tivated carbon is directed to a pack- tratec. It can be found at: www.in-
bio-oil vapors, steam and incondens- ing system. tratec.us/analysis/activated-carbon-
able gases as byproducts. At this production-cost. n
point, a carbon skeleton possessing Production pathways Edited by Scott Jenkins
a latent pore structure is formed. Oils Activated carbon can be produced
and tars separated as byproduct are from several carbon-rich raw ma- Editor’s note: The content for this column is supplied by In-
tratec Solutions LLC (Houston; www.intratec.us) and edited by
used for fuel. terials, such as coal, lignite, wood, Chemical Engineering. The analyses and models presented are
Steam activation. In a fluidized-bed pitches and agricultural and forestry prepared on the basis of publicly available and non-confidential
reactor, the charcoal is activated by wastes. When it comes to manufac- information. The content represents the opinions of Intratec only.
More information about the methodology for preparing analysis
reaction with steam at a temperature turing processes, there are basically can be found, along with terms of use, at www.intratec.us/che.
Coconut shells
1. Crusher
2. Dryer
3. Carbonization reactor
4. Activation
1 5. Product refinement
6. Packing
7. Steam boiler
Tar 8. Cooling tower
2 Off-gas
CW Cooling water
ST Steam
3 4
ST 7
Powdered CW 8
5 6 activated
ST carbon
FIGURE 1. Shown here are the major process steps
in the production process for activated carbon Air
M
Joseph any aspiring chemical engineers Suction side Discharge side
Sarver, Blake enter industry after university
Finkenauer and study without sufficient practical PD
Y.A. Liu knowledge about how to prop-
Ps
Virginia Polytechnic erly size pumps. A number of recent articles
Institute and State provide useful guidelines for sizing and se-
University lecting pumps, but these articles focus on D
S
certain specific aspects of proper pump siz-
ing, while leaving out others [1–4]. Chemical
IN BRIEF engineering literature does not fully cover
PUMP SIZING OVERVIEW other essential aspects of pump sizing and
selection — including the viscosity correc-
CALCULATING FRICTION tion, power consumption, commercial avail-
LOSSES Vs, hs,h, hs Vd, Hd,f, hd
ability and lifecycle cost analysis.
NET POSITIVE SUCTION In industrial operations, pumping alone FIGURE 1. The following components are needed to calculate
HEAD can account for between 25 and 50% of the total dynamic head: suction and discharge elevation; fluid ve-
locity; friction loss and dynamic head; and tank pressure
VISCOSITY AND PUMP
total energy usage of the process, depend-
SIZING ing on the application [5]. The initial purchase Pump sizing overview
price of a pump is only a small fraction of The concept of a pumping system is rather
PUMP CURVES the total lifecycle cost. There are situations simple. The suction side refers to everything
CALCULATING POWER in which purchasing a less expensive pump before the pump, while the discharge side
AND EFFICIENCY actually leads to greater energy-usage costs. refers to everything after the pump. Figure
This results in a higher lifecycle cost (see Ex- 1 illustrates a simplified pumping system. A
SUCTION SPECIFIC
SPEED
ample 1, p. 36). key parameter in characterizing a pump is
Without a proper understanding of the the total dynamic head (TDH), which is the
AUTOMATED EXCEL pump selection process, engineers can- difference between the dynamic pressure
SPREADSHEET not effectively make both economic and of the discharge side and the suction side.
practical decisions. This article aims to fill The dynamic pressure represents the energy
in some of the gaps in understanding and required to do the following: (1) to raise the
provide a straightforward method for pump liquid level from the suction tank to the dis-
sizing and selection. Along with this article, charge tank; (2) to provide liquid velocity in-
we have created a useful Microsoft Excel side both suction and discharge piping; (3)
spreadsheet to assist with centrifugal pump to overcome frictional losses in both suction
sizing. The automated Excel spreadsheet and discharge piping; and (4) to pump the
assists in calculating the key parameters for liquid against the pressure difference be-
pump sizing and selection. Since the major- tween the suction and discharge tanks.
ity of the pumps used in the chemical pro- Six steps to pump sizing. In order to size a
cess industries (CPI) are centrifugal pumps, pump, engineers need to estimate the tem-
this article focuses on that equipment cat- perature, density, viscosity and vapor pres-
egory, rather than the other general classes sure of the fluid being pumped. Pump sizing
of pumps, such as rotary and positive dis- can be accomplished in six steps, as follows:
placement pumps. 1. Find the total dynamic head, which is a
34 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
A G C B D E cial pump is readily available (see
ft gal/min
700 10,000 CS CHP section on suction-specific speed
Co 10,000 1.80
1.00 later in this article)
1.50
5,000 4,000 5. Check for potentially suitable
400 CH
0 2,000 1.40 pumps using a composite per-
1,000 formance curve and an individual
2,000 1.30
200 0.95 pump performance curve
F 400
1,000
6. Compare the energy consumption
200
1.20
and lifecycle cost of operating the
0.90 100
100 0.05
selected pumps
500
40 1.15
20 Calculating friction losses
0.80 200 10 1.10 Pumps must overcome the frictional
0.10
40 6 losses of the fluid in order for the
0.70 100 1.05 fluid to flow in the suction and dis-
0.15 charge lines. These frictional losses
0.60
20 0.18 50 depend on pipe roughness, valves,
15 30
fittings, pipe contractions, enlarge-
1.00
ments, pipe length, flowrate and liq-
FIGURE 2. Shown here is a viscosity correction chart. The red dashed line corresponds to Example 2 on
p. 40
uid viscosity.
To calculate the frictional head
function of the four key compo- viscosity of other process fluids losses, in feet of liquid being
nents of a pumping system, such can differ dramatically pumped, on the suction (hs,f) and
as the one shown in Figure 1 3. Calculate the net positive suction discharge (hd,f) side of the pump,
2. Correct for the viscosity of the head (NPSH) to select a pump that Equation (1) can be used. The same
fluid being pumped, since pump will not undergo cavitation equation can be applied to calculate
charts and data are given for 4. Check the value of suction-spe- the frictional losses of the discharge
water with a viscosity of 1 cP. The cific speed to see if a commer- side, but with the appropriate values
•Workson3phase,fixedorvariable 18
frequency,DCandsinglephasepower 16
POWER
SENSOR
14
SENSITIVE
•10timesmoresensitivethan 12
0
BATCH 1 BATCH 2 BATCH 3
T
he following is a pump sizing problem to illustrate the calculations in this article. You are told to purchase a pump for your manufacturing
facility that will carry water to the top of a tower at your facility. The pump is a centrifugal pump that will need to pump 800 gal/min when
in normal operation. Assume BHP is 32 and 16 horsepower for the 3,500-rpm and 2,850-rpm pumps, respectively, for all pump choices
in the composite curve. The pump operates for 8,000 h/yr. Assume all of the pumps are viable for your required flowrate. The suction-side pipe
and discharge-side pipe diameters are 4 and 3 in., respectively. The suction tank elevation (S) is 12 ft, and the discharge tank elevation (D) is
150 ft. Pressure on the suction side is atmospheric pressure (1 atm = 14.696 psi) and the pressure on the discharge side is 1.1 atm. Assume
that both hd,f and hs,f are roughly 10 ft.
Based on a five-year life, the objective of the problem is to calculate the lifecycle cost to operate each pump (that is, the costs of installa-
tion, maintenance and electricity, which is $0.18/kW), and to choose the pump with the lowest lifecycle cost (depreciation is assumed to be
negligible for this example). The pump curves in Figure 3 illustrate the following pump options to choose.
Solution:
Convert volumetric flow to velocity:
Continued on page 37
correlating to the discharge side of inches, v is the average fluid veloc- the frictional losses due to valves, fit-
the pump. ity in ft/s, g is the acceleration due tings, pipe contractions and enlarge-
to gravity in ft/s2, ni is the i-th valve, ments. We have provided the values
fitting, pipe contraction and enlarge- for the typical resistance coefficients
ment and so on, and ki is the resis- and pipe surface roughness from
(1) tance coefficient. the chemical engineering literature in
The first term in Equation (1) rep- the Excel spreadsheet discussed in
In the equation, fD is the Darcy resents the frictional losses from the this article.
friction factor, L is the pipe length in fluid flowing through a straight piece A control valve follows the widely
feet, I.D. is the inner pipe diameter in of pipe. The second term represents accepted heuristic of having a fric-
36 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
PUMP SIZING AND SELECTION EXAMPLE 1 (CONTINUED)
From looking at the TDH and Figure 3, the choice is between Option 1 and Option 2. Notice that most of the TDH comes from the signifi-
cant elevation difference between the suction and discharge side. Now that two pumps are feasible from the perspective of TDH require-
ments, you can compare the economics. At first glance, it is tempting to choose Option 1, since the initial investment is significantly lower.
Although Option 2 has a higher initial cost, the lifetime cost over five years is dramatically lower. The problem shows that, in selecting a
pump, the costs associated with power consumption and maintenance are critical pieces of information for making an informed decision.
tion head loss of 25% of the total less ratio of surface roughness to
calculated friction head loss on the pipe inner diameter. The equation for (6)
suction or discharge line where the the Reynolds number of a circular
valve is located [4]. An illustration of pipe appears in Equation 3. (7)
this solution can be observed in Ex- The total dynamic head depends
ample 2 on page 40. We also imple- (3) on the elevation difference between
ment the same heuristic within the the discharge tank and suction tank
Excel spreadsheet. In the equation, µ is the fluid vis- (Figure 1). In Equations (5) and (6),
The Darcy friction factor fD can cosity, is the fluid density, D is the P is the pressure of the suction or
be calculated using the Churchill pipe inner diameter, and v is the av- discharge side converted to units of
equation, Equation (2), which is ap- erage fluid velocity. length using the specific gravity of
plicable for all values of Reynolds A useful heuristic is to add a 15% the fluid as in Equation (7). The TDH
number (Re). safety factor to reduce the chance of represents the difference between
underestimating the calculated fric- Equations (5) and (6), in which users
tional head losses. Sample calcula- actually add together the velocity
tions using these equations appear in head and the frictional head loss
the examples within this article. for both the suction and discharge
sides of the pump.
Calculating total dynamic head
To find the total dynamic head, the Net positive suction head
difference between the discharge ve- NPSH is used in the determination
locity head (hD) and the suction veloc- of whether the liquid on the suction
ity head (hs) needs to be calculated. side of the selected pump will vapor-
ize at the pumping temperature, thus
(2) (4) causing cavitation and rendering the
pump inoperable. NPSH varies with
In the equation, Re is the Reynolds (5) impeller speed and flowrate.
number and /D is the dimension-
A
n additional pump selection problem is shown Example 2. For this example, consider a discharge line that is 50 ft schedule 40, 4-in.
diameter, with two gate valves, 12 elbows, 1 expander (2–4 in.), a control valve, and a branched tee. The velocity is 12.84 ft/s, Reynolds
number is 1,601, and the Darcy friction factor is 0.119. The elevation difference on the discharge side is 17 ft, the total dynamic suction
head is 50 ft, and the pressure on the discharge side is 14.696 psi. The objectives in this example are to accomplish the following: 1) Calculate
the discharge frictional head loss and total dynamic head; 2) Correct for viscosity of the fluid, which is 300 cP at 125°C; and 3) select an ap-
propriate pump from Figure 3; and 4) Ensure that cavitation is not an issue with the selected pump given the vapor pressure is 13.93 mm Hg
and specific gravity is 1.20.
Solution: For choosing the appropriate pump, see Figures 3 and 4. Notice on the pump composite curve, the 4 x 3 – 10 section is very
close to the 4 x 3-8G. Both pumps should be analyzed by performing a lifecycle cost analysis using the pump efficiencies from the individual
pump performance curves.
Our NPSHa is much greater than the NPSHr and thus should avoid cavitation under normal operating conditions.
cosity-corrected TDH and pumping would need to move vertically up on read the BHP accurately; so instead,
capacity. The y-axis of the graph is the composite curve and choose a we recommend calculating the BHP
the equivalent water TDH. The x-axis pump with a larger impeller size (4 × manually using the pump efficiency
of the graph is the equivalent water 3 – 10 versus 4 × 3 – 8G). It is very according to Equation (12) below.
volumetric flowrate. Figure 3 has important to always compare the
multiple shaded sections, with each lifecycle cost for the different pumps Power and efficiency
corresponding to a different-sized (see Example 1 on p. 36). Brake horsepower (BHP) is the ac-
pump. In the individual sections, the After looking at the pump com- tual horsepower delivered to the
pumps are specified by the suction posite curve and selecting poten- pump shaft. To find the BHP for a
pipe diameter, discharge pipe diam- tial pumps, the next step is to look viscous liquid (BHPvis), use Equa-
eter, and impeller size (4 × 3 – 8G at the individual pump performance tion (9), after calculating the break
for our selected pump in Example 2). curves to obtain the pump efficiency, horsepower for the equivalent water
Remember that the larger pipe diam- NPSHr, and impeller size. Figure 4 values (BHPw, TDHwater and Qwater)
eter is always the suction side. For is an example of an individual pump and efficiency (p,w) from the pump
this pump composite curve, there performance curve. The required curve using Equation (12).
are two x-axes for different impel- NPSH is located at the bottom of
ler speeds. Notice that the two red this figure, separate from the rest
points both correspond to 570 gal/ of the performance curve. Keep in (12)
min of flow and 110 ft of TDH for the mind that not all pump curves are the
different impeller speeds (2,850 and same and vary by manufacturer. In To determine the electricity cost
3,500 rpm). The point that corre- Figure 4, the blue curve is for an 8-in. for operating the pump, use Equa-
sponds to this TDH and flowrate may impeller diameter. The green curve tions (13), (14) and (15). Equation
not be the pump that is ultimately is for a pump efficiency of 64% and (13) converts the BHP of your pump
selected. For example, if the point the red curve is for 30 BHP. In most to the input power or electricity con-
is close to the boundary, engineers pump curves, engineers could not sumption. Determining the power
40 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
SPECIAL REPORT
Digitalization
in the Chemical
Process Industries
This special report contains recent news articles (2017) from Chemical
Engineering magazine that give a timely and informative overview of digitalization
as well as a number of articles (2016) on related cybersecurity issues.
Articles include:
(16)
Host Utility:
Silver Sponsor: Creative Display Sponsor: Promotional Item Sponsor: Supporting Organization: Media Sponsors:
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26
CONFERENCE AGENDA
1:00 p.m. | Siemens Charlotte Energy Hub Plant Tour (Registration & Approval Required) 4:00 p.m | Emerging Connected Plant Technologies
Products come to life at the Siemens Charlotte Energy Hub, the company’s Moore’s Law interacts with big process industries: the same dynamics that
worldwide manufacturing and service location for 60-Hz power generation drive advancements in semiconductors are coming to the chemical and power
equipment. This 24-hour-a-day manufacturing facility has recently undergone sectors as connected plants and analytics take root. The expanding use of
a digital transformation connecting it to MindSphere. MindSphere is the open, sensors, analytical tools, and automation mean that power and chemical assets
cloud-based IoT operating system from Siemens that connects machines and increasingly will be at the forefront of technological change, similar to what
physical infrastructure to the digital world. | Sponsored By: Siemens drives everything from iPhones to autonomous vehicles. Come ready to be
wowed by the technologies that are coming your way!
5:00 p.m. | Welcome Reception | Sponsored by: Siemens
Advanced Modeling and Simulation Technologies for Enabling the Connected
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27 Power Plant
9:15 a.m. | Connected Plant Overview Stephen Zitney, Process Systems Engineering Research, National Energy Technology
What do we mean by “connected plant”? How does it build on past investments Laboratory
in technology? What are some of the key benefits from adoption? Data historians, Drone Usage Best Practices
sensors, and a range of digital tools have been in place at power plants and Bryan Williams, Aviation Services/UAS Coordinator, Duke Energy
chemical facilities for decades, so how is a connected plant different? How
can tools like data analytics and predictive software drive efficiency, enhance Kay Harlow, Survey & Mapping Supervisor - Civil Field Services, Southern Company
productivity, and improve safety? Dan Yates, Civil Field Services Manager, Southern Company
Digital Plant/Worker Digitalizing Brownfield Assets By Combining Reality Modeling With IIoT
Carl Toner, Performance Improvement Manager, Southern Company Anne-Marie Walters, Industry Marketing Director, Process & Resources, Bentley
Chemical Technologies and Innovation Platforms Systems, Inc
Ben Amaba, PhD, PE, CPIM, LEED AP, Worldwide Executive, IBM 5:00 p.m. | Networking Reception
Realizing the Full Potential of the Power Industry’s Interconnected Future
Sree Hameed, Marketing Manager, Industry Business - Power segment, Schneider WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28
Electric 8:30 a.m. | Keynote Address – IIoT Efforts and Deployment
Industrial Internet of Things has received and explosion of attention in recent
Digitalization in the Process Industries years, but like any new innovation efforts, the path through Hype Cycle can be
Jonas Norinder, Chemical Industry Manager, Siemens a stormy one. This discussion will review the present state of the art around
11:00 a.m. | Safeguarding Critical Assets in an Era of Cyber Threats deployment of IIoT in the Connected Plant and challenge the audience on what
With connectivity comes an increased vulnerability to cyber threats, which, the future could look like once these tools are more fully deployed.
though worrisome, can be effectively managed. Learn about the nature of Jeffrey Wehner, VP Renewable Operations, Duke Energy
existing and emerging threats and what strategies are available to address them.
9:00 a.m. | Mobile Devices & Wearables for Enhanced Worker Safety
Dow Chemical Cybersecurity Case Study Wearables and mobile devices can equip field staff with critical equipment,
Seth McDow, Digital Operations Center: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Leader, operational, and situational information that not only can make them more
The Dow Chemical Company effective, but also safer. Learn about these technologies and consider how your
IIOT and Industry 4.0 - Protecting ICS Networks in the Digital Era facility can implement them for a safer, more effective workforce.
Barak Perelman, CEO, Indegy Use of Mobile Devices in the Field
Additional speaker invited from GE Digital. Jill Kiefer, Dow Logistics BEMS / Global Improvement Leader, The Dow Chemical
1:00 p.m. | Simulation and Modeling for the CPI Company
Plant-specific data compared against other corporate assets and benchmarked Process Instrumentation Digital Devices Improve Plant Performance & Increase Safety
against sector-leading assets can be powerful tools in identifying and modeling Gregory Livelli, Head of Product Portfolio Management, ABB
strategies to improve plant performance, efficiency, and profitability. This two- 9:45 a.m. | Imagining and Selling the Connected Plant Internally
part session offers practical approaches to simulation and modeling techniques Scarce financial resources and competing projects mean that connection
and discusses emerging trends. plant champions not only need to understand the technology, but also how to
Using Simulation to Reduce Risk Throughout the Chemical Plant Lifecycle communicate its benefits and justify investment commitments to a range of
Yuris Fuentes, Engineering Consultant, DowDupont stakeholders. This session offers a boot camp in effectively building and selling
Co-Author: Don Mack, Chemical Industry Manager, Siemens the investment.
Predicting Profit Improvement Opportunities with Digital Twin Technology Speakers invited from Evonik Corporation, Total, and Air Liquide.
Bart Winters, Director Product Management, Honeywell Connected Plant
10:45 a.m. | Enhancing Efficiency with Mobile Apps & Training In Real-world
Driving your Digital Transformation Strategy with VR/AR Technology Experiences
Livia Wiley, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Industry Business, Software, SimSci by This session will give you a firsthand look at virtual and augmented reality and related
Schneider Electric technologies. See how they are changing the way staff interacts with the plant.
2:15 p.m. | Networking Break | Sponsored by: Mettler Toledo Emerging Connected Plant Technologies - Tools/Applications
2:45 p.m. | Harnessing the Power of Data Analytics Randal Jones, P.E., CMRP, Manager - CBM & Analytics, Southern Company
Big data includes not only numbers and trend analysis, but also qualitative Case Study on Google Glasses
factors that by their very nature impact plant performance. Through case studies, Peggy Gulick, Director Business Process Improvement, AGCO Corporation (invited)
learn how industry leaders are making use of big data concepts. 12:00 p.m. | Networking Luncheon | Sponsored by: ABB
Alabama Plant Case Study
Dr. Yves Gorat Stommel, Director Business Development and Innovation, Evonik 1:00 p.m. | Duke Energy’s Monitoring & Diagnostic Center – Virtual Demonstration
Corporation Add to your conference experience by joining a demonstration of how Duke
Energy is adding distributed and virtual M&D capabilities to accelerate their
Utilizing Big Data Analytics to Drive Operational Profitability Improvements industry-leading initiative to increase asset availability, reduce cost, and address
Peter Martin, VP Innovation & Marketing, Schneider Electric workforce challenges. CBM Analysts typically spent as much as 80% of their time
Additional speaker invited from OSI Soft. on manual data collection at the expense of analysis.
31532
Environmental Manager
S
election of an enclosed
combustion solution is a
complex process that in-
volves various environmen-
tal and operational requirements
that are unique for each applica-
tion. There is great benefit in select-
ing the correct equipment, since it
can translate into decreased capital
and operational costs by preventing
over-designing or under-designing
the equipment. Different technolo-
gies offer tradeoffs between initial
cost, operating expense and com-
plexity, emissions, fuel efficiency FIGURE 1. These steam-generating thermal oxidizers with waste-heat boilers represent an example of an
enclosed combustion technology being used for emissions control in a degassing system that ultimately
and destruction efficiency. This ar- generates inert gases
ticle describes the main categories
of enclosed combustion devices amount of pollutants entering the a desired chamber temperature of
and presents a few of the advan- system and the amount of pollut- 1,400 to 1,800°F. Different burners
tages and tradeoffs to aid in se- ants exiting the system divided by can be used, including forced-draft
lecting the proper equipment for a the mass of pollutants entering the burners for smokeless combus-
particular case. system, expressed as a percentage. tion of heavy hydrocarbons, anti-
Depending on the pollutants to be flashback burners and low-NOx
Enclosed flares destroyed, a minimum destruction (oxides of nitrogen) burners.
The simplest enclosed combustion efficiency is needed to meet regu-
device is an enclosed flare. An en- lations. Thus, the selection of the Thermal oxidizers
closed flare is simply meant to hide combustion equipment depends on To reach higher levels of destruction
the flame and does not make a par- the destruction efficiency needed. efficiency and lower emissions, we
ticular effort to increase combus- In order to reach higher levels of can turn to thermal oxidizers (Fig-
tion efficiency or reduce emissions. destruction efficiency, we start off ure 1). Thermal oxidizers employ a
Enclosed flares provide cooling and with an enclosed flare design and wide variety of designs, but can be
combustion air through natural draft. add temperature control and assist generally split into three main cat-
The enclosed flare burner is simple gas. This can be called a vapor com- egories: direct-fired thermal oxidiz-
and can be an anti-flashback type, a bustor, or in some cases, a thermal ers; regenerative thermal oxidizers;
high-pressure type or a forced-draft oxidizer. The vapor combustor can and catalytic thermal oxidizers. The
type. A forced-draft type of device maintain higher temperatures in the main difference between a thermal
is used when the process gas has a chamber, which allows it to main- oxidizer system and a combustor is
tendency to produce smoke. It uti- tain a destruction efficiency of up to that a thermal oxidizer does not rely
lizes a blower to provide 20–40% of 99.9%. Residence time is typically on directly igniting the process gas
the stoichiometric air to the fuel gas around 0.7 seconds for these types for oxidation. A thermal oxidizer sus-
near the burner tip. Enclosed flares of combustors. tains the proper conditions for oxidi-
typically operate at around 98% A thermocouple is used to moni- zation of the combustible materials
destruction efficiency. tor system temperature and con- present in the process gas by main-
Destruction efficiency is defined trol the opening of the louvers or taining an operating temperature
as the difference between the the flow of assist gas to maintain sufficiently above the auto-ignition
46 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
point by providing enough time for with extremely lean process gases Catalytic thermal oxidizers
combustion and by the presence of (gas that contains few or no liquefi- A catalytic thermal oxidizer is another
excess oxygen to complete the oxi- able liquid hydrocarbons and is not type of thermal oxidizer that is used
dation reactions (Figure 2). able to combust on its own, usually when high fuel efficiency is required.
requiring additional outside fuel to This type of oxidizer utilizes a cata-
Direct-fired thermal oxidizers initiate combustion). The addition of lytic bed to promote oxidation, low-
A direct-fired thermal oxidizer oper- a purge step to the cycle requires ering the temperature required to
ates through the use of a burner to at least one additional bed, but in- oxidize the process gas. Because
heat up the chamber to proper oxi- creases destruction efficiency up to of the lower temperature, a catalytic
dation temperatures for the required 99.5% by ensuring that any process thermal oxidizer uses less fuel than
destruction efficiency. The chamber gas that is present partway through a direct-fired thermal oxidizer and
must be designed to maintain an ad- a bed during a cycle transition is can even be designed to be self-
equate residence time and provide completely oxidized. sustaining through the use of a heat
sufficient velocity for turbulent mixing.
If the process gas has sufficient heat
content, it can be used as the fuel
gas for the burner. Otherwise, sup-
plemental fuel is required to maintain
the combustion temperature.
A recuperative thermal oxidizer is a
variation of a direct thermal oxidizer
that incorporates heat recovery into
US
00
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is then used to heat and oxidize the
process gas as it enters the thermal
oxidizer. To accomplish this, the sys- Group
tem uses multiple beds and alter-
nates the inlet and outlet of the oxi- Air Emissions Abatement: Short on space and
dation chamber. A two-bed system dreaming of a low maintenance RTO air abatement
would cycle approximately every two
minutes, allowing heat to be cap- system to control VOCs and HAPs? The Ecopure® RL
tured by the ceramic media on the Rotary Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer saves
outlet and heating the process gas valuable space and maintenance costs, all while
from residual heat in the inlet bed. maintaining a 99 % DRE. With fewer moving parts,
Once the system cycles, the direc- smoother operation, and a more compact design,
tion of flow is reversed, allowing the
the Ecopure® RL is the answer to your needs.
temperature to be regenerated on
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regenerative thermal oxidizer can op-
erate on little to no fuel and achieve www.durr-cleantechnology.com
98.5% destruction efficiency and
low NOx and CO emissions, even
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018 47
FIGURE 2. Thermal oxidiz- though they offer great destruction
ers are differentiated from efficiency, do not greatly improve over
conventional combustors simpler combustors in NOx genera-
because they use excess tion. There are several low-NOx burn-
oxygen to complete oxida-
tion reactions at a suitably ers and designs that can improve NOx
high temperature emissions for combustors and direct-
fired thermal oxidizers. Other solu-
tions are also available, such as am-
monia injection, but that can prove to
be quite expensive. Regenerative and
catalytic thermal oxidizers can offer
low-NOx emissions.
Fuel efficiency. Fuel efficiency is an-
other important, yet frequently over-
looked, consideration for selecting
an enclosed combustion system.
Where a fuel source, such as natural
gas, is inexpensive, it is not always
feasible to invest in a higher-cost
system to increase fuel efficiency,
but many products are still worth
considering. Regenerative thermal
exchanger to pre-heat the process to evaluate the benefits in reducing oxidizers offer the greatest fuel ef-
gas. This type of system is limited emissions. There are several cutoff ficiencies, recovering up to 98%
by the combustible concentration points to be aware of. A simple en- of thermal energy. These systems
of the process gas and is limited to closed combustor will achieve about are ideal for low-concentration and
components that will not poison the 98% destruction efficiency. This can high-flowrate applications. Catalytic
catalyst. For the correct applications, be achieved by almost any diffuse thermal oxidizers can also oper-
a catalytic thermal oxidizer can offer flame burner without any additional ate at high thermal efficiencies by
high destruction efficiency and low effort. Up to 99.5% destruction ef- incorporating heat exchangers to
NOx and CO emissions. ficiency can be achieved with a pre-heat the process gas before it
temperature-controlled combustor, passes through the catalyst. Finally,
Ultra-low-emissions models a regenerative thermal oxidizer or a recuperative thermal oxidizer can
A new class of advanced combustor a catalytic thermal oxidizer. Above be used to pre-heat process gas
called the certified ultra-low emis- that, a direct-fired thermal oxidizer to increase fuel efficiency, or it can
sions burner can achieve high de- or an ultra-low-emissions combustor be used to recover heat to use in
struction efficiencies and extremely is required. Although the difference another process in the plant. This
low NOx and CO emissions. This between 99.5% and 99.9% destruc- can put the thermal energy gener-
type of combustor has been used tion efficiency may seem
in environmentally sensitive areas small, half a percent im-
to achieve best-available control provement on destruction
technology (BACT) emissions levels. efficiency represents five
These devices use surface pre-mix times greater emissions
combustion to create short-lived, for the former compared
low-temperature flames that are ex- to the latter.
tremely efficient. This reduces flame NOx emissions. NOx
temperature, resulting in low NOx, emissions have tradition-
but also can provide destruction ef- ally been especially hard
ficiency of up to 99.99%. to control. NOx is formed
through various mecha-
Selection guidance nisms during combustion,
When selecting a combustion sys- which, if not addressed,
tem, emissions and destruction ef- can create large amounts
ficiency have become the primary of this pollutant. A diffuse
criteria. Across the industry, there flame burner will generate
is pressure, and sometimes eco- the largest amount of NOx,
nomic incentives as well, to reduce so typically any enclosed
NOx and CO emissions, along with combustor, even temper-
emissions of volatile organic com- ature-controlled models,
pounds (VOCs). With this in mind, will produce relatively large
the first step should be to determine amounts of NOx. This in- FIGURE 3. Regenerative thermal oxidizers capture the heat from
what local emissions guidelines cludes direct-fired ther- oxidation, which is retained by a ceramic media and is then used
apply to the specific device, and mal oxidizers, which, even to heat and oxidize the process gas
48 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
ated by the thermal oxidizer to use gen sulfide, a ceramic-fiber blan- costs. Proper selection requires that
in generating steam or other cost- ket can be used, but the oxidizer these factors be researched and
saving applications. should employ a hot-shell design determined in advance to ensure
Handling challenging compo- to prevent acid gas condensation. that the expectations for the equip-
nents. Other product-selection For this design, a wind shield is in- ment are in line with the operational
decisions revolve around the type stalled outside of the oxidizer shell requirements. Armed with this in-
of process gas being handled. to prevent wind or rain from cool- formation, the descriptions in this
Corrosive components, such as ing the surface of the chamber. This article can provide a starting point
hydrogen sulfide and halogenated prevents the sulfur dioxide and sul- for equipment selection to ensure
compounds, demand systems ca- fur trioxide that is produced by the that the final decision achieves the
pable of safely disposing of these combustion process from condens- requirements for the application. ■
components. Typically, once the ing into sulfurous and sulfuric acids. Edited by Mary Page Bailey
concentration of any of these com- For halogenated compounds, a
pounds reaches a certain level, the high-grade refractory media that is Author
safest and most effective way of high in alumina and can withstand Anu D. Vij is chief operating offi-
destroying them is through specially the corrosive products of combus- cer (COO) of Ship & Shore Envi-
ronmental Inc. (2474 N. Palm
designed direct-fired thermal oxi- tion must be used Drive, Signal Hill, CA 90755;
dizers. Other combustion systems With all the different factors that Phone: (562) 997-0233; Website:
are either sensitive to the presence can influence the selection of an en- www.shipandshore.com). Vij has
of these chemicals, such as cata- closed combustion system, it can over twenty years of experience in
the environmental, chemical, pet-
lytic thermal oxidizers and regen- be difficult to determine where to rochemical and air-pollution-con-
erative thermal oxidizers, or they start. In general, the decision fac- trol industries, and has specific
are not suitable for handling more tors should prioritize process-gas expertise in thermal oxidation technologies. As COO at
Ship & Shore, he oversees several business units, in-
dangerous chemicals, such as with composition, followed by emissions, cluding Sales, Finance, Engineering, Project Manage-
enclosed flares and combustors. and finally fuel efficiency and capital ment, Procurement, Production and Services. Prior to
Direct-fired thermal oxidizers must costs. Following these priorities en- joining Ship & Shore, Vij served as vice president, en-
closed combustion systems at Aereon and was director
be designed to handle these chemi- sures that the equipment selected of engineering at OnQuest Inc. Vij holds a M.S.Ch.E.
cals, especially in the selection of provides the required performance from the University of Southern California and a
the refractory media. For hydro- at the least capital and operational B.S.Ch.E. from Panjab University in India.
T
he presence of the aro- dration unit. After Contactor particle filter
matic compounds benzene, the removal of oil Rich glycol
toluene, ethylbenzene and and some con-
p-xylene (BTEX) and acid densate from the
Gas
gases, such as hydrogen sulfide wet gas stream,
HC skimmer
(H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2), in it is necessary to Inlet Reflux coil
the wet gas of tri-ethylene glycol remove most of scrubber
Still
(TEG) gas-dehydration units (Figure the associated Wet gas column
1) can result in numerous operat- water. The free
Gas
ing problems. These problems can water associated Reboiler
be minimized by optimizing certain with the extracted Stripper
operating parameters and paying natural gas is re- Flash column
Condensate vessel Stripping
careful attention to details dur- moved by simple gas
ing the equipment design stage. separation meth- Activated
This article presents several ways ods at production carbon filter
to minimize operating and mainte- stations or near Lean/rich Lean glycol
nance problems in TEG gas-dehy- the wellhead. The Particle filter exchanger
SINCE 1958
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For details visit adlinks.chemengonline.com/70302-19 For details visit adlinks.chemengonline.com/70302-08
Mole fraction
0.004
p-Xylene
0.003
Operation condition
0.002 Parameter Value
Wet gas flowrate 10 million std. m3/d
Contactor pressure 80 bara
0.001 Lean glycol circulation rate 4 m3/h
0
30 40 50
Contactor temperature, °C
11 – 15 June 2018 FIGURE 3. The contactor temperature is another parameter that affects BTEX
concentration in the glycol
Frankfurt am Main
saturation water content of the natural gas. The pres-
ence of acid gases in the TEG solution lowers its pH and
enhances corrosion in the glycol circuit.
In addition, another major concern is dealing with the
emission of BTEX and H2S from the still regenerator. In most
countries, these components are considered hazardous
air pollutants, and emissions of these components are
strictly regulated.
BE THERE. Foaming
One of the most serious and common problems en-
countered in gas dehydration units is foaming. The
› World Forum and Leading Show root cause of foaming is often difficult to identify. How-
for the Process Industries ever, if the circulating glycol solution is not continually
cleaned by filtration, then it can cause foaming. Some
› 3,800 Exhibitors from 50 Countries of the major factors that promote foaming are en-
trained hydrocarbon liquids, dissolved aromatics, H2S
› 170,000 Attendees from 100 Countries in the glycol, salt contamination, field corrosion inhibi-
tors, excessive turbulence and high vapor-to-liquid
contacting velocities.
1,200
Your fast lane to
Water content in gas, mg/std. m3
200 usa@ekato.com
0
0 10
Acid gas (H2S and CO2), mole %
16.6
www.ekato.com
FIGURE 4. The concentration of acid gas in the glycol negatively impacts the effectiveness of the process
to remove water from the gas
For details visit adlinks.chemengonline.com/70302-13
0.06
0.05
Operation condition
Parameter Value
The ideal solution for the opera-
0.04 Wet gas flowrate
Contactor pressure
10 million std. m3/d
80 bara
tional problems described in this
0.03 Lean glycol circulation rate 4 m3/h article involves good mechanical
0.02
0.01
design of the inlet separator, effec-
0 tive preheating of the rich glycol be-
30 40 50 fore entering the glycol exchanger
Contactor temperature, °C
and proper selection of a synthetic
FIGURE 5. As with BTEX compounds, the contactor temperature impacts the concentration of acid gases
present in the glycol carbon filter with two filters in par-
allel and full-flowrate capacity with
materials can result in excessive gly- heavy hydrocarbons, it is suggested no bypass line. This will effectively
col losses due to foaming, reduced to install two full-flow activated-car- eliminate most foaming and corro-
efficiency and additional mainte- bon filters in parallel with no bypass sion problems by removing the hy-
nance problems. Heavy hydrocar- line. If the filters are not designed drocarbons and other troublesome
bons in the glycol can cause coking for full flowrates, then foaming and impurities from the glycol, which will
on the reboiler surface, creating hot corrosion impurities in the rich gly- result in minimized operating and
spots on the firebox and plugging col will enter into the lean/rich ex- maintenance problems. Reducing
in the regeneration system. Heavy changer, regenerator system and the glycol circulation rate is the most
hydrocarbon presence can also in- circulation pumps. The impurities effective way of decreasing the ab-
crease reboiler heat load due to el- will cause exchanger fouling, lead- sorption of BTEX and acid gases in
evated boiling points, and result in ing to poor heat transfer and poor circulating glycol. ■
glycol losses. regenerator performance, which af- Edited by Mary Page Bailey
Condensation in the contactor fects overall glycol purity. If the lean/
can be prevented by maintaining rich exchanger is of the plate-and- References
the inlet glycol temperature 3 to 6°C frame type, then it will cause fre- 1. Campbell, J.M., “Gas Conditioning and Process — Vol.
above the feedgas inlet temperature. quent maintenance and mechanical 2: The Equipment Modules,” 8th Ed., 2004.
If not maintained, condensation of damage. This will also result in fail- 2. Gas Processors Suppliers Association (GPSA) Data Book,
13th Ed., 2012.
the hydrocarbon might occur, which ure of the glycol circulation pump in
can cause foaming and increase the long term. 3. Stewart, M. and Arnold, K., “Gas Dehydration Field Man-
ual,” 1st Ed., Gulf Professional Publishing, August 2011.
glycol losses. Canister- or cartridge-type syn-
4. Kohl, A.L. and Nielsen, R.B., “Gas Purification,” 5th Ed.,
Flash vessel considerations. The thetic-carbon filters are generally Elsevier Science, August 1997.
glycol flash vessel is used to remove preferred when compared to loose
light hydrocarbons, acid gases and charcoal beds (installed as fill into
small amounts of aromatics by rapid a vessel) because they are easier Author
Krishnan Madan Mohan is a se-
reduction in pressure (flashing). De- to maintain and avoid unnecessary nior process engineer at Worley-
gassing in the flash vessel before exposure of workers to BTEX com- Parsons Engineering Oman (P.O.
the rich glycol enters the lean/rich ponents. Contaminated spent char- Box 795 Al-Khuwair, Muscat,
exchanger helps to prevent foaming coal is difficult to dispose of unless it Oman; Telephone: 968-
24473394; Email: k.mohan@
and fouling in the exchanger and re- is contained in a canister. worleyparsons.com). He has 15
boiler. If hydrocarbons such as BTEX A synthetic-type carbon filter de- years of professional experience
are present along with CO2 and H2S rived from petroleum products can in the oil-and-gas industry, includ-
ing activities related to feasibility
in the rich glycol, then a preheating be used effectively for aromatic and studies, concept selection, basis of design and front-
step is more efficient for the degas- acid-gas removal. The main advan- end engineering design (FEED) and detail design. His
sing process. The recommended tages of these types of filters are experience includes debottlenecking, upgrades, design
preheating temperature is about 70 high surface area and high adsorp- modifications for glycol-based gas dehydration units
and sour-water stripper units, flare and relief studies,
to 75°C, and the recommended op- tion capacity compared with acti- including detailed blowdown studies, equipment sizing
erating pressure of the flash vessel vated carbon derived from wood- and thermal design for heat exchangers and air coolers.
is around 3 to 5 bara. based charcoal, coconut shell or He holds a B.Tech. (chemical) degree from the National
Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli, India.
Activated-carbon filter. A properly bituminous coal.
Suman Pachal is a process engi-
designed activated-carbon filter can The replacement of a synthetic- neer with WorleyParsons Engi-
effectively remove most foaming- type carbon filter cannot be deter- neering Oman (Same address as
and fouling-promoting compounds mined using the conventional ap- above; Email: suman.pachal@
in the glycol. The filter should be proach of filter differential-pressure worleyparsons.com). He has more
than 10 years of design consul-
installed downstream of the particle measurement, because synthetic- tancy experience in the oil-and-
filters in the rich glycol line. Carbon based carbon does not create a gas, petroleum-refining and pet-
filters are usually sized for glycol pressure differential after filter ex- rochemicals sectors. Before
joining WorleyParsons, he worked
loading of 2.5 to 5.0 m3/h per m2 of haust. The filter replacement inter- as a process engineer for Technip India in New Delhi.
filter cross-sectional area. If the rich val should be determined based His areas of expertise include line hydraulics, equip-
glycol contains dissolved compo- on visual examination (color com- ment sizing, relief valve sizing and vent and blowdown
calculations. He holds a B.Tech. (chemical) degree from
nents, such as BTEX, H2S, CO2 or parison between inflow and out- the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
54 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
Universal Airlock for Pneumatic Conveying Systems
The Multi-Duty (MD) Airlock is a highly universal airlock used to me-
ter dry bulk materials under feeding devices such as bins, hoppers,
mixers, screw conveyors and sifters. Providing rugged service, the
MD is suitable for use in dilute phase vacuum, pressure or combina-
tion/pressure pneumatic conveying systems.
Designed with a precision machined rotor and housing provides a
high degree of accuracy and close tolerances. The close tolerances
hold the differential pressure across the valve to reduce air leakage.
Reducing leakage saves supply gas, minimizes spikes in velocity and
stabilizes the system. A low mounting height is perfect for space
restricted applications.
Schenck Process
www.schenckprocess.com/us
W
hile all engineering de-
grees are inherently valu-
able and flexible when it
comes to career options,
the engineering sphere has never
been more challenging, and this in
turn makes it difficult for many young
engineers to focus their careers and
make the most of the opportunities
that are available. The petrochemi-
cal industry, in particular, is inherently
volatile based on fluctuations in pe-
troleum and natural gas prices, and
this can lead to sudden changes in
employment opportunities. This can
make it difficult to maintain stable their future career trajectories, and to price quote for engineering services.
employment, and plan a reasonable, become lulled into thinking that this This was unheard of at the start of
stable engineering career trajectory. bullish state would be the norm over my career when nearly all engineering
This article shares some “lessons their entire careers. was was done on a time and material
learned” from my 40-plus-year en- Technological developments over basis. And, we are now not only com-
gineering/management career (first the last 40+ years have been mind peting with other engineering firms
in the nuclear industry and then in boggling, and there seems to be no within the U.S., but are also compet-
the chemical and petroleum-refin- sign such innovation will slow down ing internationally. This level of com-
ing industries). My time in refining in the coming years. I recall at the petition within the engineering field will
eventually encountered an abrupt start of my career that slide rules continue, and is likely to intensify.
downturn that led to a drastic ca- were the norm for doing calculations, Job hopping from company to
reer adjustment for me. This caused and people stared in awe at those company (and even industry to in-
me to reflect on how I would redo who had a small pocket calculator. dustry) has become the norm as
my career if I could. Some thoughts Now the computational capabilities engineers push to advance their
shared below can provide a level of at our fingertips through the vari- careers, or as a result of compa-
guidance to young engineers. ous technology tools are endless. nies downsizing. At the start of my
It is said that a modern smartphone career, engineers generally joined
The situation has more computing power than the companies with the idea that they
When I started my career as a struc- computers on Apollo 11 that first would retire at the same company.
tural engineer in the nuclear power took a man to the moon in 1969. Now lifetime employment at one
industry, work was booming and all This rapid pace of change has ne- company is nearly unheard of, and
my boss ever asked during my first cessitated constant learning to stay engineers starting their careers have
few years of employment was how current with technology tools. The to be prepared for a path that may
much overtime I could work. During need for ongoing education — and wind in many directions.
those days, countries such as Japan a willingness to embrace change — In the U.S., companies have even
and South Korea, were considered goes well beyond calculation tools adjusted their retirement programs to
developing nations, and we did a and extends into the engineering so-called “portable” 401K retirement-
significant work for such interna- technologies in every discipline. Con- savings plans to facilitate employment
tional customers to help them build stant learning is a bedrock require- flexibility. There are a lot of good tech-
their civil and industrial infrastructure. ment of the engineering field, and is a nical performers who are looking for
There also seemed to be an endless must going forward. work because they were displaced
amount of work for domestic utilities Competition in the engineering field due to circumstances beyond their
and companies. This boon in work led has intensified, and it is not uncom- control. This often makes it doubly
many to become complacent about mon now for clients to request a fixed- difficult for the engineer to find his or
56 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
her next position since the competi- pertise. These professionals often absorbed by other companies that
tion is intense for the often limited po- become very important to engineer- recognize their skills.
sitions. Also, engineers have become ing companies because they repre- 2. Build your “toolbox.” Another
more productive, thanks to advances sent a trusted source to go to, to find way to improve your value is to in-
in technology and computation tools, “final answers” on complex technical volve yourself in as many different fac-
and therefore firms need fewer en- matters, and often the professional ets of work as possible, even though
gineers to do the same work. As a recognition they garner within their you may not consider some areas
consultant who now assists a major industry sector can help their com- your “sweet spot.” By having different
corporation in talent recruitment, I pany to attract business. Such ex- areas of expertise, you will be able to
often quickly see several hundred perts generally survive cutbacks more easily switch to a different area
applicants for a posted position, and within their companies, and if they in the event your work area becomes
this trend is likely to continue. are displaced, are generally quickly soft. Broader experience also allows
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Diane Burleson
Send Advertisements Chemical Engineering, 11000 Richmond Ave, Houston, TX 77042
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(1957-59 = 100) Oct. ’17 Sept. ’17 Oct. ’16 Annual Index:
Prelim. Final Final
2009 = 521.9 600
CE Index ______________________________________________ 575.1 574.0 543.1
Equipment ____________________________________________ 695.0 692.5 647.6 2010 = 550.8
Heat exchangers & tanks _________________________________ 610.0 606.8 557.1
2011 = 585.7 575
Process machinery _____________________________________ 689.8 685.3 653.3
Pipe, valves & fittings ____________________________________ 900.3 897.4 811.0 2012 = 584.6
Process instruments ____________________________________ 409.1 411.0 390.0 2013 = 567.3 550
Pumps & compressors ___________________________________ 985.3 985.0 966.0
Electrical equipment ____________________________________ 521.7 521.9 511.5 2014 = 576.1
Structural supports & misc. ________________________________ 746.7 741.8 710.4 2015 = 556.8 525
Construction labor _______________________________________ 331.2 334.3 329.3
Buildings _____________________________________________ 565.6 564.9 546.7 2016 = 541.7
Engineering & supervision _________________________________ 309.6 309.8 313.7 500
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Starting with the April 2007 Final numbers, several of the data series for labor and compressors have been converted to
accommodate series IDs that were discontinued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
CPI OUTPUT INDEX (2000 = 100)† CPI OUTPUT VALUE ($ BILLIONS) CPI OPERATING RATE (%)
110 2300 80
105
2200 78
100
2100
95 76
2000
90
74
1900
85
72
80 1800
75 1700 70
J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D
*Due to discontinuance, the Index of Industrial Activity has been replaced by the Industrial Production in Manufacturing index from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
†For the current month’s CPI output index values, the base year was changed from 2000 to 2012
Current business indicators provided by Global Insight, Inc., Lexington, Mass.
CURRENT TRENDS
Hot Topics
Managing Vapor and
Particulate Emissions
T he preliminary value for the October
CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; top;
most recent available) increased com-
Guidebook
Valves
in the Selection, Operation and Troubleshooting
Optimal Pump
pared to the previous month’s value for
the fifth consecutive month. Increases in
Chemical Management October for the Equipment and Buildings
subindexes offset small decreases in the
Processing CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING
CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING
Construction Labor and Engineering &
Supervision subindexes. The preliminary
Industry Valves Selection: Optimal Pump Managing Vapor overall monthly CEPCI value for October
Operation and Management and Particulate 2017 stands at 5.9% higher than the
Troubleshooting Emissions corresponding value from 2016. Mean-
while, the latest Current Business Indi-
cators (CBI; middle) showed increases
Find these and other related CPI titles in the in the CPI output index for November,
Chemical Engineering Store. store.chemengonline.com and the CPI value of output for October,
along with a small decrease in producer
prices for November. The CPI operating
rate also inched up for November.
64 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM JANUARY 2018
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