Batchwise and Semibatch

Processing
Lecture 4
Sizing Plant Items
 Principles of Sizing
Start with the recipe and the mass balance for the process

Construct the resource-task network showing the equipment needed

and the mass balance at each stage.

The mass balance will use some basis typically an amount of a

feed material or an amount of product. Not the production rate that
we would use in a continuous plant. There is no flowrate in the
normal sense.

Use whatever information is available on mixture densities to work

out the volume required in each plant item per unit mass of product.
(In the case of multiple stages in one plant unit, take the largest such
value.)

This is known as the occupancy

 Principles of Sizing
We now know the volume per kg of product (occupancy)
at each stage of the recipe.

Draw a Gantt chart for the process, showing the time

required for each stage of the process. Use this to find
the cycle time for the product.

(If the plant is a multiproduct one, allow for the cleaning

time and work out the proportion of the working year
allotted to each product.)

From the information given above, estimate the number

of batches per year of the product.
 Principles of Sizing
Divide the annual production rate by the number of
batches per year to find the production of product per
batch.

Finally, the production per batch multiplied by the

occupancy in each stage is the required working volume
of the stage. Select the nearest greater standard vessel
volume.
 Example
A two-stage process produces 500 tonnes a year of product C.
Assume 6000 hours of operation per year.
Recipe:
1. Mix equal weights of A and B and react for 8 hours to produce C
at 40% (weight) conversion. The minimum density of the mixture
is 900 kgm-3
2. A quantity of solvent, S, equal to the original weight of A is added
and the unreacted A and B dissolve, together with 5% of the C.
The mixture is centrifuged to remove the 95% of the C which is
solid. The liquid overflow from the centrifuge contains all
unreacted A and B, the solvent and the dissolved C. This stage
of the process takes 2 hours and the minimum density of the
mixture is 1000 kgm-3
 Resource-task network

vessel 2

vessel 1 S

A
Reaction

A+B Separation
C
+C
B

vessel 1 vessel 2
A+B+
C+S
 Taking a basis of 100kg of A

vessel 2
100 kg S
vessel 1

100 kg A
Reaction

60 kg A Separation
60 kg B 76 kg C
100 kg B 80 kg C

vessel 1 vessel 2
60 kg A
60 kg B
4 kg C
100 kg S
 Solution - Occupancies

Calculate the volume per kg of product in each vessel:

Vessel 1

200 kg 1 m3 kg
Occupancy 1000 2.924 m 3 /te
76 kg 900 kg te

Vessel 2

300 kg 1 m3 kg
Occupancy 1000 3.947 m 3 /te
76 kg 1000 kg te

Using one unit per stage and zero-wait transfer, the cycle time is max{8,2} = 8 hours
 Solution vessel sizes
Using one unit per stage and zero-wait transfer, the cycle time is
max{8,2} = 8 hours

Number of batches per year = 6000/8 = 750

Production of C per batch = 500/750 = 0.667 tonnes

So the volume of vessel 1 = 0.667 2.924 = 1.95 m3 or 2 m3 if this is

the nearest standard size.

Volume of vessel 2 = 0.667 3.947 = 2.63 m3 this may be a

standard size of 3 m3 ..
Solution vessel sizes- improving utilization
Since the utilization of vessel 2 is low it is used for only 2 hours in
the 8 hour cycle time the vessel is larger than it needs to be. It might
be beneficial to increase this utilisation.

One way to achieve this is to duplicate the vessel with the longer
cycle time and operate the smaller vessels in a staggered manner
so that a smaller batch is passed forward more frequently.

Say we have two vessels for the reaction stage of our example
(vessels 1a and 1b). This means a batch will pass forward to the
separation stage every 4 hours. This gives a cycle time of 4 hours.

Number of batches per year is now 6000/4 = 1500

Size of batch is 500/1500 = 0.333 tonnes of C
 Size of each stage 1 vessel = 0.333 2.924 = 0.974 m3 (say 1 m3)

Size of stage 2 vessel = 0.333 3.947 = 1.312 m3 (say 1.5m3)

If we can apply the 2/3 power law to the cost of vessels and the
vessels are essentially the same type, the cost involved is

2 1.0 1.5
2 2
3 3
0.902 of the original design
2 2
3 3
2
3

This is not a huge saving but may be significant.

 Power law for scaling vessel cost

It can be assumed that if two vessels are similar in

proportion and shape:
n
Cost of Vessel a Capacity of vessel a

Cost of vessel b Capacity of vessel b

Where n is a constant which depends on the type of vessel.

Most often a value of 0.6 is given as a general guideline.

 Scheduling and Size for Multiproduct Plants
In order to schedule and size plant for multiple product production,
another initial assumption is needed. Usually assume initially that
batch size is equal for the different products. We will also know the
resource task network for each product and the occupancies, as
before.

Using this initial assumption of equal batch sizes we can determine the
number of campaigns of the different products and then the actual
batch sizes of each. Hence we can find the vessel sizes.

The different products will require different sizes of vessel at every

stage, obviously the largest size for each vessel must be selected .
 Example

3 products A, B and C are to be manufactured in the same

plant using 4 processing stages. It is proposed that
production should be in campaigns of 50 batches, each
followed by a 50 hour cleaning period. Manufacturing
year = 6000 hours.

Annual requirements of A, B and C are 650, 450 and 200

tonnes respectively.

Find the number of campaigns for each product and the

size of vessel required for each processing stage
Processing times and size factors

Occupancies, litres/kg product

 Solution
Cycle times are
A: max{4,8,12,6} = 12h
B: max{2,10,12,8} = 12h
C: max{6,8,8,5} = 8h

(this ignores any disjuncture at the changeovers from one

product to the next)

The times for the campaigns are thus 50 x 12 + 50 = 650h

for A, 650h for B and 450h for C.
 Solution: number of campaigns
Let there be nA campaigns per year for A, nB for B and nC for C. The
total time constraint can be expressed as
650 nA + 650 nB + 450 nC 6000

If the batch size for all three products is initially taken to be X tonnes,
regardless of product, then
Annual production of A = 50XnA = 650; similarly for B and C
50X nB = 450
50X nC = 200

This allows us to express nA and nB in terms of nC

nA /nC = 650/200 = 3.25
nB /nC = 450/200 = 2.25
Restating the time constraint, we had
650 nA + 650 nB + 450 nC 6000

Substituting for nC

nC{650 x 3.25 + 650 x 2.25 + 450} = 4025nC 6000

nC 6000/4025 = 1.49.

We have to have a whole number of campaigns for each product

If we put nC = 1, then nB ~ 2 and nA ~ 3.

Substituting in the left hand side of the time constraint we get

(3 + 2) x 650 + 450 = 3700 hours, rather low compared to 6000,
vessels will be unnecessarily large and utilization low.

Take instead nC = 2, nB = 3 and nA = 5, giving 6100 hours which is

attainable.
Take instead nC = 2, nB = 3 and nA = 5, giving 6100 hours which is attainable.

The ratios of nA:nB:nC have not been maintained but we will allow for this by
changing the batch sizes of the three products.

Now we need to calculate the actual batch sizes required for each product in
order to meet the production requirement:

With these numbers of campaigns, we obtain

XA = 650 x 103/(50x5) = 2600 kg
XB = 450 x 103/(50x3) = 3000 kg
XC = 200 x 103/(50x2) = 2000 kg

We can use these with the occupancies from before to calculate the vessel
sizes
 So, for example for product A and vessel 1 the occupancy is
1.25 l/kg and the batch size is 2600kg

So for A vessel 1 must be at least (1.25 2600) = 3.25m3

For all the processes and stages:

i.e. we must have 6, 7.5, 12.0 and 15.6 m3 for stages 1,2,3 and 4 respectively.
 Do you know?
What is meant by occupancy?
How to calculate vessel size from occupancy and batch
size?
What initial assumptions are made when calculating
vessel sizes for a multiproduct plant from the annula
required productions, number of batches in a campaign,
recipe and occupancies?