CHAPTER 5
INPUT OUTPUT STRUCTURE
OF FOWSHEET
Hierarchy of Decision
Batch
versus continuous
Input output structure of flow sheet
Recycle structure of the flow
sheet
General structure of separation
system
Vapour recovery System
Liquid separation system
Heat
exchange network
Flow sheet
Alternatives
Level 2 Decisions
Should
we purify feed streams before
they enter the process?
Should
we remove or recycle a
reversible by - product?
Should we use a gas recycle and purge
stream?
Should we not bother to recover and
recycle some reactants?
How many product streams will be there
be?
What are the design variables for the
input output structure, and what
Purification of Feeds
Decision to design a pre-process purification
system
Design guidelines
If a feed impurity is not inert and is present
in significant quantities, remove it.
If a feed impurity is present in a gas feed,
as a first guess process impurity.
If a feed impurity in a liquid feed stream is
also a by product or a product component,
Purification of Feeds
Decision to design a pre-process purification
system
Design guidelines
If
feed
impurity
is
present
in
large
amounts, remove it.
If
the
feed
impurity
is
present
as
an
azeotrope with a reactant, often it is better
to process the impurity.
If a feed impurity is inert but is easier to
separate from the product than the feed, it is
Process Alternative
All
design guidelines are not quantitative; often our
initial decision must be based on best judgement
(merely a guess).
If we are not certain that our decision is
correct, we list the opposite decision as a
process alternative.
Economic Trade - offs For Feed
Purification
Economic trade offs between building a
pre - process separation system and
increasing the cost of the process because
of increased flow rates of the raw materials.
Recover Or Recycle Reversible
By Product
If
we recycle the reversible by product, we must oversize
all the equipment in that recycle loop, to accommodate
the equilibrium flow of the reversible by-product.
If we remove it from the process, we pay an economic
penalty because of the increased raw - material cost of
reactant (toluene) that is converted to the reversible by
product (di-phenyl).
Our decision involves an economic trade off between
raw material losses to less valuable by products and
increased recycle costs, no simple design guideline is
available to make this decision.
Gas Recycle and Purge
When
we have a light gaseous reactant
and either a light feed impurity or a light
by-product produced by one of the
reactions, we generally use gas recycle
and purge
Because we want to recycle the gaseous
reactant, but the inert-gas components
must be purged from the process so that
they do not continue to accumulate in the
gas-recycle loop.
Gas Recycle and Purge
Light Component As one which boils lower than
propylene (-48oC).
Propylene is chosen as a breakpoint because lower
boiling components usually cannot be condensed at
high pressure with cooling water i.e. both high pressure
and refrigeration would be required.
Since, gaseous reactants normally are less expensive
than organic liquids and since refrigeration is one of
the most expensive processing operations, it usually is
cheaper to lose some of the gaseous reactants from a
gas recycle and purge stream than recover or recycle
the pure reactant.
Gas Recycle and Purge
Design Guidelines
Whenever a light reactant and either a light feed
impurity or a light by product boil lower than
propylene (-48oC), use a gas recycle and purge
stream
Do Not Recover and Recycle Some
Components
There is an optimum amount of excess
that should be used
Number Of Product Streams
List of the components that are
expected to leave the reactor.
This list usually includes all the
components in the feed streams and all
the reactants and products that appear
in every reaction.
Then we classify ach component in the
list and assign a destination code to
each.
Destination Codes And Component
Classification
S. no.
Destination Code
Component Classification
1.
Vent
Gaseous by product and feed impurities
2.
Recycle and purge
Gaseous reactants plus inert gases and/or gases
byproducts
3.
4.
Recycle
None
Reactants
Reaction intermediates
Azeotropes with reactants
Reversible by products
Reactants if complete conversion or unstable reaction
intermediates
5.
Excess- Vent
Gaseous reactants not recovered and recycled
6.
Excess- Waste
Liquid reactants not recovered or recycled
7.
Primary product
Primary product
8.
Valuable by product (I)
Separate destination for different by - products
9.
Fuel
By products to fuel
10.
Waste
By products to waste treatment
Finally,
we order the components
by their normal boiling points,
and we group neighbouring
components
with
the
same
destination.
The no. of groups of all but the
recycle
streams
is
then
considered to be the no. of
product streams.
Design Variables, Overall Material
Balances and Stream Costs
We must develop the material balances
and stream costs in terms of unknown
design variables and eventually we will
look for the economic optimum values of
these design variables.
Design Variables
The variables that are selected to complete
the definition of the design problems are called
as the degrees of freedom.
For complex reactions, it is possible to corelate the product distribution as a function of
the conversion of the limiting reactant, the
molar ratio of reactants, the reactor
temperature, and the reactor pressure.
If
the activation energies of all the
reactions are equal, the temperature
will not appear in the co-relation.
Similarly,
if there are the same no. of
moles of reactants and products for
gas phase reactions, or if we consider
liquid phase reactions, then pressure
will not appear in this co- relation.
We
usually attempt to co- relate the
conversion against the space velocity
in order to estimate the reactor size.
Possible Design Variables For Level 2
Complex Reactions: Reactor
conversion,
molar
ratio
of
reactants, reaction temperature
and pressure.
Excess Reactants: Reactants
not recovered or gas recycle and
purge.
Material Balance Procedure
Start
with the specified production rate.
From the stiochiometry and
the correlations
for the product distribution, find by product
flows and reactant requirements in terms of
the design variables.
Calculate the impurity inlet and outlet flows
for the feed streams where the reactants are
completely recovered and recycled.
Calculate the outlet flows of reactants in
terms of a specified amount of excess for
streams where the reactants are not
recovered and recycled.
Calculate the inlet and outlet flows for the
impurities entering with the reactant streams
in step 4.
Stream Tables
It is common practice to report material
balance calculations in terms of stream
tables.
That is, the streams are numbered on a
flowsheet, and then a table is prepared
that gives the component flows in each
of these streams which correspond to a
particular set of values of the design
variables.
Stream Costs: Economical Potential(EP)
Economic
potential 2 = product value + by-product
values- raw material costs. Rs/yr
The
EP is the annual profit we could make if we did
not have to pay anything for capital costs or
utilities costs.
If
the EP is negative i.e., the raw materials are
worth more than the products and by products,
then project should be terminated.
Look
for a less expensive source or look for another
chemistry
materials.
root
that
use
less
expensive
raw
