TK 4153

Perancangan Proses Teknik Kimia

[Chemical Process Design]
Kuliah 1
Introduction to Process Design
Program Sarjana Teknik Kimia Kelas B
Semester Ganjil 2016-2017

Chemical Products Clasification

Primitive Design Problems

The design or retrofit of chemical
processes begins with the desire to
produce profitably chemicals that satisfy
societal needs.

Primitive Design Problems

The broad spectrum of industries that
employ chemical engineers:
- Petrochemicals
- Petroleum
products
- Coating
- Industrial gases
- Foods
- Pharmaceuticals
- Polymers
- Electronic
- Bio-chemicals
materials

Primitive Design Problems

Partly due to the growing awareness of
the public, many design projects involve
the redesign, or retrofitting, of existing
chemical processes to solve
environmental problems and to adhere
to stricter standards of safety.

Origins of Design Problems

Often, design problems result from the
explorations of chemists, biochemists, and
engineers in research labs to satisfy the
desires of customers to obtain chemicals with
improved properties for many applications
However, several well-known products, like
Teflon (poly tetra flouro ethylene), were
discovered by accident
In other cases, an inexpensive source of a raw
material(s) becomes available

Origins of Design Problems

Other design problems originate when new
markets are discovered, especially in
developing countries.
Anothers source of design projects is the
engineer himself, who often has a strong
inclination that a new chemical or route to
produce an existing chemical can be very
profitable.

Typical Primitive Design Problem

Consider, the need to manufacture vinyl
chloride (VC),

Typical Primitive Design Problem

A typical primitive problem statement is as follows,
An opportunity has arisen to satisfy a new demand for
VC monomer (VCM), on the order of 800 million
pounds per year, in a petrochemical complex on the
Gulf Coast, given that an existing plant owned by the
company produces one billion pounds per year of this
commodity chemical. Since VCM is an extremely toxic
substance, it is recommended that all new facilities be
designed carefully to satisfy governmental health and
safety regulations.

Steps in Process Design and Retrofit

Steps in Process Design and Retrofit

Assess Primitive Problem

Process design begins with a primitive
design problem that expresses the
current situation and provides an
opportunity to satisfy a societal need.

Assess Primitive Problem

The primitive problem is examined by a
small design team, who begins to assess
its possibilities, to refine the problem
statement, and to generate more specific
problems:
Raw materials - available in-house, can
be purchased or need to be
manufactured?

Assess Primitive Problem

Scale of the process (based upon a
preliminary assessment of the current
production, projected market demand,
and current and projected selling
prices)
Location for the plant.

Assess Primitive Problem

Refined through meetings with
engineering technical management,
business and marketing.
Brainstorming to generate alternatives

Example: VC Manufacture
To satisfy the need for an additional 800 MMlb/yr
of VCM, the following plausible alternatives might
be generated:
Alternative 1. A competitors plant, which
produces 2 MMM lb/yr of VCM and is located
about 100 miles away, might be expanded to
produce the required amount, which would be
shipped. In this case, the design team projects
the purchase price and designs storage facilities.

Example: VC Manufacture
Alternative 2. Purchase and ship, by pipeline
from a nearby plant, chlorine from the
electrolysis of NaCl solution. React the
chlorine with ethylene to produce the
monomer and HCl as a byproduct.

Example: VC Manufacture
Alternative 3. Since the existing company
produces HCl as a by product in large
quantities are produced, HCl is normally
available at low prices. Reactions of HCl with
acetylene, or ethylene and oxygen, could
produce 1,2-dichloroethane, an intermediate
that can be cracked to produce vinyl chloride.

Steps in Process Design and Retrofit

Steps in Process Design and Retrofit

Environmental Issues in Design

Handling of toxic wastes
97% of hazardous waste generation by
the chemicals and nuclear industry is
wastewater (1988 data).
In process design, it is essential that
facilities be included to remove
pollutants from waste-water streams.

Environmental Issues in Design

Reaction pathways to reduce by-product
toxicity
As the reaction operations are
determined, the toxicity of all of the
chemicals, especially those recovered
as byproducts, needs to be evaluated.

Environmental Issues in Design

Reaction pathways to reduce by-product
toxicity
Pathways involving large quantities of
toxic chemicals should be replaced by
alternatives, except under unusual
circumstances.

Environmental Issues in Design

Reducing and reusing wastes
Environmental concerns place even
greater emphasis on recycling, not only
for un-reacted chemicals, but for
product and by-product chemicals, as
well. (i.e., production of segregated
wastes - e.g., production of composite
materials and polymers).

Environmental Issues in Design

Avoiding non-routine events
Reduce the likelihood of accidents and
spills through the reduction of
transient phenomena, relying on
operation at the nominal steady-state,
with reliable controllers and fault
detection systems.

Environmental Issues in Design

Design objectives, constraints and
optimization
Environmental goals often not well
defined because economic objective
functions involve profitability
measures, whereas the value of
reduced pollution is often not easily
quantified economically.

Environmental Issues in Design

Design objectives, constraints and
optimization
Solutions: mixed objective function
(price of reduced pollution), or express
environmental goal as soft or hard
constraints.
Environmental regulations =
constraints

Safety Considerations
Example Disaster 1 Flixborough: 1st June 1974
http://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/sragtech/caseflixb
oroug74.htm
50 tons of cyclohexane were released from Nypros KA
plant (oxidation of cyclohexane) leading to release of
vapor cloud and its detonation. Total loss of plant and
death of 28 plant personnel.
Highly reactive system - conversions low, with large
inventory in plant. Process involved six, 20 ton stirredtank reactors.

Safety Considerations
Discharge caused by failure of temporary pipe
installed to replace cracked reactor.
The so-called dog-leg was not able to contain the
operating conditions of the process (10 bar, 150 oC)

Safety Considerations

Safety Considerations
What can we learn?
Develop processes with low inventory,
especially of flashing fluids (what you
dont have, cant leak)
Before modifying process, carry out a
systematic search for possible cause of
problem.
Carry out HAZOP analysis

Safety Considerations
What can we learn?
Construct modifications to same
standard as original plant.
Use blast-resistant control rooms and
buildings

Safety Issues: Fires and Explosions

Flammability Limits of Liquids and Gases LFL
and UFL (vol %) in Air at 25oC and 1 Atm

Safety Issues: Fires and Explosions

These limits can be extended for
mixtures, and for elevated temperatures
and pressures (see Seider et al, 2004).
With this kind of information, the
process designer makes sure that
flammable mixtures do not exist in the
process during startup, steady-state
operation, or shut-down.

Design Approaches for Safety

Techniques to Prevent Fires and
Explosions
Inerting - addition of inert dilutant to
reduce the fuel concentration below the LFL
Installation of grounding devices and antistatic devices to avoid the buildup of static
electricit
Use of explosion proof equipment
Ensure ventilation

Design Approaches for Safety

Relief Devices
Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
the plant is carefully scrutinized to identify all
sources of accidents or hazards.
Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) study is carried
out, in which all of the possible paths to an
accident are identified.
when sufficient probability data are available, a
fault tree is created and the probability of the
occurrence for each potential accident computed

Question