Mark Mc Quillan MEng

1
Mark Mc Quillan (MEng)

• Plant Manager
• Nicobrand Ltd
• Coleraine

2
Principles to Chemical Manufacturing Processes

• Why do we need Chemical Manufacturing Processes
• Batch versus Continuous Processes
• Process Project Evaluation
• Chemical Reactions Equilibrium
• Heat Mass Balancing
• Safety Environmental Issues

3
Manufacture of Chemical Compounds

• Most goods we come across in our every day lives
  have been through some degree of man-made
  chemical processing
• Oil Gas
• Water
• Wastewater
• Plastics
• Metals
• Synthetic fabrics
• Always think, where did the raw materials come
  from?
• You dont find plastic growing on trees
• Most items have been PROCESSED

4
Why Bother Manufacturing Chemicals

• Building Blocks of goods since Industrial age
• Most goods have been through several stages of
  processing
• Transcends all global trends
• We still need food, oil, water
  ever-increasingly more consumables
• Recent moves towards resource preservation/sustain
  able alternatives
• Carbon Footprint
• Renewable resources

5
Two Types of Processes

• Continuous
• Operate 24/7, weeks/years on end
• Production rate gt500,000kg/h
• Typically for single product
• Product quality remains similar throughout
• Long catalyst life
• Proven process design
• No severe fouling
• Established market for chemical
• Uptime typically 90-95

6
Types of Processes

• Batch
• Operate intermittently
• Production rate lt500,000 kg/h
• Range of Products
• Marginal differences in batch-to-batch quality
• Quality is normally high important
• Severe fouling
• Short catalyst life
• New or infrequent products
• Uncertain design
• Uncertain market or low volume-high value market
• Frequent Start-up/Shut-down

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Continuous Examples

• Bulk Chemicals
• Sulphuric acid, ammonia
• Oil Gas
• Petroleum, diesel
• High Volume End Products
• Fertiliser, pesticides
• Nuclear

8
Batch Examples

• Pharmaceuticals
• Food
• Processed foods/additives
• Cosmetics
• Perfume/vanity products
• Dyestuffs
• Pigments

9
Hybrid Semi Continuous

• Spray Drying of Milk
• Continuous passage of product through dryer
• Up to 12 batches before cleaning
• Varying specifications between batches

10
Chemical Engineering

• Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering
  that deals with the application of physical
  science (e.g. chemistry and physics), with
  mathematics, to the process of converting raw
  materials or chemicals into more useful or
  valuable forms. As well as producing useful
  materials, chemical engineering is also concerned
  with pioneering valuable new materials and
  techniques an important form of research and
  development. A person employed in this field is
  called a chemical engineer.
• Chemical engineering largely involves the design
  and maintenance of chemical processes for
  large-scale manufacture. Chemical engineers in
  this branch are usually employed under the title
  of process engineer. The development of the
  large-scale processes characteristic of
  industrialized economies is a feat of chemical
  engineering, not chemistry. Indeed, chemical
  engineers are responsible for the availability of
  the modern high-quality materials that are
  essential for running an industrial economy.
• Wiki

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Engineering Project Evaluation

• Project Description
• Literature Search on Methods
• Process Flow
• Heat Mass balance on unit operations
• Budgetary Costings inc. Return on Investment
  (ROI)
• Decision to proceed to detailed design

12
Capital Costs

• Fixed (Once only cost to get plant built)
• Engineering Design
• Buildings
• Equipment
• Utilities

• Working (Recoverable, costs need to take built
  plant and make it create income)
• Start-up
• Initial Catalyst Charge
• Raw Materials
• Finished product Inventories

13
Fixed Operating Costs

• Do not vary with the production rate
• Labour (typically highly skilled)
• Maintenance
• Laboratory costs
• Plant Overheads
• Rates Licences

14
Variable Operating Costs

• Costs that are dependent on the amount of product
  produced
• Raw materials
• Energy utilities
• Shipping Packaging
• Processing materials
• Selling Cost

15
Other Operating Costs

• Fixed variable costs are typically DIRECT costs
• In addition to this there may be other INDIRECT
  costs borne by the plant in lieu of the operating
  expense of the overall larger Company
• RD Functions
• Corporate Management
• Financial
• Legal
• Marketing

16
Chemical Reactions

• Can be complete
• Can reach an equilibrium
• Not all processes involve chemical reactions
• Reaction is key step but surrounded by other
  processes which require control also
• Variety of other steps after/before the reaction
• Filtering
• Drying
• Crystallisation

17
Le Chateliers Principle

• In cases of CHEMICAL EQUILIBRIUM
• where the forward and reverse reactions are
  occurring at the same rate and so the
  concentrations of the reactants and products
  remain the same
• Principle is used to control the outcomes of
  reversible reactions
• Normally to increase yield
• i.e. in an endothermic reaction, by increasing
  the temperature, the product yield increases

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Factors Directly Influencing Reactions and/or
Processes

• Temperature Pressure Relationship
• 1000mbar Nicotine boils at 250 degC
• 10mbar Nicotine boils at 110 degC
• Levels
• Flows
• pH
• Concentrations of reactants
• Agitation/Mixing
• Catalyst
• Particle size
• Dynamics of reaction
• Exothermic
• Endothermic

19
Heat Mass Balances

• What goes in, must come out
• Each unit operation must be balanced
• Materials
• What you started with end up with
• Do you lose any as waste during the process
  (steam, etc)
• Heat
• Heat contents of starting materials end
  materials
• Waste has heat
• Can be influenced by external factors (steam
  jacket is a heat input)
• Helps to quantify size design of equipment

20
Safety Loss Prevention

• Identify assess hazards
• Can the hazards be eliminated
• Change design
• Alternative process
• Can the process be controlled to prevent hazards
• Automation
• Alarms
• Operating Practices
• Can the hazards be controlled acceptably
• With accepted limits of exposure (MELs)
• Physical methods of containment
• Limitation of loss
• Pressure relief
• Fire suppression systems

21
Tools of Safety Loss Prevention

• Risk Assessments
• Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP)
• Typically once a process design has been agreed
• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)
• Detailed risk assessments pertaining to each
  individual chemical held on-site
• Examples of hazards are fire, toxic release,
  explosion, corrosion failure, nuclear radiation,
  mutagenic or carconogenic material

22
Environmental Issues

• Try not to create the problem
• Key consideration at process design
• Inevitable in some cases
• Can this be re-worked/re-used
• Can it be treated to render to harmless
• Waste is now a huge issue..WHY?
• Cost of Compliance
• Increasing disposal costs
• Licensing costs for air, land, waterway
  discharges
• Public Relations, especially in global blue chip
  industries