The Nature of Chemical Process Design and Integration

The Nature of Chemical Process
Design and Integration

CHEMICAL PRODUCTS
• Chemical products are essential to modern living
standards.
• Almost all aspects of everyday life are supported

by chemical products in one way or another.
• Chemical products can be divided into three

broad classes.
Classification of Chemicals
• Commodity or bulk chemicals
– These are produced in large volumes and
purchased on the basis of chemical composition,
purity and price.
– Examples are sulfuric acid, nitrogen, oxygen,

ethylene and chlorine.
• Fine chemicals
• These are produced in small volumes and purchased on the basis of
chemical composition purity and price.
• Examples
– Chloropropylene oxide (used for the manufacture of epoxy resins, ion-
exchange resins and other products),
– Dimethyl formamide (used as a solvent, reaction medium and intermediate

in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals),
– n-butyric acid (used in beverages, flavorings, fragrances and other products)

and barium titanate powder (used for the manufacture of electronic
capacitors).
• Specialty or effect or functional chemicals
– These are purchased because of their effect (or

function), rather than their chemical composition.
– Examples are pharmaceuticals, pesticides,

dyestuffs, perfumes and flavorings.
• Undifferentiated
– Commodity and fine chemicals tend to be
purchased on the basis of their chemical
composition alone, they are undifferentiated.
• Differentiated
– Specialty chemicals tend to be purchased on the
basis of their effect or function and are therefore
differentiated.
Scale of Production
• Fine and specialty chemicals tend to be produced in volumes
less than 1000 t·y−1.
• On the other hand, commodity chemicals tend to be produced

in much larger volumes than this.
• However, the distinction is again not so clear.
• Polymers are differentiated products because they are

purchased on the basis of their mechanical properties, but can
be produced in quantities significantly higher than 1000 t·y −1.
Protection of Chemical Products
• Can be protected by a patent in the early years of commercial
exploitation.
• Patent protection lasts for 20 years from the filing date of the patent.
• Once the patent expires, competitors can join in and manufacture the
product.
• Another way to protect a competitive edge for a new product is to

protect it by secrecy.
• The formula for Coca-Cola has been kept a secret for over 100 years.
Life Cycle of a Product
Product A appears to be a
poor product
Product B appears to be
a better product
Product C is a still better

product
Product D shows a product

life cycle that is typical of
commodity chemicals.
ADDED VALUE
• The difference between the selling price of the product
and the purchase cost of raw materials is known as
added value.
• The different classes of chemical products will have

very different added value.
• Commodity chemicals tend to have low added value,

whereas fine and specialty chemicals tend to have high
added value.
Key Points
• When designing a process for a commodity chemical, it is
usually important to keep operating costs as low as possible.
• The capital cost of the process will be high because of the scale
of production.
• When designing a process for specialty chemicals, priority

should be given to the product, rather than to the process.
• The operating and capital costs will be low for fine chemicals
production because of the scale.
Priorities in Process Design
• In commodity chemicals, there is likely to be relatively little
product innovation, but intensive process innovation.
• Also, equipment will be designed for a specific process step.
• The manufacture of fine and specialty chemicals might involve:

– Selling into a market with low volume,
– Short product life cycle,
– A demand for a short time to market, and therefore, less time is
available for process development, with product and process
development proceeding simultaneously.
FORMULATION OF THE DESIGN
PROBLEM
• Formulation of the design problem requires a
product specification.
• For commodity chemicals purity is important

whereas for specialty chemicals functional groups
are important.
• The initial statement of the design problem is

often ill defined.
FORMULATION OF THE DESIGN PROBLEM
• If the design option appears to be technically and

economically feasible, then additional detail can be
considered.
• Material and energy balances can be formulated to give a

better definition to the inner workings of t he process and a
more detailed process design can be developed.
• The plant will almost never work precisely at its original

design flowrates, temperatures, pressures and compositions.
FORMULATION OF THE DESIGN PROBLEM
• This might be because the raw materials are slightly different
than what is assumed in the design.
• The physical properties assumed in the calculations might

have been erroneous in some way, or operation at the original
design conditions might create corrosion or fouling problems.
• Because of all the uncertainties in carrying out a design, the

specifications are often increased beyond those indicated by
the design calculations.
• Therefore the plant is overdesigned, or contingency is added,

through the application of safety factors to the design.
CHEMICAL PROCESS DESIGN
AND INTEGRATION
• In a chemical process, the transformation of raw materials into desired
chemical products usually cannot be achieved in a single step.
• Overall transformation is broken down into a number of steps that provide

intermediate transformations.
• These include reaction, separation, mixing, heating, cooling, pressure

change, particle size reduction or enlargement.
• Individual steps are interconnected to formulate overall process.
• A flowsheet is a diagrammatic representation of the process steps with

their interconnections.
AND INTEGRATION
AND INTEGRATION
SIMULATION
• Once the flowsheet structure has been defined, a simulation of the process
can be carried out.
• A simulation is a mathematical model of the process that attempts to predict

how the process would behave if it were constructed.
• Having created a model of the process, the flowrates, compositions,

temperatures and pressures of the feeds can be assumed.
• The simulation model then predicts the flowrates, compositions,

temperatures, and pressures of the products.
• Helps in sizing of the equipment and predicting raw material consumption

and energy consumption.
Performance Evaluation
• There are many aspects to the evaluation of performance.
• Designed process should be environmentally benign.
• Processes should use as little energy as is economic and

practicable, both to prevent the build-up of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere and to preserve the reserves of fossil fuels.
• Aqueous and atmospheric emissions must not be

environmentally harmful, and solid waste to landfill must be
avoided.
• Water consumption should be less.
Performance Evaluation
• The process must also meet required health and safety criteria.
• Flexibility, that is, the ability to operate under different

conditions, such as differences in feedstock and product
specification, may be important.
• Availability, that is, the number of operating hours per year,

may also be critically important.
• Evaluation of the factors that are not readily quantifiable, the

intangibles, requires the judgment of the design team.
OPTIMIZATION
• Once the basic performance of the design has
been evaluated, changes can be made to improve
the performance; the process is optimized.
• These changes might involve the synthesis of
alternative structures, that is, structural
optimization.
• Alternatively, each structure can be subjected to
parameter optimization by changing operating
conditions within that structure.
THE HIERARCHY OF CHEMICAL PROCESS
DESIGN AND INTEGRATION
•The process requires a reactor to transform the FEED into

PRODUCT.
•Unfortunately, not all the FEED reacts.
• Also, part of the FEED reacts to form BYPRODUCT instead
of the desired PRODUCT.
• A separation system is needed to isolate the PRODUCT at
the required purity.
Scheme to isolate the PRODUCT and recycle
unreacted FEED
Important Observations
• The unreacted FEED in the second option is recycled, and the
PRODUCT and BYPRODUCT are removed from the process.
• But all heating and cooling is provided by external utilities (steam

and cooling water in this case).
• This flowsheet is probably too inefficient in its use of energy, and

heat would be recovered.
• Thus, heat integration is carried out to exchange heat between

those streams that need to be cooled and those that need to be
heated.
Heat Integration Option - I
Heat Integration Option - II

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The Nature of Chemical Process

Design and Integration

• Almost all aspects of everyday life are supported

• Chemical products can be divided into three

– Examples are sulfuric acid, nitrogen, oxygen,

– Dimethyl formamide (used as a solvent, reaction medium and intermediate

– n-butyric acid (used in beverages, flavorings, fragrances and other products)

– These are purchased because of their effect (or

– Examples are pharmaceuticals, pesticides,

• On the other hand, commodity chemicals tend to be produced

• However, the distinction is again not so clear.

• Polymers are differentiated products because they are

• Another way to protect a competitive edge for a new product is to

Product C is a still better

Product D shows a product

• The different classes of chemical products will have

• Commodity chemicals tend to have low added value,

• When designing a process for specialty chemicals, priority

• Also, equipment will be designed for a specific process step.

• The manufacture of fine and specialty chemicals might involve:

• For commodity chemicals purity is important

• The initial statement of the design problem is

• If the design option appears to be technically and

• Material and energy balances can be formulated to give a

• The plant will almost never work precisely at its original

• The physical properties assumed in the calculations might

• Because of all the uncertainties in carrying out a design, the

• Therefore the plant is overdesigned, or contingency is added,

• Overall transformation is broken down into a number of steps that provide

• These include reaction, separation, mixing, heating, cooling, pressure

• Individual steps are interconnected to formulate overall process.

• A flowsheet is a diagrammatic representation of the process steps with

• A simulation is a mathematical model of the process that attempts to predict

• Having created a model of the process, the flowrates, compositions,

• The simulation model then predicts the flowrates, compositions,

• Helps in sizing of the equipment and predicting raw material consumption

• Processes should use as little energy as is economic and

• Aqueous and atmospheric emissions must not be

• Flexibility, that is, the ability to operate under different

• Availability, that is, the number of operating hours per year,

• Evaluation of the factors that are not readily quantifiable, the

•The process requires a reactor to transform the FEED into

• But all heating and cooling is provided by external utilities (steam

• This flowsheet is probably too inefficient in its use of energy, and

• Thus, heat integration is carried out to exchange heat between

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