Step 5.

Task Integration At the completion of step 4, each of the candidate flowsheets has a complete set of operations that eliminates the differences between the raw materials and products. Still, with the exception of the distillation operations, specific equipment items are not shown. The selection of the processing units, often referred to as unit operations, in which one or more of the basic operations are carried out, is known as task integration. To assist in this selection, the reader is referred to Chemical Process Equipment (Walas, 1988). Figure 3.8 shows one example of task integration for the vinyl chloride process. At this stage in process synthesis, it is common to make the most obvious combinations of operations, leaving many possibilities to be considered when the flowsheet is sufficiently promising to undertake the preparation of a base-case design. As you examine this flowsheet, with the descriptions of the process units that follow, see if you can suggest improvements. Throughout the chapters that follow, techniques are introduced to obtain better integration for this and other processes that manufacture many other chemicals.

1. Chlorination reactor and condenser. The direct chlorination operation in Figure 3.7 is replaced by a cylindrical reaction vessel, containing a rectifying section, and a condenser. A pool of liquid dichloroethane, with ferric chloride catalyst dissolved, fills the bottom of the vessel at 90C and 1.5 atm. Ethylene is obtained commonly from large cylindrical vessels, where it is stored as a gas at an elevated pressure and room temperature, typically 1,000 psia and 70F. Chlorine, which is stored commonly in the liquid phase, typically at 150 psia and 70F, is evaporated carefully to remove the viscous liquid (taffy) that contaminates most chlorine produced by electrolysis. Chlorine and ethylene in the vapor phase bubble through the liquid and release the heat of reaction as dichloroethane is produced. This heat causes the dichloroethane to vaporize and rise up the rectifying section into the condenser, where it is condensed with cooling water. Note that heat is needed to drive the reboiler in the first distillation column at 93C, but the heat of reaction cannot be used for this purpose unless the temperature levels are adjusted. How can this be accomplished? Most of the condensate is mixed with the effluent from the recycle cooler to be processed in the pyrolysis loop. However, a portion is refluxed to the rectifying section of the column, which has several trays, to recover any of the less volatile species (e.g., trichloroethane) that may have vaporized. These heavies accumulate at the bottom of the liquid pool and are removed periodically as impurities.