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August

2017

www.chemengonline.com

Outsourcing Mixing: Impeller


Engineering Performance
Facts at Your Control Valves
Fingertips:
Blending Carbon Capture
and Storage
Focus on
Analyzers Control
Room Design

The Road to
Improved Distillation page 30
The Smart Way to
Unload, Convey,
Weigh & Mix MODU-KLEEN
BIN VENT
FILTER

CONVEYING SWITCH
LINE RECEIVER
BLENDCON
TM SILO BLENDER
BULKBUSTER
BULK BAG
UNLOADER

STORAGE STORAGE STORAGE


SILO SILO SILO

TM
GYRO BIN
VIBRA-JET
ACTIVATING
BIN FEEDER
BULK AERATOR
TM
BAG DYNA-SLIDE
HIGH PRECISION
WEIGH AIR-ACTIVATED
HOPPER FEEDER


BAGBUSTER
BAG BREAKER

BELLA
TWIN SHAFT
FLUIDIZED
ZONE MIXER BLENDCON
AIR BLENDING
HEAD

TRANSPORTER

MANUAL
HOSE SWITCH

Less degradation Sixteen concepts


Move your dry granular Each Dynamic Air system
materials gently, reliably is custom designed
and with significant from one of our sixteen
reductions in product different conveying
degradation and/or concepts. So you get a
system wear. conveying solution that
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systems have been proven Our high material-to- Dense Phase Transporter, BulkBusterTM Bulk Bag
in over 15,000 installations air ratios reduce energy J-Series Unloader
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Dynamic Air Inc. St. Paul, MN Phone +1 651 484-2900 GYRO EXTM Bin Activating Bella Twin Shaft
Email info@dynamicair.com www.dynamicair.com Feeder Fluidized Zone Mixer

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www.chemengonline.com

August 2017 Volume 124 | no. 8

Cover Story
30 Part 1 Reboiler Circuit Debottleneck with No
Hardware Changes With a thorough investigation and proper
problem diagnosis, an entire gas plant limited by a de-ethanizer reboiler circuit
was successfully debottlenecked
38 Part 2 Dry-Tray Pressure Drop of Sieve Trays
Revisited Data from literature are refined into a single
correlation defining dry-tray pressure drop in sieve trays

In the News
7 Chementator
New process generates saleable products from Marcellus
produced water; A new catalyst for making methane from CO2 and
H2; Bio-based xylitol lowers production costs; Vehicle fuel tank for
adsorbed natural gas moves toward commercialization; and more
12 Business News
Arkema invests in expansion for bio-sourced polyamide 11; Braskem
selects Linde for EPC work on new polypropylene plant; AkzoNobel
announces a pair of coatings acquisitions; Amec Foster Wheeler completes 30
sale of CFB boiler business; and more
14 Newsfront New CO2-Capture Approaches Push
Against Cost Hurdles Despite cost hurdles, CO2-capture
technologies continue to advance, driven by the critical role of CO2-capture in
achieving emissions-reductions goals
18 Newsfront Bringing Increased Reliability and Safety to
Control Valves Hardware improvements and service programs add more 14
value to todays control valves

Technical and Practical


28 Facts at your Fingertips Blending This one-page reference 18
provides information on the advantages and disadvantages of continuous
versus batch blending operations
29 Technology Profile Diammonium Phosphate
Production This process description outlines the manufacture of
diammonium phosphate
42
42 Feature Report Mixing: Impeller Performance in
Stirred Tanks Characterizing mixer impellers on the basis of power,
flow, shear and efficiency
52 Environmental Manager Control Room Design for
Chemical Engineers Chemical engineers bring many essential skills
to the diverse teams required for successful control room design

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 1


56 You and Your Job Outsourcing and Offshoring
Engineering and Fabrication Activities Follow these tips to get
the most out of these high-risk, high-reward third-party arrangements

Equipment and Services


22 Focus on Analyzers and Monitoring Devices
Improved Raman-spectroscopy device identifies materials; Monitor stream
composition during production processes; Multi-purpose liquid analyzer
connects directly to any DCS; Capacitance meter measures water in oil with
high accuracy; Measure up to a dozen gases for improved process analytics;
and more

56 25 New Products
Direct mass-flow measurement for large-diameter pipes; Reducing emissions
from low-pressure storage tanks; Portable analysis system for hazardous
chemical identification; Vacuum conveyors built for explosive applications;
Continuous blending using rotation and fluidization; and more

22
Departments
5 Editors Page Awarding green innovations
Winners of the EPAs Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards for 2017
were recently announced
64 Economic Indicators

Advertisers
57 Hot Products
25
60 Classified
62 Reader Service
63 Ad Index

Chemical Connections
Follow @ChemEngMag on Twitter
Join the Chemical Engineering Magazine
LinkedIn Group
Visit us on www.chemengonline.com for Latest News,
Webinars, Test your Knowledge Quizzes, Bookshelf
and more

Coming in September
Look for: Feature Reports on Pumps; and Water & Wastewater
Treatment; A Focus on Weighing and Feeding; A Facts at your
Fingertips on Heat Transfer; News Articles on Temperature
Measurement & Control; and Drones; New Products; and much more

Cover design: Rob Hudgins

2 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017


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Circle 20 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-20
BULK SOLIDS
HANDLING WORKSHOP
Best Practices for Challenges, Safety & Solutions
Thursday, September 14, 2017 | Sky Philadelphia | Philadelphia, PA

WORKSHOP AGENDA Managing Electrostatic Hazards during


Bulk Solids Characterization Powder Processing : A Practical Approach
Presenter: Joe Marinelli, President, Presenter: Vahid Ebadat, Ph.D., Chief Technical Ofcer
Solids Handling Technologies Inc. Process Safety, Chilworth Technology
Designing successful bulk solids handling systems begins This presentation will discuss the nature of electrostatic
with knowledge of your material flow properties. This ignition hazards and the practical measures that can
session will cover how bulk solids flow is characterized. be considered to prevent/control them based on the
requirements of NFPA 77, Recommended Practice on
Static Electricity.
Flow of Solids
Presenter: Brian Pittenger, Vice President,
Jenike & Johanson
Volumetric and Gravimetric Feeder Design
to Ensure Reliable Flow
This session will cover the basics of bulk solids handling,
along with common flow problems, material testing,
Presenter: Joe Marinelli, President,
design considerations and design tools to solve solids Solids Handling Technologies Inc.
flow issues. This session will cover the importance of the feeder
working together with your bin and benefits of gravimetric
Effective Powder Blending feeders and their drawbacks.
Presenter: Herman Purutyan, CEO,
Jenike & Johanson Pneumatic Conveying
This session will cover the basic mechanisms of blending,
Presenter: Gary Liu, Consultant, DuPont Engineering
as well as the operation of common types of batch Particle Science and Technology Group
and continuous blenders, including advantages and The session will focus on dilute phase conveying but
disadvantages of each kind. dense phase conveying concepts will be briefly introduced.

Register online at chemengonline.com/bulksolids

MORNING NETWORKING SPONSOR: TABLE TOP SPONSORS:

30213
Editor s Page
EDITORS ART & DESIGN
Awarding green innovations
DOROTHY LOZOWSKI ROB HUDGINS

T
Editorial Director Graphic Designer he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington,
rhudgins@accessintel.com
dlozowski@chemengonline.com D.C.; www.epa.gov) has recently announced the winners of
GERALD ONDREY (FRANKFURT) PRODUCTION this years Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.
Senior Editor
gondrey@chemengonline.com SOPHIE CHAN-WOOD This recognition is given for innovations that create business
Production Manager
schanwood@accessintel.com opportunities from solutions to potential environmental problems
SCOTT JENKINS
Senior Editor INFORMATION endeavors that are well worth recognizing and taking note of. The
sjenkins@chemengonline.com SERVICES 2017 winners, in each of five categories, are listed here (Source: EPA).
MARY PAGE BAILEY CHARLES SANDS Designing Greener Chemicals The Dow Chemical Company
Associate Editor Director of Digital Development
mbailey@chemengonline.com csands@accessintel.com (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and Paperfabrik August Koehler SE
PUBLISHER, SALES & CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
(Oberkirch, Germany; www.koehlerpaper.com) were recognized for
MARKETING
SUZANNE A. SHELLEY
creating a thermal printing paper that uses a physical change, rather
MATTHEW GRANT sshelley@chemengonline.com than a chemical one to create an image, thereby eliminating the need
mattg@powermag.com
CHARLES BUTCHER (U.K.) for compounds such as bisphenol A and bisphenol S. The new, pat-
cbutcher@chemengonline.com
AUDIENCE
DEVELOPMENT
ented thermal paper technology incorporates an opaque layer with a
PAUL S. GRAD (AUSTRALIA) polymer that collapses air voids in the paper coating during printing.
SARAH GARWOOD pgrad@chemengonline.com
Audience Marketing Director These voids allow an underlying dark-colored layer to be seen. The
sgarwood@accessintel.com
TETSUO SATOH (JAPAN)
tsatoh@chemengonline.com
paper has been tested in practice and a large-scale commercial intro-
JESSICA GRIER
Marketing Manager
duction is expected this year.
jgrier@accessintel.com JOY LEPREE (NEW JERSEY) Greener Reaction Conditions Amgen Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.;
jlepree@chemengonline.com
GEORGE SEVERINE www.amgen.com) and Bachem (Bubendorf, Switzerland; www.
Fulfillment Manager
gseverine@accessintel.com
bachem.com) were honored for process improvements in the manu-
facture of a peptide drug, Etelcalcetide, used for secondary hyper-
JEN FELLING parathyroidism in adults with kidney disease. While the volume of
List Sales, Statlistics (203) 778-8700
j.felling@statlistics.com manufacture for peptide drugs is often small, the expected demand
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD for this drug is high, and so the inefficiencies in the manufacturing pro-
cess were problematic. The two companies redesigned the process,
JOHN CARSON JOHN HOLLMANN
Jenike & Johanson, Inc. Validation Estimating LLC resulting in a five-fold increase in capacity and a 56% decrease in
DAVID DICKEY HENRY KISTER manufacturing time, while reducing the amount of solvent needed by
MixTech, Inc. Fluor Corp. 71% and completely eliminating an ion-exchange operation.
HEADQUARTERS
Greener Synthetic Pathways Merck & Co., Inc. (Rahway, N.J.;
40 Wall Street, 50th floor, New York, NY 10005, U.S. www.msdresponsibility.com) received this award for process im-
Tel: 212-621-4900
Fax: 212-621-4694 provements in the manufacture of an antiviral drug candidate, Leter-
EUROPEAN EDITORIAL OFFICES
movir. Improvements to the process were made by implementing a
Zeilweg 44, D-60439 Frankfurt am Main, Germany novel catalyst that decreases raw material costs by 93%, increases
Tel: 49-69-9573-8296
Fax: 49-69-5700-2484 the yield by over 60%, and reduces the amount of waste generated.
CIRCULATION REQUESTS: It is estimated that the refined process will decrease the carbon foot-
Tel: 847-564-9290 print by 89% and water usage by 90%.
Fax: 847-564-9453
Fullfillment Manager; P.O. Box 3588, Academic Award This honor went to professor Eric J. Schelter of
Northbrook, IL 60065-3588
email: chemeng@omeda.com the University of Pennsylvania (scheltergroup.chem.upenn.edu) for his
ADVERTISING REQUESTS: SEE P. 62 work on recycling rare-earth-element mixtures. These materials are fre-
For reprints, licensing and permissions: Wright's Media, 1-877-652-5295,
sales@wrightsmedia.com
quently used, as mixtures, in consumer applications. Schelters group
has developed a simpler, greener technology to separate rare-earth
ACCESS INTELLIGENCE, LLC elements from consumer products, based on their solubility charac-
DON PAZOUR
Chief Executive Officer
JONATHAN RAY
Vice President, Digital
teristics and using tailored organic compounds. A grant from the U.S.
Dept. of Energy is supporting further work to develop the technology.
HEATHER FARLEY MICHAEL KRAUS
Chief Operating Officer Vice President, Small Business Award This award was given for an advanced
Production, Digital Media & Design
vanadium redox flow battery that was commercialized by UniEn-
JAMES OGLE
Executive Vice President STEVE BARBER ergy Technologies LLC (Mukilteo, Wash.; www.
& Chief Financial Officer Vice President,
Financial Planning and Internal Audit uetechnologies.com). The technology originated
MACY L. FECTO
Exec. Vice President, GERALD STASKO
from work by Pacific Northwest National Labora-
Human Resources & Administration Vice President/Corporate Controller tory (PNNL). This third-generation vanadium redox
JENNIFER SCHWARTZ flow battery, the UniSystem, offers a higher energy
Senior Vice President & Group Publisher
Aerospace, Energy, Healthcare density and much broader operating temperature
than prior chemistries. The new vanadium electro-
ROB PACIOREK
Senior Vice President,
9211 Corporate Blvd., 4th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850-3240
lytes (chloride-based) exhibit improved stability over
Chief Information Officer www.accessintel.com
sulfate-based systems.
Dorothy Lozowski, Editorial Director

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 5


Circle 15 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-15
Chementator
New process generates salable products from
Marcellus produced water Edited by:
ProChemTech
Gerald Ondrey

P
roduced water Marcellus production API oil solids
from natural Aerated equalization
wastewater by truck or rail separator DESALINATION
gas wells in
Recently, Formosa Petrochem-
the Marcel- ical Corp. (FPCC; Mailiao, Tai-
lus Shale Deposit is Evaporator Chemical precipitation wan; www.fpcc.com.tw) com-
Clarified brine
extremely high in total crystallization clarifier missioned IDE Technologies
dissolved solids (TDS; (Kadima, Israel; www.ide-tech.
levels of 2535% TDS com) to build a desalination
are common) and bar- plant in Yunlin County, Taiwan
Centrifuge Filter press
ium, making the water that will be the first large-scale
difficult to re-use and application for IDEs high-purity
requiring injection in boron-removal process. The
three-step process combines
underground geologic Sodium chloride Calcium chloride Barite product reverse-osmosis (RO) mem-
formations. A new product solution product
brane technologies (seawater
process is capable of RO followed by four stages
generating salable chemicals from Marcel- The barite obtained from our process is of brackish-water RO) with
lus produced water (water from hydraulic similar in purity to material that is currently an ion-exchange system that
fracturing wells) and has recently received available commercially, says Tim Keis- employs a specialized resin to
a U.S. patent. The process will be used in ter, chief chemist with ProChemTech. The absorb boron, says Dotan Gur,
a scaled-up treatment facility that is in the BaSO4 is used in drilling mud for the oil- turnkey projects director at IDE
planning stages. and-gas industry, as well as in glass pro- Technologies.
Process developer ProChemTech duction and other applications. IDEs desalination technology
is said to be the worlds first to
(Brockway, Pa.; www.prochemtech.com) Next, the barium-free clarified brine en-
reach the stringent boron con-
is currently negotiating possible sites for ters an evaporator-crystallizer unit that re- centration level of 0.01 parts-
the first plant using the water treatment moves solid sodium chloride for the water per-million (ppm) at the scale
technology, which generates barium sul- softener market. Finally, the remaining cal- required by FPCC for its co-
fate (barite), solid sodium chloride and cium chloride liquor is diluted to about 30% generation process plant. With
calcium chloride brine from Marcellus pro- solution using water from the process for water of this purity, FPCC will
duced water. use as a de-icer, Keister explains. be able to circulate the water
After an initial physical separation pro- ProChemTech plans to build a plant ca- required for cogeneration up
cess to remove free oil and suspended pable of processing 200,000250,000 gal/d to 100 cycles, explains Gur.
solids, the produced water enters aeration produced water that will be trucked in from This purity will also help to meet
local regulations for blowdown
tanks where it is chemically equalized to Marcellus wells. The sale of the chemicals
water discharge. This technol-
minimize variation of the water properties covers the operating costs of the plant, and ogy has been installed at much
entering the process. The water enters an we will charge tipping fees for the water to smaller water-treatment plants,
inclined plate clarifier, where it undergoes make a profit, Keister says. The company but never at such a large scale
a chemical precipitation process under estimates ten such sites would be needed the FPCC plant will have a
acidic (pH = 3.54.0) and oxidizing condi- to handle all Marcellus production water capacity of 105,000 m3/d and
tions to remove barium as barium sulfate. currently generated. (Continues on p. 8)

A new catalyst for making methane from CO2 and H2

T
he Sabatier reaction, in which a ruthenium-impregnated zirco- tained at temperatures of 330350C
H2 and CO2 react at temper- nium-based metal-organic framework and a pressure of 500 kPa. Under
atures of 300400C in the (MOF) could pave the way for pro- these conditions, the catalyst con-
presence of a nickel catalyst, ducing carbon-neutral fuels. verted 96% of CO2 into methane, with
or an alumina-supported ruthenium The new catalyst is based on a 99% selectivity. The only observed
catalyst, is one way to reduce CO2 commercially available zirconium byproduct was CO. Also, the catalyst
into methane. Until now, however, it terephthalate MOF called UiO-66. remained stable and active and re-
has been difficult to find efficient, re- The group used a wet impregna- tained its selectivity to methane, even
silient catalysts with good selectivity. tion method to introduce RuCl3 into after more than 160 h of testing.
A promising candidate has been de- the pores of the activated MOF. The Doonan says the groups research
veloped by the research group of pro- catalyst was dried and activated for priorities are now a technical and eco-
fessor Christian Doonan at the Uni- testing in a fixed-bed microreactor. A nomic assessment and development
versity of Adelaide (Australia; www. mixture of H2 and CO2 (with a 4-to-1 of scale-up methods. We are also
adelaide.edu.au) and colleagues from mole ratio) was flowed over the top of trying to fully determine the structure
CSIRO (www.csiro.au). The catalyst the catalyst. The best results were ob- of the Ru species.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 7


is slated to begin commercial A greener, more sustainable route to
operation in about two years. trimethylgallium
Umicore

L
ast month, the TMA route Ga 4N GaCi3 5N
SOLAR PAINT Precious Met-
A paint that makes H2 in the TMGa TMGa 6N
als Chemistry AI
crude
presence of water and sun- MASC TMA crude TMA 6N
light is being developed by re-
business unit
searchers at RMIT University of Umicore AG & Co. Umicore
KG (Hanau-Wolfgang, process Ga 4N Note:
(Melbourne, Australia; www. GaCi3 5N 4N = 99.99% purity;
TMG
rmit.edu.au), led by Torben Germany; www.pmc. crude TMGa 6N 5N = 99.999% purity
Al MASC 6N = 99.9999% purity
Daeneke. The so-called solar umicore.com) inaugu-
paint combines two compo- rated its production
nents: a new catalytic material unit for making trimethylgallium (TMGa) and of the ether used), which makes it difficult
developed by the research- triethylgallium (TEGa). The new facility uses a to reach O2 levels below 1 ppm. As a re-
ers synthetic molybdenum new, patented production process to make sult, yields are limited, while generating an
sulfide, which also acts as
these metal-organic precursors. Compared MgX2-laden waste stream, explains Briel.
a silica gel to absorb water;
and titanium dioxide, which
to conventional methods, Umicores process The drawback of the TMA route (upper dia-
absorbs ultraviolet (UV) light requires two less synthesis steps, minimizes gram) is that only one methyl group per TMA
and transfers the energy to hazardous side streams and achieves nearly can be transferred to Ga, thus generating a
the catalyst, where it is used quanitative yields (based on Ga). wastestream with AlCl(Me)2.
to split the absorbed water. TMGa is a colorless liquid with very high In contrast, Umicores process (lower dia-
Simply adding the new mate- vapor pressure that boils at low temperatures. gram) does not use an organic solvent, but
rial can convert a brick wall into It is used in the semiconductor industry, where instead performs the alkylation in a molten
a fuel producer, with several li- it evaporates in closed systems to deposit onto salt (a KCl/NaCl/AlCl3 mixture with melting
ters of H2 produced on a few a substrate Ga-containing semiconductor layer point of less than 130C), explains Briel. Also,
square meters. There is no
(for example, GaN used in light-emitting diodes). a more efficient methylating agent is used
need for clean or filtered water.
Any place with water vapor in
Up to now, the two main routes for mak- methylaluminumsesquichloride (MASC). This
the air even remote areas ing TMGa are alkylation of GaCl3 with either reduces the amount of waste per kilogram of
far from water can produce a Grignard reagent, or with trimethylalumi- TMGa by more than 50%, with the resulting
fuel, Daeneke says. num (TMA), explains Oliver Briel, director of intermediates being recycled in the process,
The researchers are now Global Business Electronics. The Grignard he says. In the end, we have a pure salt
focusing on increasing the route suffers from large volumes of organic (with only a few ppm of Ga) as side stream,
systems efficiency, and on solvents needed, and the fact that oxygen and can convert nearly 100% of the Ga to
developing an economical is present in the reaction mixture (because TMGa (or TEGa), he says.
way to collect the H2. Daeneke
says the solar paint would re-
quire the incorporation of ad-
ditional layers to the system, Bio-based xylitol lowers production costs
such as membranes. Such

W
membranes already exist, and hile demand for the artificial In S2Gs process, fractionated biomass
could be applied as a simple sweetener xylitol grows, ex- is cleaned and conditioned and then sent
additional coating on top of the pensive raw materials and low to a trickle-bed catalytic hydrotreating pro-
paint, he says. yields have kept production cess employing a non-rare-earth catalyst in
prices high. Now, a new process from S2G a packed bed. In the presence of hydrogen,
HEAT TRANSFER FLUID BioChem (Vancouver, B.C., Canada; www. the sugar content is converted into sugar
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich; s2gbiochem.com) aims to produce xylitol in a alcohols, including xylitol. The remaining
Germany; www.wacker.com) more cost-effective way, utilizing byproducts sugars are further processed and converted
and Royal Tech CSP Ltd. from pulp-and-paper plants and biorefineries into bioglycols. Finally, crystallization is used
(Changzhou, China) have as feedstock. These are growing sources to isolate the xylitol, and a distillation step
signed an agreement to in- of xylose-rich sugars that we can take ad- separates the bioglycols. The benefits of a
tensify cooperation for highly
vantage of, says Mark Kirby, president and catalytic biomass transformation versus a
efficient solar-thermal sys-
tems that are based on con-
chief executive officer of S2G Biochem. He biological process, such as fermentation,
centrated solar power (CSP) explains that while these feedstocks are not include a faster conversion time, scalability
technologies. Under the terms typically suitable for traditional xylitol manu- and the ability to run continuously.
of the agreement, Wacker will facturing processes, the high efficiency of S2G has operated a xylitol pilot plant
supply its newly developed S2Gs method makes their use feasible. since 2012 and intends to construct a
Helisol silicone fluid to Royal According to Kirby, S2Gs technology can larger-scale demonstration biorefinery in
Tech, its exclusive partner in achieve xylitol yields double that of traditional Sarnia, Ont. that will produce over 2,000
China. Royal Tech uses the processes. Another factor contributing to the metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of xylitol. Full-
silicone fluid as a heat-trans- economics of the process is the production scale operation is expected to commence
fer medium in its solar power
of saleable co-products, including ethylene in 2019. For the construction of the new
plants. Helisol can withstand
thermal stress of up to 425C
glycol and propylene glycol. Whatever we biorefinery, S2G has seen support from sev-
dont turn into xylitol, we turn into high-value eral industry partners, including global food
(Continues on p. 10) biochemicals, explains Kirby. company Mondelez International.
8 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
Make more from biomass with iron

N
ippon Shokubai Co.
Used to
(Osaka and Tokyo, Japan; Metallic iron regenerate
Lignocellulose
www.shokubai.co.jp) has (agriculture residues)
iron
jointly developed a new
process for biomass utilization in
collaboration with professor Yuichi
Kita at Kobe University (www.kobe- Iron oxides
u.ac.jp). The process is highly ef- Hydrothermal
liquefaction
New
method
ficient for decomposing lignocel- (Conventional)
lulose into a group of water-soluble
compounds that consist mainly of Char
26 carbon atoms. It is carried out Char
(large equities) High yield
Low yield
in hot water at 250300C in the
presence of metallic iron. Unlike the
conventional methods, this method Difficult treatment
Solid acid
reduces useless consumption of Water-soluble
catalyst Basic chemicals
(hydrocarbons)
biomass resources and enables an Nippon Shokubai decomposition products
efficient utilization of the whole bio-
mass. Furthermore, by using a solid In conventional hydrothermal right), metallic iron, which coexists
acid catalyst, such as ZSM-5 zeolite, liquefaction (diagram, left), high- and reacts in a reactor, increases
the obtained water-soluble com- temperature water thermally de- the yield of water-soluble decom-
pounds can be converted to olefinic composes biomass into water- and position products to about 60 wt.%.
hydrocarbons, such as ethylene, oil-soluble decomposition products. The oxygen content of these prod-
propylene and butylene, or aromatic However, in the absence of metal- ucts is reduced to about 20% that in
hydrocarbons, such as benzene, lic iron, the product yields are low the raw material. Moreover, decom-
toluene and xylenes. (around 15 wt.% for both fractions). position, deoxygenation and hydro-
With such sustainable building Moreover, the oxygen content in the genation can be further promoted
blocks, Nippon Shokubai estimates decomposition products is high, so by adding a metal that has a hydro-
it could reduce the production cost additional deoxygenation steps are genation capability, such as cop-
of raw materials for superabsorbent necessary. One of the biggest chal- per or palladium. Finally, the whole
polymer (SAP) down to 30%. In col- lenges facing this process is the biomass can be efficiently utilized,
laboration with chemicals manufac- large quantity (around 40 wt.%) of because the byproduct char can be
turers, the company aims to use this char produced. used as a reducing agent for regen-
technology industrially after 2020. In the new process (diagram, erating metallic iron.

A probe that tests galvanizing kettles at high temperatures

T
o provide corrosion pro- by Zinco UK Ltd. (Hereford; www. of the remaining steel kettle wall can
tection and long life, steel zincouk.com) in its new Zinc Immer- be calculated, says Dixon.
products are galvanized by sion Probe (ZIP) technology, which The new technology is very porta-
immersion into kettles con- can perform safety critical testing ble and is quick and easy to use, and
taining molten zinc. These galva- while submerged in molten Zn. can be done in routine short gaps in
nizing kettles need to be checked All the internal components of production, leading to the significant
periodically to monitor rates of the ultrasonic transducer inside the cost savings, Dixon says. The cost
corrosion in order to avoid a cata- sensor are designed to survive tem- saving of using this technology com-
strophic spillage of molten Zn. Pre- peratures of 450C without any cool- pared to a more traditional technique
vious monitoring techniques either ing, explains professor Steve Dixon, of pumping the zinc out and then
used an external probe, or else the director of the Center for Industrial inspecting the kettle after cooling is
galvanizers had to drain the zinc Ultrasonics at the University of War- approximately 20,000 [$26,000]
from the kettles, which were then wick (www.ciu.ac.uk). per inspection if we consider cost of
cooled sufficiently to enable physi- Ultrasound travels from the sen- pumping and testing (excludes the
cal sampling of the kettle surface. sor head into the liquid Zn, which is resulting production downtime), he
Such methods are time consuming then coupled into the steel wall of says. What is even more interest-
and costly. the kettle. Two reflected signals are ing is that the data that the system
Now, a quicker, direct method then detected by the sensor: one provides can enable more regular
for inspecting kettles has been de- from the zinc/kettle-wall interface, and affordable testing that can boost
veloped at Sonemat Ltd. (Albridge, and the other from the outer wall production efficiency, improve safety
Walsall, U.K.; www.sonemat.com) of the kettle. Simple analysis of the and extend kettle life.
from research at the University of signals provides the time it takes the There are currently two units being
Warwick (U.K.; www2.warwick. ultrasonic wave to travel through the operated by Zinco with more being
ac.uk), and is being commercialized kettle wall, and hence the thickness built to order.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 9


for a long period of time and
its viscosity remains low even
Vehicle fuel tank for adsorbed natural gas moves
at 40C. In combination toward commercialization
with Royal Techs parabolic

N
trough collectors, the fluid atural gas vehicles (NGVs) are at- cific activated carbon monoliths for ANG fuel
enables efficiency levels that tractive because of the low cost tanks that allow sufficient volumetric fuel ca-
are not possible with conven- and wide availability of natural pacity for vehicles, while still maintaining the
tional heat-transfer fluids (see gas, plus the ability to connect to sustainable adsorption and desorption prop-
Chem. Eng., February 2017, residential and business gas lines for fuel- erties needed for ANG-powered vehicles.
pp. 1518). Currently, Royal
ing. Among the challenges for using natu- Ingevitys proprietary process for making
Tech is building a 50-MW
solar power plant in the city of
ral gas as a fuel for light-duty vehicles is activated carbon from sawdust generates a
Yumen in western China. engineering a fuel tank that can contain a pore-size distribution that is tuned precisely
sufficient amount of natural gas safely and for mixed hydrocarbon fuel use in vehicles
OSN MEMBRANES in a space-efficient volume that is still cost- (gasoline vapor, natural gas). For making the
Evonik Industries AG (Essen,
effective for cars. As a vehicle fuel, com- monolith, the company uses a proprietary
Germany; www.evonik.com) pressed natural gas (CNG) at pressures binder material with its activated carbon to
and the Sinopec Beijing Re- of 3,0003,600 psig requires large thick- achieve a carbon density high enough to be
search Institute of the Chemical walled cylindrical tanks that have a limited viable in vehicle-fuel applications.
Industry (BRICI; China; www. ability to conform to available spaces in Ingevity utilized its considerable expertise
sinopec.com) have signed a cars or light trucks. In addition, the cost of in activated carbon for fuel-vapor-emissions
collaboration agreement to compression equipment is prohibitive for control-systems activated carbon to tune
build a process development light-duty vehicle use. the pore size distribution to allow catch and
laboratory for organic solvent A manufacturing coalition is now com- release that is, high levels of adsorption,
nanofiltration (OSN) mem-
mercializing a natural gas fuel tank that uses but also a robust desorption of fuel in a con-
brane technology. OSN is an
innovative and environmentally
activated carbon to adsorb the fuel. Ad- trolled depressurization process, explains
friendly membrane technology sorbed natural gas (ANG) enables increased BP Holbrook, senior product research sci-
that has a wide range of appli- natural gas storage at much lower pressures entist at Ingevity.
cations in the petrochemical, (<1,000 psig) and, as a result, tank designs Ingevitys activated carbon monoliths will
pharmaceutical, fine chemicals that are much more flexible in how they can be used within a proprietary tank design
and food industries. be shaped to fit into vehicle bodies. Also, exclusively licensed by coalition partner Ad-
When Evonik initiated the first the lower pressure allows more reasonably sorbed Natural Gas Products Inc. (ANGP;
contact with BRICI in 2015, priced compression equipment for home Chester, N.J.; www.angpinc.com).
both parties showed strong and business vehicle fueling directly from We are currently manufacturing conform-
interest in potential OSN ap-
low-pressure natural gas pipelines. able ANG tanks for certification testing, and
plications for the petrochemi-
cal industry. In 2016, a series
One of the companies involved in the are in discussions with automakers about
of laboratory-scale tests were tank commercialization is specialty chemical using them in bi-fuel hybrid vehicles capa-
successfully conducted for a maker Ingevity (North Charleston, S.C.; www. ble of running on natural gas and gasoline,
lube-oil-dewaxing application. ingevity.com), the developer of shape-spe- Holbrook says.
The joint OSN laboratory was
officially established earlier this
year. In the future, the laboratory A new zeolite catalyst promises to
will focus on the petrochemical
industry to open up markets in
significantly improve naphtha cracking
both China and the entire Asian

C
hiyoda Corp. (Yokohama, www. The new catalyst was shown to enhance
region for OSN applications.
chiyoda-corp.com) has been work- the yield of propylene to 30%, compared
LT WGS CATALYST ing on a new naphtha catalytic- to 15% typically obtained in conventional
cracking process with the aim of cracking furnaces. The company believes
Scientists from Brookhaven
producing more propylene and consuming the new catalyst has a longer lifetime, hav-
National Laboratory (Upton,
N.Y.; www.bnl.gov) have de-
less energy than existing naphtha thermal- ing demonstrated continuous operation
veloped a new low-tempera- cracking methods. of more than 1,000 h in an inexpensive
ture (LT) catalyst for performing The company has recently developed a fixed-bed reactor. Other features of the
the water gas shift (WGS) reac- new catalyst based on iron- and gallium- new process include: a 1015% reduction
tion for producing high-purity modified MFI-type zeolite (0.50.6-nm dia. of naphtha usage; a 60% reduction in en-
H2 while simultaneously re- pore), and successfully used it for the cata- ergy consumption (by operating at a lower
moving CO. The discovery lytic cracking of naphtha. Iron- and gallium- temperature of 565C); and a reduction
described in a recent issue of modification suppresses the polymeriza- in steam consumption by 50% (by elimi-
Science has potential impli- tion of aromatics, which induce coking that nating the need for steam injection that
cations for H2-based fuel cells,
shortens the catalyst life. The company has is required for operation at 850C). The
which are prone to CO poison-
ing. The catalyst a cluster
completed a small-scale demonstration proj- company also believes the process can be
of gold nanoparticles layered ect, which has been supported by the New flexible for producing ethylene-rich or BTX-
on a molybdenum-carbide Energy and Industrial Technology Develop- rich (benzene, toluene, xylenes) production
substrate was synthesized ment Org. (NEDO) since 2015. The technol- through optimizing the composition of iron
and tested by collaborators at ogy could be ready for commercial applica- and gallium in the catalyst and the crack-
Peking University (China). tions in 2021. ing conditions. n
10 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
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& Thin
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While suited to handle a wide range
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Circle 04 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-04
Business News
LINEUP Plant Watch revamp will increase CAPs production capacity
Arkema invests in capacity expansion as follows: ethylene capacity will increase by
AIR PRODUCTS 40,000 m.t./yr; propylene and pyrolysis gas
for biosourced polyamide 11
AKZONOBEL July 12, 2017 Arkema (Colombes, France; (py-gas) by 20,000 m.t./yr each; and mixed C4
www.arkema.com) plans to invest around by 15,000 m.t./yr.
AMEC FOSTER WHEELER
300 million over five years in the biosourced
ARKEMA polyamide 11 chain, building a new production Ingevity to build activated-carbon
plant in Asia that will boost its polyamide 11 extrusion plant in China
BRASKEM
production capacity by 50%. The new plant, June 28, 2017 Ingevity Corp. (North
CB&I which will produce both the amino 11 monomer Charleston, S.C.; www.ingevity.com) will build
CHANDRA ASRI and its polymer, Rilsan PA11, should come a new activated-carbon extrusion plant in
onstream in late 2021. Changshu, China, to meet growing demand
CHEVRON PHILLIPS for pelletized carbon products primarily for
EASTMAN Braskem selects Linde for EPC work on use in vapor-emission control systems. It
new polypropylene plant is expected to be operational by the fall of
HALDOR TOPSE
July 11, 2017 Braskem (So Paulo, Brazil; 2018. The plant represents an investment of
INGEVITY www.braskem.com.br) selected the Linde Group approximately $20 million, and will be able to
(Munich, Germany; www.the-linde-group. accommodate an additional extrusion line.
LINDE
com) as the lead engineering, procurement
PERSTORP and construction (EPC) contractor to build Shin-Etsu Chemical to double production
PPG
Braskems polypropylene (PP) production line. capacity of rare-earth magnets
Braskem has committed up to $675 million June 28, 2017 Shin-Etsu Chemical Co.
SADARA towards the design and construction of the (Tokyo, Japan; www.shinetsu.co.jp) will double
SHIN-ETSU new PP plant, which will be located in La the production capacity of rare-earth magnets
Porte, Tex. and have a production capacity of in Vietnams Hai Phong Province. As a result
SOLVAY 450,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of PP. of this expansion, the production capacity will
SUMITOMO
increase from 1,100 m.t./yr to 2,200 m.t./yr.
Sadara starts up The completion of the construction project
TOTAL propylene glycol plant is scheduled for the middle of 2018.
UMICORE July 10, 2017 Sadara Chemical Co. (Jubail,
Saudi Arabia; www.sadara.com), a joint venture Chevron Phillips reaches mechanical
VERSUM MATERIALS
(JV) developed by The Dow Chemical Co. completion of new Gulf Coast PE units
(Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and Saudi June 19, 2017 Chevron Phillips Chemical
Aramco (Dhahran; www.saudiaramco.com), Co. (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cpchem.com)
announced that it has successfully started up announced that the two polyethylene (PE) units
its propylene glycol (PG) plant. The new PG of its $6-billion petrochemical investment on
plant marks the 22nd of Sadaras 26 plants the U.S. Gulf Coast successfully achieved the
at Jubail to start up. milestone of mechanical completion. Once
operational, each PE unit will produce at least
Total starts up ethane-based 500,000 m.t./yr.
petrochemical production in Antwerp
July 7, 2017 Total S.A.s (Paris, France; PPG completes 45-million
www.total.com) petroleum-refining and manufacturing plant in Russia
chemicals platform in Antwerp has started June 16, 2017 PPG Industries, Inc. (Pittsburgh,
up production of ethylene using ethane Pa.; www.ppg.com) marked the opening of a
feedstock extracted from natural gas. Total 45-million ($49-million) paint and coatings
has invested nearly $60 million to revamp one manufacturing facility in the Lipetsk region of
of the platforms two steam crackers and to Russia. The site will produce approximately
adapt the sites terminal to enable the import of 25 million L/yr of coatings at full capacity.
200,000 m.t./yr of ethane.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Chandra Asri selects CB&I Eastman sells Dynaloy business
for furnace revamp project to Versum Materials
July 5, 2017 PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical July 13, 2017 Versum Materials, Inc. (Tempe,
Tbk (CAP; Jakarta, Indonesia; www.chandra- Ariz.; www.versummaterials.com) has agreed to
asri.com) has awarded a material supply acquire Dynaloy, LLC from Eastman Chemical
agreement to CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; Co. (Kingsport, Tenn.; www.eastman.com)
www.cbi.com) for the revamp of existing furnace for approximately $13 million. Dynaloy is a
facilities at CAPs naphtha cracker plant. The supplier of formulated cleaning solutions for
Look for more furnace revamp is expected to be completed the semiconductor manufacturing industries.
latest news on in the first quarter of 2020. Construction will The transaction is expected to close during
chemengonline.com commence in the third quarter of 2018. The the fiscal fourth quarter of 2017.
12 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
Perstorp acquires Polialcoli
business from Polioli
July 10, 2017 Perstorp Holding AB (Malm, Sweden; www.
perstorp.com) has announced the acquisition of Polialcoli
S.r.l. from Polioli S.p.A. The agreement includes production
capabilities for neopentyglycol (Neo), trimethylolpropane
(TMP) and trimethylolpropane diallylether (TMPDE), as
well as the associated formate businesses located at
the Vercelli site in Italy. FREE
Solvay to sell stake in Brazilian
PVC joint venture
July 6, 2017 Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.
On Demand
solvay.com) has agreed to sell its 50% stake in Brazilian
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compound processor Dacarto Webinars
Benvic to its three JV partners in Brazil. The closing of
this transaction is expected by year-end 2017.

AkzoNobel announces a
pair of coatings acquisitions
July 3, 2017 AkzoNobel (Amsterdam, the Netherlands;
www.akzonobel.com) has announced the acquisition
of U.K.-based Flexcrete Technologies Ltd. and French View On Demand
manufacturer Disatech. Flexcrete manufactures products
primarily used for the protection and repair of concrete Webinars at
substrates. Disatech specializes in the manufacture of
self-adhesive vinyl, polyester and polycarbonate films. chemengonline.com/
Amec Foster Wheeler completes
webcasts
sale of CFB boiler business
June 28, 2017 Amec Foster Wheeler (London, U.K.;
www.amecfw.com) announced that it has completed the
sale of its circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) boiler business
to Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (Tokyo; www.shi.
co.jp), for a consideration of $170 million. In addition
to the sale of the CFB boiler business, Amec Foster
Wheeler has already completed the sale of a number
of smaller assets.

Umicore to acquire Haldor Topses diesel and Chemical Engineering


stationary catalyst businesses
June 20, 2017 Umicore N.V. (Brussels, Belgium; www. magazine produces
umicore.com) has reached an agreement to acquire the
heavy-duty diesel and stationary catalyst businesses of webinars on topics of
Haldor Topse A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topsoe.com)
for an enterprise value of approximately 120 million. critical importance to the
The businesses serve customers from production plants
in Denmark, China, Brazil and Texas, as well as R&D chemical process industries.
facilities in Lyngby.
Its not too late to
Air Products and Linde join forces
for East Coast Nitrogen venture participate in a live webinar
June 16, 2017 Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.
airproducts.com) has formed a new JV with Linde North or download any of the
America named East Coast Nitrogen (ECN) and will build
a new world-scale air separation unit (ASU) and industrial on demand webinars at
gas liquefier in Glenmont, N.Y. An approximate capital
investment of $60 million will be made in the new facility,
which will produce liquid nitrogen, liquid oxygen and liquid chemengonline.com/
argon. The new plant will be constructed and operated
by Air Products with commercial status targeted for webcast
December 2018.
Mary Page Bailey
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM 13
Newsfront

New CO2-Capture Approaches


Push Against Cost Hurdles
Despite cost hurdles, CO2-capture technologies continue to advance, driven by the critical role
of CO2 capture in achieving emissions-reduction goals

A
mong the possible strategies for ipcc.ch) and others have constructed cost
IN BRIEF addressing climate change risks are models that include various possible climate
CCS AND CLIMATE CO2-removal approaches, includ- change response scenarios. These models
RESPONSE ing the capture of CO2 from large suggest that the costs of achieving the goals
PUTTING A PRICE ON emitters, such as power plants and industrial of a 2C rise and lower than 450 ppm atmo-
CARBON facilities, and also the capture of CO2 from spheric concentration of CO2 would be con-
ambient air. These technologies have been siderably higher without the widespread de-
DRIVING CO2 CAPTURE
explored for some time, and commercialized ployment of CCS. For example, IPCC models
COSTS DOWN
in some cases, but have yet to be deployed put the figure at 138% higher without CCS.
IMPROVING AMINE- widely, largely because of cost issues. A recent report by the Global Carbon Cap-
BASED CAPTURE Driven by the importance of carbon cap- ture and Storage Institute (Docklands, Aus-
SOLID SORBENTS ture and sequestration (CCS) within the tralia; www.globalccsinstitute.com) states It
overall climate change response, the field is not possible to envisage least-cost emis-
NON-AMINE SOLVENTS
of carbon capture for storage and re-use is sions reduction scenarios, consistent with
DIRECT AIR CAPTURE advancing at a rapid pace. Efforts are afoot the Paris Agreement, that do not include
to lower the costs associated with capturing broad deployment of CCS.
CO2 using amine-based solvents, as well as
to develop alternative CO2-capture methods Putting a price on carbon
and ways to utilize captured CO2. While CCS figures to play a key role in climate
This article discusses some of the recent change response, many believe that ulti-
technological advances for CO2 capture mately, the widespread deployment of CCS
methods for both re-use and sequestration. will only occur by establishing a price on car-
bon, through taxes, a cap-and-trade market
CCS and climate response or other means. The main hurdles to wider
The Paris Climate Accord, signed in April CCS deployment are policy and incentives,
2016, set a goal of keeping the global aver- says Luke Warren, CEO of the Carbon Cap-
age temperature rise due to greenhouse gas ture and Storage Association (CCSA; Lon-
emissions to 2C or less above pre-industrial don; www.ccsassociation.org). The key is a
levels by 2100. To explore the economic price on carbon and a reward for low-carbon
ramifications of reaching that goal, the Inter- products, whether that be heating, electric-
national Energy Agency (IEA; Paris; www.iea. ity or industrial products. Carbon capture
org), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate projects thus far have been carried out on a
Change (IPCC; Geneva, Switzerland; www. case-by-case basis, with unique local fac-
14 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
tors playing a large role in making the loss, you must spend more money
projects economically feasible. on additional equipment, he says.
Geoff Holmes, director of busi- Despite the challenges, a number
ness development at Carbon Engi- of forces are at play that may help
neering Ltd. (Squamish, B.C.; www. to drive costs for CCS down, includ-
carbonengineering.com) says In the ing research and development by
absence of a carbon cap-and-trade academia, governments and private
system or tax or other means of plac- companies, as well as standardiza-
ing a price on carbon emissions, tion, optimization and economies
there is no financial incentive to per- of scale. In May, a group of experts
manently sequester the carbon. began developing a research agenda
While the absence of carbon taxes for CCS (see sidebar, p. 17). The
and other means to price carbon has tradeoffs for CCS projects are dif-
slowed the widespread use of CCS, it ficult, but there is continuous im-
has also spurred investment in ways provement going on along a number
to re-use the CO2 after it is captured. of fronts, Lam remarks. There is a
Evan Price, CEO of CO2 Solutions great deal of research work on car-
(Quebec, Canada; www.co2solu- bon capture technologies and its not
tions.com) predicts that CO2 seques- yet clear how much advancement
tration will probably be used going can or will be made. Its like the four-
forward, but CO2 will increasingly be minute-mile barrier in track sports
recycled and utilized for other pur- eventually someone will make a
poses. A major current trend in this breakthrough and it will then become
area is an influx of investment into a common practice, he says.
so-called second-generation uses As Oscar Graff, head of carbon
for CO2, Price says. These include capture and storage at Aker Solutions
uses that go beyond using the CO2 (Lysaker, Norway; www.akersolutions.
for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and com), points out, Since [the Paris Ac-
carbonation, and more toward con-
version of CO2 into biofuels, or incor-
cord], we have seen a significant rise
in interest in carbon capture technol-
Molecular
poration of the CO2 into plastics and
other materials, such as concrete.
ogy across a range of different indus-
tries that emit CO2, such as oil and
Distillation
gas, fossil-fueled power, aluminum,
with Short Path Evaporators
Driving CO2-capture costs down ammonia, cement, steel and waste-
Regardless of whether the CO2 is to-energy. While carbon capture and for effective thermal
sequestered or recycled, the cap- storage costs are currently high, the seperation of heat sensitive
ture technology will be critical, and costs are likely to come down as more products under high vacuum
its current costs are hindering its plants are put in operation, allowing the of min. 0,001 mbar (a)
wider deployment. For example, technology to benefit from economies
fossil-fuel-powered electric plants of scale and standardization, he says.
outfitted with conventional amine-
based post-combustion CO2-cap- Improving amine-based capture
ture systems use 1525% of their Several ongoing efforts are aimed at
steam for regenerating CO2 from lowering costs for amine-based CO2
the capture solvent [see sidebar, p. capture. For example, Aker Solutions
16], so electricity production is re- has developed a proprietary cocktail
duced, explains Stan Lam, process of water and amine solvents to absorb
engineering manager at Koch Modu- CO2 from fluegases post-combus-
lar Process Systems (Paramus, N.J.; tion. Our process uses 35% less en- Smart process
www.modularprocess.com). ergy compared with a standard amine
There are many technical chal- reference plant, says Graff. Also, the engineering
lenges to CO2 capture, but lowering Aker Solutions amine solution is non-
energy usage is the most important, toxic, biodegradeable and non-corro-
Lam says. Youre always fighting to sive, which reduces the stainless steel
reduce the parasitic power losses required in the capture plant, thereby
that are imposed by conventional reducing costs, Graff explains.
CO2-capture systems. And, as is The company has demonstrated
www.sms-vt.com
true for most things, theres no free and tested its technology in a mo- Circle 02 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-02

lunch to reduce parasitic power bile pilot plant, which has allowed
Buss-SMS-Canzler GmbH
Kaiserstrae 13 15 35510 Butzbach, Germany
15
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
Tel: +49 60 33 / 85 - 0 Fax: +49 60 33 / 85 - 249
Carbon Engineering
CEs DAC technology stat.com), which is developing tech-
Depleted air Pure carbon dioxide nology for using solid amine sorbents,
(rather than liquid solvents) to absorb
CO2. The technology works by blow-
1 Air contractor 2 Pellet reactor 4 Slaker 3 Calciner ing air (or an air-fluegas mixture) over
a wall of honeycomb contactors (Fig-
Evaporated water KOH rich CaCO3 pellets Generator ure 1). These monoliths allow con-
Heat tact with large volumes of air at small
pressure drops and low cost. The
honeycomb monoliths are coated
Air separator
with a proprietary solid amine-based
Ca(OH)2 CaO O2
sorbent material. Recent advances
K2CO3 rich in the sorbent materials, the honey-
comb monoliths and the design of the
system have increased the efficiency
Water Natural gas
of GTs technology so that it is capa-
Air
ble of producing CO2 at $50 per ton
FIGURE 2. Carbon Engineering has developed a system for direct air capture of CO2 that combines sev-
eral existing technologies from different industry sectors
or less, if low-temperature residual
heat is available, says company co-
Aker Solutions to capture CO2 from Koch Modular designed and sup- founder Graciela Chichilnisky. Along
both coal and natural gas combus- plied a complete modular carbon with the solid sorbent and honey-
tion. Aker Solutions technology has capture system, including all column comb contactors, GT has patented
been selected for use in two facilities internals, for a research and test- a rotating system for improving the
seeking funding from the Norwegian ing facility operated by the University efficiency of the two main processes
government one involves a CO2- of Kentucky (Lexington; www.uky. capture and desorption.
capture facility for a cement plant, edu), where scientists are working After research and testing in two
and the other is at an ammonia to reduce costs and improve perfor- pilot plants, GT is currently complet-
plant. In addition to developing the mance of amine-based CO2-capture ing work on two commercial-scale
proprietary solvent, Aker Solutions solvents. A unique challenge was that facilities in Alabama. Chichilnisky
has also developed an anti-mist sys- the system needed to be designed says the technology can be used to
tem, which minimizes the emissions for generic MEA-based solvent, while purify CO2 to food-grade levels.
reaching the outside air, Graff says. allowing researchers to test various
Koch Modulars Lam says his additives aimed at lowering energy Non-amine solvents
companys expertise in column de- requirements, increasing CO2 ab- CO2 Solutions (Quebec, Canada;
sign and modular construction can sorption levels and others, says Lam. www.co2solutions.com) takes a dif-
also have an impact on amine-based ferent approach to carbon capture
CO2-capture costs. Modular con- Solid sorbents from industrial emitters by employing
struction can lower costs by 1520% Also pursuing CO2-capture cost sav- the enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA)
by reducing labor requirements and ings is Global Thermostat LLC (GT; to allow the use of low-grade heat
compressing schedules, Lam says. New York, N.Y.; www.globalthermo- and to avoid toxic chemicals. Ubiq-
uitous in nature, CA quickly con-
verts CO2 to bicarbonate in respira-
AMINE-BASED CO2 CAPTURE tion. The company has developed a
The most common method of capturing CO2 from fluegas has involved the use of amine- method of directed evolution in a host
based solvents, such as monoethanolamine (MEA), diethylamine (DEA), methyl diethano- microbe to adapt the natural version
loamine (MDEA), piperazine (PIPA) and 2-amino-2-methylpropanol (AMP). Such chemical sol-
of CA for industrial conditions. By
vents have desirable properties, in that they often react strongly and quickly with CO2, yet they
also release the CO2 while regenerating the solvent. Amine-based solvents are able to remove
using the enzyme to convert CO2 to
large amounts of CO2 from fluegas at low pressures. Fluegas from utility and industrial boilers bicarbonate quickly, they can avoid
typically contains mostly nitrogen (about 70 vol.%), smaller amounts of water and CO2 (about the use of amine-based solvents for
20%), and impurities of SO2, NOx, mercury and ash particulate matter. An air-pollution control adsorption and desorption. Ordi-
system must be in place to greatly reduce the presence of these impurities in the fluegas before narily, potassium carbonate solution
entering the carbon capture system. The cleaned fluegas then enters a small scrubber vessel to would be too slow to be effective
cool the gas and remove more trace sulfur impurities. From the quencher, the fluegas enters the
absorber. The absorber uses the amine as a solvent to reduce the CO2 level in the fluegas. This
in carbon capture applications, but
exothermic reaction typically removes about 8590% of the CO2 from the entering fluegas. The with the addition of the enzyme, the
CO2-rich solvent mixture is then sent to a heat exchanger before entering the regenerator. In the reaction occurs quickly and KCO3
regenerator, the solvent is steam-stripped, causing the essentially pure CO2 to come out of so- can be used as a solvent, says Evan
lution in an endothermic reaction. The overhead CO2 is then compressed and fed to a pipeline, Price, CEO of CO2 Solutions. We
while the CO2-lean amine solvent is recycled back to the absorber for reuse. are able to strip the CO2 at a much
lower temperature than with tradi-
16 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
tional amine solvents, so we can use RESEARCH AGENDA FOR CO2 CAPTURE AND REMOVAL
low-grade heat and avoid placing a Under the auspices of the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine
parasitic load on a plant, says Price. (NAS; Washington, D.C.; www.nationalacademies.org), an expert committee has been as-
The result is 99.95%-pure CO2 with sembled to develop a research agenda for CO2 removal and reliable sequestration. Chaired
no contaminants (the extra volume is by Princeton University scientist Stephen Pacala, the committee recently held the first of six
planned meetings to identify the most urgent unanswered scientific and technical questions
molecules from air).
related to the potential of various carbon dioxide removal technologies and their commercial
The high cost and toxicity of viability, according to the committees statement of task. In addition to direct air capture
amines are big issues that remain and the coupling of bioenergy with CCS, the committee will also be looking at geologic se-
unresolved to this day, Price says, questration, land management and other technology areas. NAS says the committee antici-
and this makes the use of our en- pates publishing a report in summer 2018. In addition to the group developing this research
vironmentally friendly enzymatic sol- agenda, there is a separate NAS committee forming specifically to look at CO2 re-use.
vent especially attractive.
After a successful demonstration tor for scrubbing CO2 from the air is Columbia headquarters, and is now
of the technology at a scale of 10 borrowed from cooling tower tech- adding a second stage to the pilot
ton/d of CO2, CO2 Solutions has nology. We use a high-surface-area for the fuel synthesis. Our intellec-
signed its first commercial agree- structured packing, through which tual property is really in the knitting
ment with a pulp mill, in which CO2 a strong potassium hydroxide solu- together of the entire process and
is captured and piped to a nearby tion flows down, Holmes says. CO2 designing the process to work ef-
greenhouse, where the gas will aid is scrubbed from air in a continuous ficiently, Holmes says. All of the
crop growth. The installation will regeneration-loop process (Figure chemistry for the DAC process is al-
collect 30 ton/d of CO2. No com- 2). As CO2 from the air contacts the ready well known.
pression of the CO2 is required, thin film of hydroxide solution in the Carbon Engineering plans to cou-
keeping costs low column, potassium carbonate forms. ple the DAC with a second phase
The potassium carbonate enters a designed to thermo-catalytically
Direct air capture pellet reactor, into which calcium hy- react CO2 to generate synthesis gas
The possibility of CO2-reuse sce- droxide is added to form a precipitate and use Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
narios has spurred interest in direct of CaCO3, and regenerate the KOH. techniques to generate diesel and
air capture (DAC) systems for scrub- The CaCO3 is calcined to yield CO2 jet fuel. Hydrogen will be supplied by
bing CO2 directly from ambient air. and CaO, which is then reacted with electrolysis of water using renewable
DAC systems are not in direct com- water to regenerate Ca(OH)2 for the power, the company says.
petition with traditional CCS tech- process. The pure CO2 resulting from Another DAC company reached
nology, Carbon Engineerings Geoff the process can be re-used, seques- a milestone in 2017. On May 31,
Holmes says, DAC offers a different tered or, in the case of Carbon Engi- 2017, Climeworks (Zurich, Switzer-
set of opportunities. neering, be used for fuels synthesis land; www.climeworks.com) an-
We are looking at how to utilize the in a second stage. Also, the heat re- nounced the startup of the worlds
CO2 to generate low-carbon fuels, quired for calcination is provided by first commercial-scale direct-air
Holmes explains, so our premise oxy-fired natural gas consumption, capture (DAC) plant, capable of col-
has been to scrub CO2 directly from Holmes says, so all combustion CO2 lecting 900 ton/yr CO2. It collects
the air at commercial scale. produced in powering the air-capture the CO2 from ambient air and pipes
Carbon Engineerings technol- plant is delivered along with that the pure CO2 gas to a nearby green-
ogy has industrial precedents and which is captured from the air. house, where it is pumped into the
is based on well-understood opera- The company has constructed a greenhouse to increase crop yields.
tions. For example, the design and pilot plant for the DAC system and The Climeworks technology is
operating concepts of our air contac- the regeneration loop at its British based on a cyclic adsorption and
CO2 Solutions desorption process that depends on
Scrubbed a new filter material that specifically
fluegas
adsorbs CO2. During adsorption,
Pure CO2 (> 99%) for reuse
and/or sequestration atmospheric carbon is bound to the
sorbents surface. Later, it is driven
CO2 absorber Lean solvent CO2 stripper
column column
off the sorbent by heating it to 100 C
to yield high-purity CO2. The sorbent
Proprietory enzyme
can be reused for many cycles. Low-
in solvent temperature heat covers 90% of the
energy demand, making the process
relatively cheap, the company says.n
Hot
Rich solvent water Scott Jenkins
Fluegas
with CO2
For additional information on CO2 recycling, com-
mercial-scale CCS operations and more, view the
FIGURE 3. CO2 Solutions employs the enzyme carbonic anhydrase as part of the capture process
online version of this article at www.chemengonline.com.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 17


Newsfront

Bringing Increased Reliability


and Safety to Control Valves
Hardware improvements and service programs add more value to todays control valves
Samson Controls

IN BRIEF

C
hemical processors demand reli- FIGURE 1. Due to the multi-stage pres-
ADVANCED HARDWARE
ability, safety and efficiency when sure letdown AC-5 trim, cavitation is
selecting control valves. As a re- avoided, since the lowest pressure that
REDUCED FUGITIVE occurs along the flow path is always
sult, there have been significant kept above the vapor pressure
EMISSIONS advances to the equipment, including the
INCREASED USE OF use of better materials of construction, im-
DIGITALIZATION proved packing technologies and added in-
telligence. In addition, suppliers have begun
AFTER-MARKET
SERVICES
offering service programs that further pro-
mote reliability and efficiency.
When it comes to control valves, not only
is there value in offering improved equip-
ment that can reliably and safely handle the
demanding processes, high temperatures
and high pressures of the chemical indus-
try, but also there is value in developing the
ability to get everything running smoothly
around that, explains Ismo Niemela, di- R&D, with Samson Controls (Baytown, Texas;
rector, Neles Control Valve Product Center, www.samsoncontrols.com). This is even
with Metso Flow Control (Helsinki, Finland; more important as the chemical industry con-
www.metso.com). There is more to it than tinues to progress in process technologies
providing quality valves that can function in that employ higher pressures and tempera-
the process industries. We want to help our tures and new chemicals, so manufacturers
customers become more efficient, more reli- need to continue to evolve and find new ma-
able and safer in their operations and that terials and manufacturing methods in an ef-
requires more than hardware or a physical fort to develop valves that can withstand the
product. That requires service programs and challenges of these applications, he says.
partnerships designed around these goals. Specifically, Samson has been working on
improving trim components for the seat and
Advanced hardware plug of the control valve because those are
Although the control valve market is fairly well the most critical components for maintaining
established, that hasnt stopped valve manu- good control and where the highest veloci-
facturers from working to increase the reliabil- ties from flow occur, making these compo-
ity and safety of their products through various nents the most susceptible to damage. We
improvements, such as developing advanced continuously look at improved designs and
components, designing valves to withstand new manufacturing technologies so we may
harsh conditions and using better seal tech- develop new internal components that previ-
nologies to control fugitive emissions. ously werent possible or were not economi-
The best way to improve valve performance cally feasible, he says. One of the latest of-
is to improve the components and the way to ferings is the multi-stage pressure letdown
do that is to study and understand the flow AC-5 trim developed by Samson Controls,
phenomena that takes place inside the con- which helps prevent cavitation, since the low-
trol valve and to develop new trim parts and est pressure that occurs along the flow path
overall control valve packages that are able is always kept above the vapor pressure. This
to withstand and better handle whats tak- allows pressure drops of up to 200 bars to be
ing place inside the valve, says David Tamm, handled without any problems (Figure 1).
senior manager, product management and By studying flow and improving inter-
18 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
SOR Controls Group Brkert Fluid Control Systems
materials and custom to be inefficient.
trim materials is essential Because of the impor-
to meeting their needs tance of reducing emis-
for chemical compatibil- sions, Samson offers its
ity and harsh conditions, environmentally friendly
were also finding that packing as its standard
processors need these packing, versus adding
highly customized valves it as an up-charge, says
quickly. If they have a Tamm. And for applica-
valve that stops working, tions that require even
FIGURE 2. The 1451 Freezeless control valve was
they need a replacement tighter seals, the com-
developed for fluid control in oil-and-gas separa- ASAP [as soon as pos- pany can provide its en-
tors and other process vessels so that the plug sible] so were working vironmentally friendly,
and seat are able to be constantly submerged in on providing engineered- hysteresis-free bellows
the process media due to the valve body design,
allowing the natural heat of the process to prevent to-order control valves seal, which guarantees
freezing during actuation of the valve with off-the-shelf speed zero leakage over the en-
to increase reliability and tire service life of the con-
nals, Samson has also been able efficiency. trol valve.
to develop several control valves for In addition to custom- Blake Coleman, global
critical and challenging applications. ized materials, SOR has chemical industry man-
For example, the 3291 heavy-duty, also developed a freeze- ager/flow controls, with
seat-retained globe control valve is less valve for challeng- Emerson Automation
designed for general service applica- ing applications in ex- Solutions Fisher Valves
tions up to the limits of the ANSI 900 tremely low temperatures division (St. Louis, Mo.;
pressure class rating. Service appli- where ordinary control w w w. e m e r s o n . c o m )
cations include difficult process con- valves freeze and hang agrees that this is becom-
ditions with erosion, abrasion, corro- up. The 1451 Freezeless ing an area of increas-
sion, cavitation and flashing. And, the control valve was devel- ing importance. In the
Vetec 82.7 double-eccentric, rotary- oped for fluid control in FIGURE 3. Burkerts Models chemical industry there
8690 through 8694 offer from
plug control valve for both standard oil-and-gas separators little to no communication all is constant pressure to
and critical service applications, in- and other process ves- the way up to continuous pro- reduce emissions, so we
cluding process events such as ero- sels so that the plug and cess control with full PID con- are improving packing
sion, abrasion, corrosion, cavitation seat are able to be con- trol and many bus options. A
contact-free, analog position
technologies to reduce
and flashing, is able to increase flow stantly submerged in the sensor measures the position fugitive emissions and to
capacities with only a minor reduc- process media due to of the valve and commis- provide zero emissions
tion in the pressure recovery factor, the valve body design, sioning is simplified through valves for lethal or toxic
automatic tune functions.
making the design a suitable replace- allowing the natural heat Shown here is Model 8693 services via a reliable bel-
ment for linear globe control designs, of the process to pre- lows bonnet solution.
even when cavitation and flashing vent freezing during actuation of the He says many chemical customers
conditions are present. valve (Figure 2). have started standardizing on live-
Also in an effort to meet demanding loaded packing, such as the compa-
applications, SOR Controls Group Reduced fugitive emissions nys EnviroSeal, which applies a con-
(Lenexa, Kan.; www.sorinc.com) For applications where safety stant force to the packing so that,
aims to provide custom materials for namely eliminating fugitive emis- over time, as the packing begins to
its valve internals that meet the re- sions is a concern, valve manu- wear, a constant force is applied to
quirements of chemical compatibility facturers are working on better seal the seal on the valve stem, ensuring
and harsh conditions, such as those materials and techniques for control a good seal throughout the life of the
with both debris and high velocities in valves. External leakage and fugitive packing to help reduce emissions.
the valve line, which would ordinarily emissions are very challenging with An EnviroSeal bellows seal bonnet is
cause erosion and destroy the trim. control valves, especially linear con- also available for hazardous services.
We have the ability to make the in- trol valves, notes Samsons Tamm.
ternals of special, custom materials, Because when you tighten packing Increased use of digitalization
such as tungsten carbide, that wont down, it clamps down on the valve While tougher materials and better
abrade or erode under such condi- stem, which generates friction and sealing technologies help with reli-
tions, says Matt Gasparovich, prod- can deteriorate control, so we want ability, both reliability and efficiency
uct manager with SOR. While the the seal to be tight enough to pre- can be further enhanced via digita-
ability to accommodate the special vent fugitive emissions, but not so lization of valves, which allows the
needs of our customers via custom tight on the plug stem that it deterio- equipment to transmit information
process connections, special seal rates control and causes the process about the valve, says William Ban-

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 19


Emerson Automation Solutions Metso Flow Control

FIGURE 4. Emersons Fisher division offers the FieldVue DVC6200 digital valve controller to help users
obtain data that can be used for diagnostics that help increase reliability. It is a HART communicating
instrument that converts a 420-mA control signal into a pneumatic output to an actuator

ham, engineering technician with as a software interface tool, can be


Brkert Fluid Control Systems (Hunt- used for a number of operation cus-
ersville, N.C.; www.burkert-usa. tomizations (Figure 3).
com). Reliability may be built into a Similarly, Emersons Fisher division
valve, but it can also be boosted if offers the FieldVue DVC6200 digital
users can look at information about valve controller to help users obtain
the valve that will allow them to pre- data that can be used for diagnos-
dict when maintenance is needed tics that help increase reliability (Fig- FIGURE 5. Neles NDX valve controller helps
rather than performing routine pre- ure 4). It is a HART communicating monitor valve performance and stores data in its
ventive maintenance, he says. Es- instrument that converts a 420-mA memory. The data can be used to plan mainte-
nance and provide an alarm if something has gone
pecially in the process industries, the control signal into a pneumatic out- wrong with the valve
ability to manage and see, in real- put (I/P) to an actuator. The instru-
time, what the valves are doing is a ment can be retrofitted in place of mance and stores data in its mem-
huge benefit that allows technicians existing analog positioners on most ory. The data can be used to plan
to be proactive instead of reactive. Fisher and non-Fisher pneumatic maintenance and provide an alarm if
But, because each plant is dif- actuators. The two-stage positioner something has gone wrong with the
ferent in how communications are design provides quick response to valve, says Metsos Niemela. The
handled some have decentral- large step changes and precise con- controller can bring operational sav-
ized communications and others trol for small set point changes and ings, he says. It offers high pneu-
are centralized Brkert provides can detect position feedback prob- matic capacity for fast operation with
solutions that accommodate vari- lems and automatically revert to I/P large volume actuators without the
ous communications scenarios via transducer mode to keep the valve need for extra instrumentation, low
its line of digital controllers and po- operational. The self-diagnostic ca- supply-air consumption and built-in
sitioners for integrated mounting on pability of the controllers provides valve diagnostics for efficiency and
process control valves. Models 8690 valve performance and health evalu- cost reduction in valve maintenance.
through 8694 offer from little to no ation without shutting down the This is especially helpful because
communication all the way up to process or pulling the valve assem- in the chemical industry valves are
continuous process control with full bly from the line. The digital com- often selected for maintenance
proportional-integral-derivative (PID) munication provides easy access to based upon history, which means
control and many bus options. A the condition of the valve, so sound too many valves are maintained
contact-free, analog position sensor process and asset management without actual need and many other
measures the position of the valve decisions can be made by analysis valves that may require maintenance
and commissioning is simplified of valve information through Fisher often go without, says Niemela. By
through automatic tune functions. A ValveLink software, says Coleman. having digital diagnostics, users can
close-tight function, curve charac- Metso recently introduced the clearly see which valves need to be
teristic selection, switching manual/ Neles NDX valve controller (Figure maintained and can effectively plan
automatic operation features, as well 5), which helps monitor valve perfor- shutdowns, order spare parts and
20 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
plan for labor.
Often, digital controls can be tied into a monitoring
system for enhanced control. Metsos Expertune Plant-
Triage has helped many customers improve control and
increase process performance. They can read diagnos-
tics from the valve, take measurements and look at vari-
ous parameters for an in-depth view of how the valve is
performing, explains Niemela.

After-market services
With the recent introduction of digitalization, processors
often have good digital data available, but dont have
the ability to use it to optimize their processes due to
a lack of resources. It is not always easy to find quali-
fied professionals to analyze the data, manage inven-
tory, perform and record maintenance and carry out the
other necessary activities for reliable and efficient valve
operation, says Niemela.
For this reason, several valve manufacturers are step-
ping up their game with the introduction of after-market
service programs designed to help users in these areas.
Metso, for example, offers Installed Base Manage-
ment to help users optimize maintenance, operations
and spare parts. As part of this service, Metso experts
conduct a tag-by-tag inspection to verify field device YOUR DEMANDING
details. In addition to correctly identifying installed de-
vices, visual condition is also assessed. An installed- ENVIRONMENT.
base audit gives up-to-date and accurate information
to ensure that spare parts are at hand and any issues OUR PROVEN
are promptly identified. With this information, Metso
can also recommend relevant maintenance activities to
RELIABILITY.
support plant availability, process performance and risk
control. These days it is not easy to find good profes- For over five decades Pyromation has
sionals, so more and more of our customers are relying been a valued partner and trusted
on us as a partner who can provide those capabilities, source for temperature sensors in the
says Niemela. Chemical Industry. Our comprehensive
And, embracing cloud-based technologies to take
line of RTDs, thermocouples and
service to the next generation, Coleman says Emerson
provides Control Valve Connected Services, which en- thermowell assemblies including
ables remote Emerson experts to continuously monitor custom designs meet strict industry
critical control valves and generate actionable data to certifications and provide superior
optimize performance. The continuous, non-intrusive quality control. Find out more about
health monitoring service delivers predictive analysis.
our service offerings, including special
The service analyzes a variety of diagnostic data col-
lected from digital valve controllers to identify potential packaging, fast delivery and calibration
control valve failures before they cause significant inter- capabilities via our NVLAP-accredited
ruptions to a plants operations. The monitoring program metrology laboratory.
makes use of tools and smart technologies such as
Fisher FieldVue digital valve controllers.
Our customers use this service on their most critical GET A QUOTE!
control valves, says Coleman. On a routine basis, we pyromation.com/chemical
would pull diagnostic data and run our analysis tools so 260.209.6342
we can see the increase of degradation and use the in-
formation for trending purposes. Through this time-se-
ries analysis, we can see that a valve may soon require
maintenance before it becomes a red light situation and
we can alert our customers to schedule and prepare to
maintain the valve before theres a potential issue.
Joy LePree NEC Rated FM/CSA Approved

Circle 17 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-17
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
21
Focus

Analyzers and
Monitoring Devices
B&W Tek Improved Raman spectrometer Monitor stream composition
identifies materials during production processes
The i-Raman Pro ST (photo) is a por- The Epsilon Xflow system (photo) is
table, high-throughput Raman spec- an online solution for the continuous
trometer that uses the companys analysis of the elemental composi-
patent-pending See Through tech- tion of any liquid. It provides realtime
nology, which enhances the Raman feedback for many different process
signature of the content. This added streams and production processes,
functionality allows for the identi- including petrochemicals, polymers
fication of materials inside visually and food. Predefined conditions
opaque containers, such as white can be closely monitored, allowing
plastic bottles and paper envelopes. operators to react quickly to any
Its relatively large sampling area sig- changes, thereby avoiding waste,
nificantly improves analysis reproduc- off-specification product and unnec-
ibility for heterogeneous samples, and essary expenses. The system relies
its minimized power density enables on energy-dispersive X-ray fluores-
the measurement of darker materials cence (EDXRF) technology, a robust
that could be susceptible to photo and non-desctructive apporach
damage under conventional Raman that ensures low detection limits
spectroscopy, says the company. and highly accurate and reproduc-
The integrated system has a built-in ible analysis results. PANalytical,
tablet computer that is pre-installed Almelo, the Netherlands
with the companys intuitive software, www.panalytical.com
allowing for material identification and
realtime predictions. B&W Tek, Capacitance meter measures
Newark, Del. water in oil with high accuracy
www.bwtek.com The density or API gravity of crude
petroleum varies due to many fac-
Electro-Chemical Devices
Multi-purpose liquid analyzer tors, including temperature, mate-
connects directly to any DCS rial changes and region or formation
The modular S80-T-80 Analyzer Sys- from which it is extracted. Those
tem (photo) encompasses several changes can cause standard moni-
analytical devices that provide liquid tors to mistakenly attribute changes
analytical measurements via HART in density to changes in water con-
communications, ensuring simple tent, if not properly accounted for.
direct connection with a distributed The Universal IV Density Compen-
control system (DCS). The HART- sated Water Cut Monitor with Multi-
compatible T80 Universal Transmitter Cal Density Compensation (photo)
helps to streamline operations by pro- automatically compensates for den-
viding one single-channel, loop-pow- sity changes that may occur in the
ered device designed for the continu- composition of products, and re-
ous measurement of pH, ORP, pION, duces the calibration requirements
dissolved oxyen, turbidity, conductiv- due to those changes. Its updated
ity or resistivity in a general-purpose firmware allows for up to 10 differ-
industrial setting (thereby eliminating ent density calibration points. This
PANalytical
the need for multiple devices). This reduces recalibration requirements
versatile device is also available with and ensures maximum accuracy
a choice of 420-mA output, Mod- from load to load, says the com-
bus RTU, Ethernet (with Modbus pany. The Universal IV CM is said to
TCP), SDI-12 serial communication offer the industrys highest pressure
and Profibus PA output. Electro- and temperature capabilities (1,500
Chemical Devices, Anaheim, Calif. psi and temperatures up to 450F),
www.ecdi.com as well as field-proven Cote-Shield
Note: For more information, circle the 3-digit number on p. 62, or use the website designation.
22 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
technology, which is said to make eliminating the need for multiple ana- Emerson Process
it impervious to coating buildup on lyzers and sample-handling systems.
the probe. Ametek Drexelbrook, Emerson Process, St. Louis, Mo.
Horsham, Pa. www.emersonprocess.com
www.drexelbrook.com
Handheld analyzer targets
Measure up to 12 gases for combustion gases, emissions
improved process analytics The E6000 handheld combustion
The Rosemount CT5400 (photo) gas and emission analyzer (photo)
continuous gas analyzer combines measures up to six gases simultane-
tunable diode laser (TDL) and quan- ously. It has a built-in printer and full
tum cascade laser (QCL) technolo- color graphic display, automatic data
gies within the same analyzer, and storage, expanded internal memory,
uses a patented laser chirp to and Bluetooth wireless communica-
provide near-instant, high-resolution tion and software. It includes up to
spectroscopy to detect and identify a six gas sensors O2, CO, NO, NO2,
range of molecules in both the near- SO2, CxHy (HC) and H2S. It includes a
and mid-infrared range of spec- dilution pump for CO auto-range mea-
troscopy. This provides significantly surements up to 50,000 ppm. The
quicker response time (sub-second analyzer can also perform tempera-
measurement times), and enables ture and pressure measurements,
measurement levels from sub-ppm and has an internal data memory to
to percent levels, says the company. hold data of up to 2,000 tests. It is de-
With its modular and scalable design, signed for boiler, furance, engine and
the CT5400 can incorporate up to six other combustion applications.
high-resolution laser modules to de- E-Instruments International, Lang-
tect, measure and monitor up to 12 horne, Pa.
critical components simultaneously, www.E-Inst.com E-Instruments International

Call the Experts


for all your solids processing

Solids Mixing Applications:


Ribbon & Cone Blenders APIs Ag-Chemicals
Fluidizing Mixers
Biologics Catalysts
Sigma Blade Mixers
(also for high-viscosity mixing) Ceramics Chemicals

Size Reduction
Food Ingredients ARI Valves can take the heat
Herbicides Minerals
Wet & Dry Size Reduction Theres no margin of error when it comes to reliability of the valves
in your system. While you may not have to protect against lava flow,
Steel & Ceramic Lined Mills Nutraceuticals Pesticides
we can solve your problems up to 800F! ARI Valves are the choice of
Jars & Jar Rolling Mills Pharmaceuticals Pigments industrial professionals. Our quality assurance system is in accordance
with DIN ISO 9001. You can trust our bellows-seal valves to perform
Polymers Powdered Metals
Vacuum Drying under adverse conditions and never need to replace stem packing.

Dryers & Complete Systems Proteins Resins Vitamins


ARI Valves are in Heat Transfer Service Around the Globe. So if you are
responsible for the security and safety of your companys system, make
certain that ARI Valves are the choice. When things get hot, you should
specify ARI Valves for Thermal Transfer Fluid Applications.

ARI ValvesThe Obvious Choice

Quality & ARI Valve Corporation


Innovation Since 1911
1738 Sands Place, S.E. Marietta, Georgia 30067 U.S.A.
Fax: (770) 933-8846 Phone: (770) 933-8845
www.arivalve.com
www.pauloabbe.com 855-789-9827 sales@pauloabbe.com
Circle 14 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-14 Circle 01 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-01

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 23


QED Environmental Systems Fixed analyzer monitors dimensional gas chromatography
methane and more (GCxGC). Thanks to simplified tech-
The Landtec Biogas 3000 fixed gas nology that avoids the use of liquid
analyzer (photo) provides continuous nitrogen, this device helps to reduce
monitoring of gas-producing appli- the cost and ownership of GCxGC
cations such as anaerobic digestion, systems, whose complexity often
biogas and landfill operations. It can presents a major barrier to use for
use up to four sample ports to monitor some laboratories, says the com-
methane, carbon dioxide and oxygen, pany. Insight uses precise control
with optional monitoring of hydrogen of gas flows to simply fill and flush a
sulfide, hydrogen and carbon mon- sample loop to fractionate the first-
oxide levels. The device is easy to in- column effluent and deliver it to the
stall, calibrate and maintain, says the second column. The simplified de-
company. Recently added capabilities sign is said to fit easily inside stan-
include a built-in liquid level monitor- dard GC ovens, and uses reverse fill/
ing feature equipped with a dedicated flush dynamics to provide improved
alarm and moisture-removal drain, peak shape and increased peak ca-
and an automatic drain option that pacity for GCxGC compared to first-
empties the catchpot without manual generation flow modulators. Insight
intervention, offering flexibility for on- provides separation of volatiles from
site maintenance. QED Environ- C1 to C40 and above without using
mental Systems, Ann Arbor, Mich. liquid nitrogen, and eliminates mod-
www.qedenv.com ulation breakthrough for improved
characterization of both high-loading
Improved flow modulator and trace components. SepSolve
supports broader GC use Analytical Ltd., Peterborough, U.K.
Insight (photo) is a flow modulator www.sepsolve.com n
for routine, comprehensive, two- Suzanne Shelley

PROTECT PUMPS
DRYRUNNINGCAVITATIONBEARINGFAILUREOVERLOAD

MONITOR PUMP POWER COMPACT EASY MOUNTING


BestSensitivity Only3.25"x6.25"x2"
DigitalDisplay StarterDoor Panel
Raceway Wall
TWO ADJUSTABLE SET POINTS
RelayOutputs UNIQUE RANGE FINDER SENSOR
AdjustableDelayTimers WorksonWide-rangeofMotors
SimpliesInstallation
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24 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017


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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 25


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compliance. In order for an explosion- SprintIR6S needs less than 2 mL of
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the conveyor canister must be able to in measurement ranges from 0 to
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On the production line, a sensor is (photo, p. 27) is designed to separate
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26 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
transported wiped thin films with the Configure this flow monitor Pope Scientific
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others. Hybrid Still systems are avail- an archive. The B3100 flow monitor
able from 0.1-kg/h bench-top units to processes a frequency output from a
pilot-plant and full processing scale, flowmeter and interprets the signal to
with feedrates up to 1,000 kg/h. The calculate flowrate and total flow simul-
versatile design allows configuration taneously with 16-point linearization of
for molecular (short-path) distillation, the flow curve (with interpolation) for
evaporation or fractionation, plus a improved accuracy. The unit features
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 27


Facts At Your Fingertips
Blending
Department Editor: Scott Jenkins

B
lending is a fundamental TABLE 1. PROS AND CONS OF BLENDING APPROACHES
chemical unit operation, and Manual batch blending Automated batch blending Continuous inline blending
there are a handful of common Highest degree of flexibility Preferred method for batch- Highest throughput
ways to implement it. Blending appli- wise reactions
Pros Lowest up front capital Highest degree of repeatability Lowest in process inventory
cations can be either manual or auto-
Will work for almost any Faster cycle time Best repeatability and
mated, and can be carried out either product efficiency
as a batch or continuous process. Slowest cycle times Raw materials require bulk Raw materials require bulk
There are advantages and drawbacks storage storage
Cons
to each blending approach, and the Highest operating expense Large plant footprint Will not work for all products
information provided in this one-page More prone to human error Least flexible
reference can offer direction in select- due to the added instrumentation, require mix tanks or final product stor-
ing from among them. automated valves, programming and age. This allows for less in-process in-
Table 1 outlines the key pros and required bulk storage. Advantages ventory, reduced working capital and
cons for the different types of blend- include significantly reduced cycle plant footprint.
ing systems. times and manpower requirements, Continuous inline blending is also
thereby increasing throughput and the least flexible of these options
Batch blending reducing operating expense. Chang- when it comes to recipe changes.
Manual batch blending (Figure 1) is ing a blending formulation can be Making small adjustments to the
the most flexible option and has the straightforward if no new ingredients ratio of the ingredients is easy, but
lowest capital cost. It is possible to are required. Automated blending can major changes cannot be made
make a wide array of mixtures and offer a sweet spot between manual without hardware and software ad-
conduct a large number of reactions batch and continuous inline blending, justments. This being said, with a
in the same tank using this approach. in terms of costs and throughput. clear vision of the desired end result,
The main downsides are that manual it is possible for a single inline blend-
batch blending is relatively slow and Continuous blending ing system to be capable of making
labor-intensive. Additionally, because Continuous inline blending is almost many different mixtures of coloring,
operators weigh the raw materials, always a fully automated process. It fragrance or flavor as easily as se-
human error and variability are factors. has major advantages over the pre- lecting a new recipe.
To speed up the process and mitigate viously mentioned methods, but is
the risk of human error, automating a more restrictive with regard to the Questions to consider
blending system is an option. types of applications in which it can Each blending application has its
Automating a batch blending sys- be employed. If properly sized, con- own specific challenges to consider.
tem involves higher capital costs, tinuous blending equipment does not Is there a minimum amount of time
required for an additive to dissolve?
Is the viscosity of the material too
high for some methods? Is the heat
of dissolution or reaction negligible
or high enough that it must be care-
fully accounted for? Many factors
must be considered and balanced
for each individual application, and
in many cases, it may be useful to
consult an expert before settling on
a solution. Hopefully, this informa-
tion has your project headed in the
right direction. n

Editors note: Content for this Facts at your Fingertips


column was provided by Stephen Benbrook, process de-
velopment engineer at EPIC Modular Process Systems, Inc.
(4242 Meramec Bottom Rd., St. Louis, Mo.; Phone: 314-
272-4149; Website: www.epicmodularprocess.com; Email:
sbenbrook@epicsysinc.com).
Disclaimer: Although the information and recommen-
dations set forth herein are presented in good faith, EPIC
Systems, Inc. and its subsidiaries make no representations
or warranties as to the completeness or accuracy thereof.
No representations or warranties, either express or implied,
FIGURE 1. Manual batch blending offers the most flexibility, but also has the highest operating expense or merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or of any
other nature are made hereunder.
28 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
Technology Profile
Diammonium Phosphate Production
By Intratec Solutions

D
iammonium phosphate The reaction mixture from the pipe
(DAP) ranks among the most reactor is sprayed onto the rolling
important phosphate-based bed of a rotary ammoniator granula-
fertilizers, not only for its high tor (the granulator). The slurry then
nutrient content, but also for its excel- reacts with additional liquid ammo-
lent physical properties, such as high nia and recycled solids from sizing
solubility and alkaline pH around the and crushing area. The diammonium
dissolving granules. phosphate granules formed in the
DAP is commonly formulated in granulator are discharged to the dry-
a controlled reaction of phosphoric er downstream.
acid with ammonia. It is typically Drying, cooling and sizing. The DAP
produced in both granular form, to granules are dried with moderate heat n Raw materials
be used as fertilizer either directly or at about 85C. At this temperature, n Utilities
n Fixed costs
blended with other types of fertilizers, the wet fertilizer entering in the con-
n Depreciation
and in nongranular form, to be used current rotary dryer is not damaged by
in liquid fertilizers. the hot air, while the moisture is grad- FIGURE 2. The pie graph shows the operating cost
distribution
ually removed as the fertilizer passes
The process through the drum. Economic performance
The following paragraphs describe a The dried DAP granules are then An economic evaluation of the pro-
process for diammonium phosphate distributed over screens to separate cess described was conducted on
production from phosphoric acid and on-size material from the oversized a plant with the capacity to produce
ammonia via an ammoniation-gran- and undersized particles. The under- 850,000 metric tons of DAP per year,
ulation process using a pipe reactor. sized material is recycled to the gran- based on data from the third quarter
Figure 1 presents a simplified flow dia- ulator. The oversize material is sent to of 2013. The total operating cost (raw
gram of the process. chain mills, where it is crushed and materials, utilities, fixed costs and
Ammoniation-granulation. Initially, then recycled along with the under- depreciation costs) estimated to pro-
phosphoric acid, gaseous ammonia, size material. duce DAP was about $360 per ton of
and scrubber liquor are directed to The correctly sized granules are DAP. Figure 2 shows the total operat-
the pre-neutralizer reactor. The main subsequently cooled by chilled air ing cost distribution.
goal of the pre-neutralization is to in a fluidized-bed cooler in order to This column is based on Diam-
form an ammonium phosphate slur- achieve the storage temperature. Fi- monium Phosphate Production
ry that will be sent to the pipe reac- nally, DAP granules are packed in Cost Analysis, a report published
tor downstream, in order to reduce bags and stored in warehouses. by Intratec. It can be found at: www.
the amount of water vaporized dur- Scrubbers. A scrubbing circuit that intratec.us/analysis/diammonium-
ing granulation. comprises four scrubbers recov- phosphate-production-cost. n
From the pre-neutralizer, the am- ers the unabsorbed ammonia gases Edited by Scott Jenkins
monium phosphate slurry is fed to from pre-neutralizer, granulator, dryer
the pipe reactor, along with addi- and cooler. Phosphoric acid solu- Editors note: The content for this column is supplied by In-
tratec Solutions LLC (Houston; www.intratec.us) and edited by
tional phosphoric acid and gaseous tions are used in the scrubbers. The Chemical Engineering. The analyses and models presented
ammonia. The pipe reactor is a hori- scrubber liquor, which contains the are prepared on the basis of publicly available and non-
zontal reaction tube that is mounted recovered ammonia, is recycled to confidential information. The content represents the opinions
of Intratec only. More information about the methodology for
inside a drum known as the granula- the pre-neutralizer. preparing analysis can be found, along with terms of use, at
tors drum. www.intratec.us/che.

7 1. Pre-neutralizer
2. Pipe reactor
3. Granulator
Ammonia 2
(gas) 4. Dryer
5. Sizing and crushing
Phosphoric 6. Cooler
acid 3 4 7. Scrubbers
6 8. Steam boiler
DAP to
packaging 9. Air chiller
Ammonia 5
Hot air and storage
(gas) ST Steam
1 Chilled air
Ammonia
(liquid) ST 8
Chilled air 9
FIGURE 1. The process description shows a production process for diammonium phosphate

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 29


Cover Story

Reboiler Circuit
Debottleneck with No
Hardware Changes
With a thorough investigation and proper problem diagnosis, an entire gas plant limited by a
deethanizer reboiler circuit was successfully debottlenecked

Henry Kister

T
his article de- 15'-6"
Fluor Corp. scribes a case
study of a
gas plant (de-
IN BRIEF signed by others) that
2'-6"

BACKGROUND was bottlenecked by 5'-9"

PROCESS DESCRIPTION the reboil system of a


deethanizer stripper.
INITIAL PERFORMANCE The reboiler system,
TROUBLESHOOTING which consisted of two
24"
parallel, once-through 20'-4" 24" 33'-3"
PRESSURE DROP
thermosiphon circuits,
LESSONS LEARNED had experienced two
CLOSING THOUGHTS different steady-state 28'-8"
10'-5"
18".
conditions. One con- 24"
dition had a good split 19'-0"
of liquid to each of the E-3A Tower E-3B
two circuits, as is nor- bottoms

mally expected. How- 24"


E-4A E-4B
ever, when operated
at relatively low rates, 18" 18"
a second, undesirable
steady state occurred, Ground level
with maldistribution be- FIGURE 1. Shown here are the deethanizer stripper A and B reboiler circits. The lower
tween the two circuits, reboiler in each circuit (E-4A or E-4B) is heated by hot naphtha, the upper reboiler (E-3A or
in which one circuit E-3B) is heated by high-pressure steam
was circulating while
the other remained full of liquid. This steady plant without any hardware modifications.
state persisted when tower feed rates were The desired steady state was established by
raised until the circulating reboiler reached an operation that, for a short period, gener-
its heat transfer limitation, still with the other ated higher liquid circulation and pressure
circuit full of liquid. drop through the reboiler circuits. Once es-
A variety of troubleshooting techniques tablished, the desired steady state persisted
including pressure-drop calculations, close when the operation was returned to normal.
design reviews, examination of operating
charts, and gamma scans led to a cor- Important lessons
rect diagnosis, which enabled debottleneck- A review of this detailed case teaches some
ing of the reboiler circuits and the entire gas very important lessons, discussed below:
30 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
With a parallel reboiler system, mal- RR

distribution between parallel circuits CL


does occur and can cause severe Bottom tray downcomer
bottlenecks (To the best of our knowl- 1 rectangular notch on this side of the seal pan
edge, this is the first time that such 2 rectangualr notches on this side of the seal pan
maldistribution is reported in the lit- Bottom tray downcomer
erature). 2 rectangualr notches on this side of the seal pan
1 rectangular notch on this
Pressure balances need to be consid- side of the seal pan
32" Min
ered at the design stage, not only for Bottom tray
downcomer 8"
the maximum design rates, but also Section E-E
for the minimum expected operation RR
Bottom of
seal pan Downcomer
rates
It is important to provide flexibility in CL CL

once-through reboiler systems that E E

will permit operation as a circulating


3'-0" 2'-3" 2'-6"

3"-0' 2'-3" 2'-6"


thermosiphon system, at least at low
rates
Good troubleshooting can provide RR RR Bottom-tray RR RR
90" seal pan
low-cost (in this case, no-cost) debot- 13" Baffle 4-6
tlenecking of an entire gas plant

20'-4"
20'-4"

6'-8" Baffle

Process description
Min
This newly built gas plant was bottle-
necked by its deethanizer stripper. The 24"
18"
tower bottleneck appeared in the re- Tower bottoms Vortex breaker
To rebuilders
Vortex breakers
boiler circuit. In early April 2014, the au-
thors company (which had no involve- ment by notched-bottom seal pans. FIGURE 2. As part of the deethanizer
ment in the tower or reboiler design, but As shown in Figure 2, the 8-in.-deep stripper tower base geometry, a preferen-
tial baffle divides the tower bottom into a
has extensive experience in distillation notches in the seal pans are located reboiler draw sump and a bottom product
design and troubleshooting), was re- right above the reboiler-draw compart- draw sump. All of the liquid from the trays
quested to assist with investigating the ment. There are no notches above the is directed into the reboiler draw sump via
a notch arrangement, while all the liquid
root cause of the bottleneck and to find bottom-draw compartment. The pur- returning from the reboilers is directed
ways to overcome it. pose is to feed all the bottom-tray liquid toward the bottom product draw sump via
A task force, including process and to the reboilers. cutouts in the reboiler return pipes
operation engineers from the operating The vapor-liquid mixture returning
company and Fluors distillation spe- from the thermosiphon reboilers enters
cialists, was created. The joint team above the bottoms-draw compartment
identified the root cause. Based on the via two opposite 24-in. nozzles. Each
root cause, a solution was successfully nozzle is equipped with a pipe that ex-
implemented. After this the deethanizer tends to close to the centerline of the
stripper and gas plant were returned tower and has a cutout that measures
to full operation, achieving the design 4 ft, 6 in. in the bottom quadrant. Both
rates. Described below is the trouble- cutouts are directed toward the bot-
shooting investigation that was carried toms-draw sump (Figures 1 and 2).
out, and the lessons learned. The purpose is to have all the reboiler-
The deethanizer stripper is a tower that return liquid enter the bottoms-draw
is 15 ft, 6 in. in diameter. It is equipped compartment, and to have none enter
with four-pass conventional valve trays the reboiler-draw compartment. The
with moving round valves. The tower vapor returning from the reboilers as-
base contains a preferential baffle that cends to the bottom tray, while the liquid
divides the bottom sump into a separate returning from the reboilers descends to
reboiler-draw compartment and a sepa- the bottoms-draw compartment.
rate bottoms-draw compartment. Liquid This design generates a once-through
leaving the bottom valve tray is diverted [1] thermosiphon reboiler system. Such
to the reboiler-draw compartment (Fig- a system intends to capture all of the
ure 1). From there it flows into a battery liquid leaving the bottom tray and feed
of four horizontal thermosiphon reboil- it directly to the reboiler. The reboiler-re-
ers. The liquid from the bottom tray is turn liquid is entirely drawn as bottoms
diverted to the reboiler-draw compart- product. None of the reboiler-return liq-

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 31


Operation __ (Design __)
Initial performance
Feed rate, bbl/h 2,100 (4,100) During the startup, the plant was at low
87F (105F) rates and to improve tower stability, it
was decided to take the steam out of re-
boiler E-3A. This was successful at cre-
ating a steady steam flow through the
E-3B reboiler circuit and provided tower
stability, but the plant has been unable
to re-establish flow through the E-3A/E-
4A set of reboilers ever since. For the
next six months or so, the E-3B/E-4B
368F
(342F) circuit did all the reboiling, while the
deethanizer-bottoms liquid circulation
had been difficult to establish through
0 lb/h 79,000 lb/h
(52,000 lb/h) (52,000 lb/h) the E-4A/E-3A circuit.
Figure 3 shows typical operating data
E-3A 308F 249F E-3B
(323F) (272F) 411F from six months after start up and com-
411F (417F) pares them to the design values. The
(417F) 1,300 bbl/h
E-4A Bottoms E-4B (1,800 bbl/h) zero-steam flowrate through E-3A and
1,250 bbl/h
407F (3600 bbl/h) 260F
the absence of significant tempera-
(306F) (306F) ture difference across the heating side
Ground level
of E-4A indicate no boiling and no sig-
nificant circulation through the A circuit.
FIGURE 3. This figure shows the deetha- uid is recycled back to the reboiler To maximize duty, steam to E-3B was
nizer stripper base, operation versus hence the name once-through. raised to the maximum, well above the
design. The zero-steam flowrate through
E-3A and the absence of significant tem-
Once-through systems can achieve design steam rate for this exchanger,
perature difference across the heating one full theoretical stage of separation, but still not high enough to make up
side of E-4A indicate no boiling and no if the trapout tray and draw pan do not the lost duty of E-3A. This restricted
significant circulation through the A circuit leak [1]. With the cold bottom-tray liq- the feed flowrate through the tower and
uid being fed to the reboiler, it can also bottlenecked the entire gas plant. There
maximize the reboiler temperature dif- was a need to get the stripper-bot-
ference and capacity. Reboil vapor is toms liquid to start flowing through the
limited to about 40% of the bottoms- E-4A/E-3A circuit.
product rate, due to the normal limi-
tation of 30% maximum vaporization Troubleshooting
(by weight) in thermosiphon reboilers Initial troubleshooting efforts focused on
[1]. This makes once-through ther- initiating flow through the A circuit by
mosiphon systems appropriate only inducing a gas lift. One possibility was
for low-boilup systems, such as strip- that the light components were stripped
pers. Many deethanizer-strippers use out of the A-circuit reboilers, leaving be-
once-through thermosiphon-reboiler hind heavy hydrocarbon liquid. Heating
systems. this heavy liquid may not have produced
This deethanizer stripper has four hor- enough vapor to initiate reboiler action.
izontal reboilers, arranged in two parallel Injecting a light gas, such as nitrogen,
circuits, A and B (Figure 1). In each cir- could possibly gas-lift the heavy liquid
cuit, the lower reboiler (E-4A or E-4B) is and initiate thermosiphon circulation.
heated by hot naphtha liquid, while the This technique has been successful in
upper reboiler (E-3A or E-3B) is heated the past for initiating circulation in liquid-
by high-pressure steam. In each circuit, full thermosiphon reboilers [24].
the naphtha and steam reboilers are A source of nitrogen was connected
designed to provide duties of 32 million to a bleeder valve immediately down-
Btu/h and 40 million Btu/h, respectively. stream of E-3A. Nitrogen was injected
On the boiling side, liquid to the re- for 46 hours in an attempt to provide
boilers is provided from the reboiler- lift and jump-start the thermosiphon
draw sump, via a 24-in. pipe that splits effect. This action was unsuccess-
into two 18-in. pipes, each going to ful in initiating circulation through the
one circuit. The reboiler effluent from A circuit.
each circuit returns to the tower via a This came as a surprise, as in other
24-in. line. reboilers [24], a similar action had been
32 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
successful. There were questions as to F Flowrate, Flowrate
bbl/h lb/h
whether enough nitrogen was applied, 2,200 50,000
whether it was applied at the correct 400 Naphtha to reboilers, F
point, and whether the liquid in the re- 2,000
40,000
boilers was just too heavy and needed Naphtha from E-4A, F
to be drained and replaced by fresh 350 1,800
30,000
liquid before the gas lift attempt. Ad- Steam to E-3B, lb/h
Naphtha from E-4B, F
dressing these problems would have 1,600
20,000
required some painful modifications or Steam to E-3A,
300 lb/h
operations with no assurance of suc- 1,400
10,000
cess. The validity of the theory that
heavy liquids in the A-circuit are the root 1,200
Stripper feed rate, bbl/h
0
cause was questioned. With these 250
Time 22:00 22:30 23:00 23:30 00:30 01:00
considerations in mind, the investigation 21:30 Day 1 00:00 Day 2

team decided to perform more trouble- Time, h

shooting before trying out a fix. the E-4A and B reboilers, the tem- FIGURE 4. Shown here are the process
One useful reference point was peratures of naphtha entering and data for the very initial operation of the
stripper-reboiler circuits. Before 23:00
process data from the very initial op- leaving were about 400F and 320F, hours, both circuits operated simultane-
eration of the stripper. The operating respectively. At time 22:40 hours, the ously and stably with the same steam
charts from shortly after initial start stripper feedrate plunged, steadying flows and naphtha temperature differ-
up (Figure 4), at a stripper feedrate of at about 1,200 bbl/h 40 minutes later. ences for each circuit. After 0:00 hour, the
steam rate to E-3A dropped and the tem-
about 1,700 barrel per hour (bbl/h), To improve stability, the plant manu- peratures of naphtha entering and leaving
show both the A and B circuits op- ally reduced the steam flowrate to E-3A, E-4A became the same, suggesting boiling
erating simultaneously and stably. to about 8,000 lb/h, with the steam rate and circulation in the circuit had stopped
Both E-3A and E-3B reboilers oper- to E-3B remaining at its previous value.
ated stably with a steam flowrate of The naphtha temperatures into and out
about 32,000 lb/h to each. For both of E-4A became the same, about 360F,

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 33


suggesting it had stopped heating. Once the latter steady state forms,
At the same time the temperature out- the steam that is still going in (the 8,000
let from E-4B decreased to about 260F, lb/h going to E-3A after midnight on the
suggesting that this reboiler was working second day, as shown in Figure 4) , will
harder than before. Both of these occur- strip the lights out of the near-stagnant
rences suggest that the A-circuit stopped liquid. Before long, heavy liquid will form
circulating. Early on the next day, the fee- in this circuit, and this liquid will be dif-
drate to the stripper rose again, to 1,500 ficult to boil. This situation will stabilize
bpl/h, but this time the A circuit remained this steady state and it will persist.
inactive. It was common practice to at- The proposed theory states that the
tempt to restart circulation by opening liquid level in the reboiler compart-
and closing the steam valve on the stalled ment would be very low, possibly ab-
set, but circulation remained stalled. sent, and will not approach the over-
This sequence of events suggests flow baffle. This can be easily tested
the possibility of the existence of two using gamma scans. The tower base
hydraulic steady states, with an easy was gamma scanned, both on the bot-
switchover from one to the other. This tom compartment side and on the re-
is likely to take place when the reboiler boiler compartments side. In addition,
pressure drop on the boiling side is low. neutron-backscatter scans were per-
formed to confirm or deny the gamma
Pressure drop scan results.
Calculations performed during the de- The gamma and neutron scans
sign by the engineering contractor that showed the following:
designed the circuits showed a total Nothing abnormal showed up on the
pressure drop of 1 psi for the exchang- inner active area scans for the bot-
ers in each circuit at design conditions. tom six trays. Other trays were not
The contractors calculated pressure- scanned
drop values were 0.4 psi and 1.3 psi Both the gamma and neutron scans
for the reboiler-liquid inlet line and the showed that the liquid level in the bot-
reboiler-return lines, respectively. The toms-draw compartment was 1012
total pressure drop is equivalent to 11 ft ft above the tangent line. This was
of liquid head. the same as the level indicated by the
Figure 1 shows the elevations of the level instrument
reboiler circuits. The diagram shows Both gamma and neutron scans had
that not much liquid head is required to difficulty finding a liquid level on the
overcome the pressure drop in the re- reboiler-draw compartment. There
boiler circuit. The liquid level in the re- definitely was no liquid level above
boiler draw compartment will therefore the bottom tangent line. The gamma
be near the bottom of the compartment, scans showed some absorption at
even at the design rates. the tangent line, about the same ab-
At the low rates, the pressure drop sorption as the froth on the trays, but
will be lower still, and the liquid level will this could have been due to the welds
drop further, possibly dropping out of at the tangent line. The neutron scans
the reboiler-draw compartment into the showed no liquid at all in the reboiler-
reboiler-liquid-inlet pipe. Further, at low draw compartment
boilup rates the bottom tray may weep, The absence of liquid level in the reboiler-
sending liquid directly into the bottom draw compartment gave strong support
draw compartment, and causing the liq- to the two steady-states theory.
uid level to be lower still.
At a low liquid head, fluids tend to Solution
form their favorite flow patterns. Two With the theory verified, the challenge
steady states can form: was now shifting from the steady state
One with operation of the two reboil- with the stagnant A reboilers, back to
ers simultaneously, as intended that of the two reboiler circuits operating
The other has all the boiling taking simultaneously.
place in one circuit, and the other In a circulating thermosiphon reboiler
circuit filling with liquid to the same (as distinct from a once-through thermo-
height as the liquid in the reboiler liq- siphon, such as the stripper reboilers),
uid inlet pipe increasing the liquid head in the tower
34 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
base generates more liquid circulation The plan was to raise the liquid level
through the reboiler circuit and reduces in the bottoms-draw compartment to
the fractional vaporization [4]. Consider- the level of the reboiler return, an in-
ing the pressure balance and assuming crease in height of about 20 ft. When
a constant heat duty, the higher liquid the level was first raised, it was con-
head supplied to the reboiler is matched trolled using the differential-pressure
by the additional friction head due to the transmitter. Subsequently, a pair of
enhanced liquid circulation rate plus the electronic pressure gages was added
additional static head due to a higher to the reboiler side of the column to
amount of liquid in the reboiler shell and monitor the level directly, and an ad-
outlet line. ditional gage was added to the prod-
Extending this reasoning to the
stripper reboilers, generating liquid
circulation and increasing the liquid
head in the reboiler-draw compart-
ment will raise the pressure drop
through the active reboiler circuit. INNOVATION
This higher pressure drop will induce
some of the liquid to follow the eas-
ier path (that is, the path with less
pressure drop) through the inactive
reboiler. Once this liquid is heated,
it will start boiling, and the thermosi-
phon will be established in the previ-
ously inactive circuit.
One way to generate circulation
and increase the level in the reboiler-
draw compartment is to raise the
level in the bottom-draw compart-
ment until it overflows the baffle, and
keep the bottom-draw compart-
ment full during the circulation. The
risk is that the liquid level may as-
cend to the trays and cause flooding
High performance

SUPERFRAC
and possible damage there. It is im-
portant to avoid excessive buildup
of liquid up the tower.
In principle, the level transmitter trays for challenging separations
can be watched during the operation
to avoid excessive liquid level. This
Delivering exceptional capacity AND eficiency for over 25 years.
was difficult in this deethanizer strip-
per. Since the reboiler-return pipe is SUPERFRAC trays are especially beneicial in applications requiring a large
only 2 feet above the baffle (Figure number of theoretical stages or where mass transfer eficiency is critical:
2), and the vapor from the reboiler
Increased capacity AND eficiency when revamping conventional trays
return blows downward, causing a
or minimized tower dimensions for new plants
frothy dispersion, the frothiness may
reduce the specific gravity and lead Complete access for maintenance inspections without needing to
to an optimistically low level mea- remove trays
surement. Also, the high tap of the
level transmitter is just less than 2
YOU CAN RELY ON US.
feet above the baffle, which may
make it difficult to see when the level
rises toward the trays. Fortunately,
there is a differential-pressure trans- United States (316) 828-5110 | Canada (905) 852-3381 | Italy +39-039-6386010 | Singapore +65-6831-6500
For a complete list of our ofices, visit our Web site.
mitter across the stripper that comes www.koch-glitsch.com
from the upper tap of the level trans- For related trademark information, visit http://www.koch-glitsch.com/trademarks.
mitter and therefore can monitor This technology is protected by one or more patents in the USA. Other foreign patents may be relevant.

any accumulation of liquid above


the upper tap. Circle 11 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-11

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 35


uct outlet line to monitor the level on bypasses the reboiler side of the baffle.
the bottoms-draw side of the baffle. In The bottom tray is an active tray. It re-
order to avoid damage due to entrain- mains unclear whether the tray weeps
ment of liquid through the trays the dif- enough liquid to cause the problem, or
ferential pressure across the bottom whether some of the liquid directed to
trays was closely monitored. the reboiler-draw side of the baffle falls
To raise the level on the reboiler side of into the bottoms-draw side of the tower
the baffle, the bottoms-draw side liquid base. To fix this in the future, the bottom
was overflowed to the reboiler side, by tray will be replaced with a total trapout
reducing the bottom-product flowrate. tray to ensure all bottoms liquid must
The level rose until it reached the top of pass through the reboilers.
the baffle when it "flat lined" as it over- Until the plant gets to an opportunity
flowed. to install the chimney tray, the reboiler
After one hour of overflowing the continues to stall periodically, so raising
baffle, the level had increased on the re- the liquid level has become a standard
boiler side by 13 ft. At that time, the fol- procedure that has been executed sev-
lowing two process indications provided eral times since by the operations team,
evidence that the A side reboilers were to regain lost reboiler circulation.
starting to circulate liquid:
1. A rapid decrease in steam consumed Lessons learned
by the 3B reboiler suggested a de- The investigation described here high-
crease in liquid flow to the B side re- lights the importance of good trouble-
boilers; and shooting and problem diagnosis for
2. A rapid decrease in 4A hot-side overcoming bottlenecks. In our case,
outlet temperature suggested an in- pressure-drop calculations, close de-
crease in duty in the 4A reboiler sign reviews, detailed examination

At low pressure drops, parallel once-through thermosiphon circuits may switch from
their intended steady-state with even split between the circuits to an unintended steady-
state with uneven split between the circuits. Reduced heat transfer and/or instability
may result.

Steam was quickly opened to 3A to of operating charts, and conducting


ensure we maintained A side reboiler cir- gamma scans led to the correct diag-
culation. Almost immediately, even split nosis, which enabled debottlenecking
and duties were confirmed between the an entire gas plant with no hardware
A and B side reboilers. The bottoms- modifications.
outlet flow was increased to stop over- Maldistribution between parallel re-
flowing the baffle, and the bottoms level boiler circuits has received little atten-
was returned to normal. tion in the literature, with no published
The 13-ft level increase was probably case studies identified by Kisters survey
not enough to get the level of weathered [2]. To the best of our knowledge, this
liquid (the liquid that was sitting in the A is the first time this type of experience
reboiler circuit for a lengthy period) up to has been reported. This maldistribution
the reboiler-return nozzle on the tower. is especially severe at low rates, when
But the fresh liquid that had entered the the pressure drops in the reboiler cir-
reboiler as the level was being raised cuits are low. Due to the low pressure
provided enough vaporization to gas-lift drop, the fluids find their favorite path-
the weathered naphtha into the tower ways and steady states, and can easily
and start the circulation. swing from one steady state to another
The column remains prone to losing promoting instability. With parallel
reboiler duty. This is believed to be be- reboiler circuits, careful analysis of the
cause a portion of the bottom-tray liquid pressure balance both at the normal-
36 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
and reduced-rate operation is impor- References
tant, and should be performed at the 1. Fractionation Research Inc., Design Practices Committee,
Reboiler Circuits for Tray Columns, Chem. Eng., January
design stage. This case demonstrates 2011, p. 26.
that increasing the pressure drop in 2. Kister, H.Z., Distillation Troubleshooting, Wiley-Inter-
these circuits can help route the fluids to science, 2006.
3. Kister, H.Z., T.C. Hower, Jr., P.R. de M. Freitas, and J.
the preferred pathways and counter this Nery, Problems and Solutions in Demethanizers with
maldistribution. Interreboilers, Proc. 8th Ethylene Producers Conf,. New
Orleans, La., 1996.
Baffled systems have their benefits 4. Kister, H.Z., Distillation Operation, McGraw-Hill, N.Y.,
[1], but can also generate or amplify 1990.
hydraulic problems; thus they need to
be designed carefully. In the case of the Author
deethanizer stripper, the baffle was far Henry Z. Kister is a senior fellow and
taller than it needed to be. Had it been director of fractionation technology at
Fluor Corp. (3 Polaris Way, Aliso Viejo,
even a couple of feet shorter, it would CA 92625; Phone +1-949-349-4679;
have been easy to raise the liquid level in Email: henry.kister@fluor.com). He has
the bottoms compartment above it and over 30 years experience in design,
troubleshooting, revamping, field con-
achieve better operational flexibility. sulting, control and startup of fraction-
It is important to provide flexibility ation processes and equipment. He is
the author of three books, the distilla-
when designing once-through thermo- tion equipment chapter in Perrys Handbook, and more than
siphon circuits. As pointed out [1,2,4] 100 articles, and has taught the IChemE-sponsored
they can be quite troublesome, and Practical Distillation Technology course more than 450
times. A recipient of several awards, Kister obtained his B.E.
adding simple features that can convert and M.E. degrees from the University of New South Wales in
them temporarily to circulating thermosi- Australia. He is a Fellow of IChemE and AIChE, member of the
phon circuits can go a long way toward National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and serves on the
FRI Technical Advisory and Design Practices Committees.
easing startups and avoiding process
bottlenecks. n
Edited by Suzanne Shelley

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Circle 16 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-16
Cover Story
Part 2

Dry-Tray Pressure Drop


of Sieve Trays Revisited
Data points from literature are refined into a single correlation defining dry-tray pressure
drop in sieve trays

T
Daniel R. he sieve tray has been in
Summers the marketplace as a dis-
Sulzer Chemtech USA tillation device for many
decades. It has been
Tony J. Cai used extensively on distillation tray
Fractionation Research, equipment worldwide as a highly
Inc. efficient vapor- and liquid-contact-
ing device (Figure 1). Many people
IN BRIEF have previously examined dry-tray
pressure drop data for sieve tray
DEVELOPING THE
decks, including the authors of this
FOUNDATION
article. Ref. 1 is an article correlat-
AN UPDATED EQUATION ing the data from literature into an
equation. However, Ref. 1 leaves
the door open for additional re-
finement of this correlation for
those applications that might have
high ratios of tray thickness (TT) to
hole diameter (Dp) for instance, FIGURE 1. Sieve trays are frequently used in distillation operations due to
tiny-hole applications in aluminum, their efficient liquid and vapor contacting capabilities
as has been practiced in air sep-
arations processes. Ref. 2 is a recent pre- tray pressure drop. But more importantly,
sentation on this subject, covering the use its magnitude can tell an experienced de-
of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for signer whether he or she is near flood, is
very thick trays. This article combines Refs. at turndown, has a stable tray, or may be
1 and 2 into a single definitive correlation for approaching spray fluidization. Finally, it can
the dry-tray pressure drop of sieve trays. An be used to understand the overall behav-
improved correlation with the proper func- ior/performance of a tray. Dry-tray pres-
tionality for the dry-tray pressure drop of sure drop is a fundamental building block
sieve trays is presented here. It incorporates of most other hydraulic parameters and its
the effects of tray thickness, sieve-hole di- accuracy (or inaccuracy) has far-reaching
ameter and open area, and is compared to consequences.
experimental data. The dry-tray pressure drop hydraulic pa-
rameter is quite a simple concept. For fixed-
Developing the foundation opening devices, the dry-tray pressure drop
As was stated in Ref. 1: Dry-tray pressure can be reduced from Bernoullis principles
drop is an extremely important hydraulic pa- and takes on the form of Equation (1) below.
rameter that aids the tray designer in many
different ways. Obviously, it is one of the Pdry = 12 V (VH/ Cv)2 / (2gC W) (1)
major contributing parameters in the overall
38 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
FIGURE 2. Data from Ref. 1 necessitated the creation of a maxima in the development of the
pressure-drop correlation, but other data did not support this conclusion
Orifice coefficient data from Ref. 1
1

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Ref. 5

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0.5
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
TT/Dp
0.8 1 1.2 Available in 4 weeks
Where:
Pdry = Dry-tray pressure drop, in. of water
VH = Hole velocity, ft/s
3
V = Vapor density, lb/ft
Cv = Hole (orifice) discharge coefficient
3
W = Water density, 62.4 lb/ft
gC = Acceleration of gravity, 32.2 ft/s2

If one combines all the constants from Equation 1 into a single constant
Cp, the equation becomes simplified, as shown in Equations (2) and (3).

Pdry = Cp (VH 2) V (2)

Cp = 1/ (334.76 Cv2) (3)

The previous work in Ref. 1 defined a new correlation to handle the com-
plexities of Cp with respect to open area, tray thickness and hole diameter.
However, two data points forced the author to make the correlation have
a maxima at a TT/Dp ratio of about 0.35, as seen in Figure 2. This max-
ima was never discovered or observed previously by anyone dealing with
this topic.
With the presentation of Ref. 2, it became obvious that this maxima

Orifice coefficient with additional data


1

0.9

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0.8
Ref. 1 advanced mixing technology:
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Ref. 4
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0.5
0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00
TT/Dp
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FIGURE 3. The consideration of additional literature data led to the sigmoidal function shown here
Circle 09 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-09

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 39


New K equation that this point is for smooth openings
1.1 and was operated at very low Reyn-
olds numbers. Again, this data point
cannot be supported. Therefore, Figure
1 3 has purposefully omitted these two
data points.
The new curve is now a typical sigmoid
function that has the classic S shape [6].
0.9 Selected dry-tray pressure drop data used
in the development of the new dry-tray
K

pressure drop correlation [2, 3, 4, 7] are


0.8 Ref. 1 summarized in Appendix 1, which is avail-
Ref. 4 able with the online version of this article
Ref. 3 at www.chemengonline.com. For the pur-
Ref. 2 poses of this article, FRI has allowed the
0.7 Correlation use of one of the data points from Ref. 3
that helps to fill in the gap at a TT/Dp ratio
of 0.6.
0.6
0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80 2.00 An updated equation
TT/Dp
As was used in Ref. 1, the open-area ef-
FIGURE 4. A comparison of literature data was incorrect. Figure 3 shows the fect on the orifice coefficient is reflected
with the correlation for the open-area data from both Ref. 1 and Ref. 2. One in the term K, as defined in Equation (4)
effect on orifice coefficients (K) given in
Equations (4) and (5) shows a good fit
can readily see that a different cor- and first established by Kolodzie and
relation (with no maxima) needed to Van Winkle [8]. The current authors
be developed. found no data to support the need for
First, however, the two extrane- any revision to this equation. However,
ous data points from Ref. 1 needed to the K equation itself needed to be up-
be dispelled. The first is the rightmost dated. The new form of the sigmoidal K
data point from Fractionation Research equation is given by Equation (5).
Inc. (FRI; Stillwater, Okla.; www.fri.org)
shown in Figure 2. This is a 1959 data K = CV (Dp/P)0.10 (4)
point from Run no. 36 of Ref. 4 and
cannot be reproduced today. Since K = 0.997 {0.34 /[1.0 + (4.925TT/Dp)3.582]}
then, FRI has made a number of dry- (5)
tray pressure drop measurements in a Where:
simulator with thicker trays [3], and as Dp = Hole diameter, in.
a result, the authors can no longer sup- TT = Tray thickness, in.
port this data point. The work in Ref. 3 is P = Pitch (center-to-center distance be-
proprietary to FRI until 30 years after the tween holes), in.
FIGURE 5. The new correlation compares report is written. The other data point is This equation, when compared to
well with experimental data from literature from Ref. 5, and the authors discovered the data collection, is shown in Figure
Parity plot
4. This equation is only good for hole
6.0 Reynolds numbers greater than 4,000.
For most applications this will be true.
Keep in mind, however, that when the
5.0
hole Reynolds number is low, the dry-
Calculated dry pressure drop, in. water

tray pressure drop is also very low and


4.0 the accuracy of its value becomes in-
significant in comparison to the total
3.0 Data
tray pressure drop.
Applying the improved K equation to
15% error
the aforementioned data, and limiting
2.0 Parity those data to open areas that are 20%
or less of the active area, Figure 5 was
1.0 generated. This figure clearly shows
that the improved correlation is accu-
rate by keeping the data points within
0.0
0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00
a reasonable error band.
Observed dry pressure drop, in. water In conclusion, an improved and de-
40 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
finitive equation for dry-tray pressure chemical process equipment design, fluid dynamic anal-
ysis, structural analysis and hydraulic modeling. His
drop in sieve trays is generated. This main work at FRI includes project planning and execu-
equation matches, with mean abso- tion, model development, membership development and
lute relative error of 10.6%, data from training, safety and joint research with technical collabo-
rators. He serves as a member of the editorial boards of
four different sources. This equation Chemical Engineering Research and Design and Chemi-
can be used for all commercial sieve- cal Industry and Engineering Progress. He has been co-
tray applications, provided that the chairing the Distillation and Separation Session of the
AIChE Southwest Conference since 2011. He is also an
holes are punched from the top in the adjunct faculty member at Oklahoma State University.
downward direction. Cai holds B.S.Ch.E. and M.S.Ch.E. degrees from Tianjin
University and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from
Edited by Mary Page Bailey Oklahoma State University.

See the online version of this arti-


cle at www.chemengonline.
com to view the data in Appendix 1.

References
1. Summers, D.R., Dry Tray Pressure Drop of Sieve Trays, WEFTEC is the one event for professionals, industry experts,
Chem. Eng., June 2009, pp. 3639.
and the most innovative companies from around the world.
2. Li, X.P., Whiteley, J.R., Resetarits, M.R. and Cai, T.J.,
CFD Simulation of Thick Sieve Tray Dry Tray Pressure Learn from the very best thought-leaders in water quality.
Drops, 2015 AIChE Spring Meeting, Kister Distillation
Symposium, paper 206a.
Attending WEFTEC connects you to the pulse of the water
3. Cai, T.J. and Resetarits, M.R., Thick Sieve Tray Dry
Pressure Drops, FRI Topical Report No. 195, 2013. quality sector and provides the tools, knowledge, and know-
4. Clark, D.K. and Miller, J.D., FRI Topical Report No. 20, how for professional success.
Oct.1959.
5. Biddulph, M.W and Thomas, C.P., Effect of Liquid
Surface Tension on Small Hole Distillation Sieve Tray
Pressure Drop, AIChE Journal, Vol. 41, No. 4, pp.
819827, 1995.
6. Von Seggern, D., CRC Standard Curves and Surfaces
with Mathematics, 2nd ed. Boca Raton, Fla., CRC
Press, 2007.
7. Sulzer Chemtech Laboratory Data 19931998, pro-
prietary information.
8. Kolodzie, P.A. and Van Winkle, M., Discharge Coeffi-
cients through Perforated Plates, AIChE Journal, Vol.
3, pp. 305312,1957.
REGISTER NOW
Authors
Dan Summers is the tray tech-
nology manager for Sulzer Chem-
tech USA, Inc. (1 Sulzer Way,
Tulsa, OK 74131; Phone: 918-
447-7654; Email: dan.sum-
mers@sulzer.com). After gradu-
ating from SUNY at Buffalo in
1977, he started his career with
Union Carbides Separations De-
sign Group in West Virginia. He
has since worked for Union Carbide Linde (now Praxair),
UOP, Stone & Webster (now Technip), Nutter Engineer-
ing and Sulzer Chemtech. He is the author of over 60
papers on distillation and is a listed inventor on two U.S.
patents. Summers is a member of FRIs Design Prac-
tices Committee and was the chair of that committee
for 12 years. He is also the current chair of AIChEs
Separations Division Area 2a Distillation and Absorp-
tion. He is a registered professional engineer in both
New York and Oklahoma and is a Fellow of AIChE. He
was also the recipient in 2016 of the prestigious AIChE
Gerhold Award for outstanding work in the Application
of Chemical Separations Technology.
Tony Cai is the chief scientist MCCORMICK PLACE CHICAGO
at Fractionation Research, Inc CONFERENCE SEP 30 OCT 4, 2017
(FRI; 424 S. Squires St., Suite
200, Stillwater, OK 74074; EXHIBITION OCT 2 4, 2017
Phone: 405-385-0354; Email: http://bit.ly/WEFTEC2017
cai@fri.org; Website: www.fri.
org). Cai has over 30 years of
experience in the areas of
mass transfer and separations, Circle 21 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-21

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 41


Feature Report
Mixing:
Impeller Performance
in Stirred Tanks
Characterizing mixer impellers on the basis of power, flow, shear and efficiency
Richard K.

M
ixing has been defined as the
Grenville NOMENCLATURE
application of mechanical mo- A Constant in Equation (30)
and Jason J. tion in order to create fluid dy-
Giacomelli ADIS Discharge area for primary flow from impeller
namic effects that achieve a de- D Impeller diameter
Philadelphia Mixing
sired process result [1]. The process result d32 Sauter mean droplet size
Solutions Ltd.
is the objective of the vessel operator and Fl Flow or pumping number (= Q/(ND3))
Gustavo Padron
and David A. R.
will be a transformation of the ingredients K Ratio (= MAX/)
Brown fed to the vessel into a product. The goal kMAX Maximum kinetic energy in trailing vortex
BHR Group of the equipment supplier will be to under- l0 Diameter of trailing vortex
stand the role of mixing in promoting the N Impeller rotational speed
transformation and choosing an impeller P Power
IN BRIEF that will create the appropriate fluid-dy- Po Power number [= P/(N3D5)]
namic effects to do this. Q Flow rate generated by impeller
TURBULENCE Processes carried out in stirred tanks can be R Impeller radius
IMPELLER GEOMETRIES generally divided into the following two classes: r Radial position in impeller discharge for estimating
Those relying on flow generated by the velocity gradient
HYDRAULIC EFFICIENCY Re Impeller Reynolds number (= ND2/)
impeller creating motion throughout the
SHEAR T Vessel diameter
fluid, such as blending of pigments into
U Mean velocity in impeller discharge (= Q/ADIS)
PROCESS RESULTS a resin or emulsion in paint manufacture
VTIP Impeller tip speed
where homogeneity of the vessel contents
TRAILING VORTEX vH High velocity in impeller discharge for estimating
is critical to product quality velocity gradient
APPLICATIONS Those relying on shear to reduce vL Low velocity in impeller discharge for estimating
CONCLUSIONS
the size of a second dispersed phase, velocity gradient
whether gas bubbles, liquid droplets or w Projected blade height
particles, such as a hydrogenation reactor x Ratio of impeller to trailing vortex diameters (= D/l0)
where smaller bubbles provide more sur- y Distance (in definition of shear rate)
face area for mass transfer from the gas Constant (= vH/VTIP)
into the liquid phase Constant (= vL/VTIP)
Impellers are often described qualitatively . Time-averaged velocity gradient
Power input per mass of fluid in vessel
as, among others, high flow, high shear or
MAX Local energy dissipation rate in trialing vortex
high efficiency, and the choice of equip- Efficiency defined as mass of fluid pumped per unit
ment required to achieve the process result energy input by impeller
most efficiently is made on this vague basis. Shear rate constant
This article describes how the performance Liquid density
characteristics of impellers commonly used Efficiency defined as kinetic energy of fluid divided
in stirred tanks can be quantified, thereby by mechanical energy input by impeller
enabling engineers to make educated deci- Constant (= rH/R)
sions about which ones to use in order to Constant (= rL/R)
achieve their desired process results. Subscripts
AX Axial PBT Pitched-blade tur-
Turbulence HYDFL Hydrofoil bine
Turbulent flow is characterized by the pres- IMP Impeller RD Radial
ence of random fluctuations in velocity, so- HYDR Hydraulic RUSH Rushton
called eddies, that are superimposed on the MECH Mechanical
mean, time-averaged flow. There will be a
42 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
Credit for ag: PMSL

a. Narrow-blade hydrofoil b. Wide-blade hydrofoil c. Anti-ragging hydrofoil d. Pitched-blade turbine


Credit for h: www.indiamart.com

e. Flat-blade turbine f. Rushton turbine g. Smith turbine h. High-shear disperser blade

FIGURE 1. Four general classes of impellers are used in stirred tanks operating at low to medium viscosities in the turbulent regime. These impellers primarily
generate: axial flow (a, b, c); mixed flow (d), radial flow (e, f, g) or dispersion or de-agglomeration (h)

range of eddy time and length scales associated with Pitched-blade turbines have flat blades that are usu-
a particular flow field. The size of the largest eddies will ally angled at 45 deg, although shallower and steeper
be on the order of the size of the equipment generat- angles are sometimes used.
ing the flow (for example, the blade width of an impel- 3. Radial flow. These impellers generate a strong ra-
ler). The size of the smallest eddies is the Kolmogorov dial component of velocity directed at the vessel wall. A
length scale. The eddies also have a lifetime, with the pitched blade turbine with 90-deg blade angle generates
larger eddies existing for a longer period than the small radial flow and is commonly called a flat-blade turbine
ones. Understanding the role turbulence plays in mixing (Figure 1e).
processes is critical to successful design and scaleup [2]. Impellers used for processes requiring dispersion of
gas bubbles also generate a primarily radial flow, but
Impeller geometries have blades attached to a disk. The Rushton (Figure 1f)
There are four general classes of impellers used in stirred and Smith (Figure 1g) turbines are commonly used for
tanks operating in low to medium viscosity fluids in the these processes. The disk ensures that bubbles fed into
turbulent regime (Re > 104): the vessel beneath the impeller must flow through the
1. Axial flow. The primary flow generated by an axial-flow blades where the local shear breaks them up, creating
impeller is directed down toward the base of the vessel. high interfacial area for mass transfer. The Rushton tur-
Hydrofoils with narrow or wide blades are in this category. bine is generally considered to be high-shear [4].
Hydrofoils have profiled blades that may be narrow 4. High-speed dispersers. These impellers look like
like an airplane wing (Figure 1a) or wide like a marine circular-saw blades with alternating teeth angled up and
propeller (Figure 1b). These impellers were developed down (Figure 1h). They operate at high rotational and tip
to generate the same velocity profile as a propeller, but speeds and are used almost exclusively for processes
to be fabricated rather than cast to reduce the impellers that require significant size reduction, such as dispersion
weight and cost. They are also easier to install since and de-agglomeration of dry powder when preparing a
they can be supplied as a hub and blades that are as- slurry from liquid and a dry powder.
sembled inside the vessel [3]. These impellers are gen-
erally considered to be low-shear [4]. Hydraulic efficiency
An anti-ragging hydrofoil (Figure 1c) is used in waste- Impellers in stirred tanks are machines that move fluid;
water applications. It has blades that are swept-back essentially they are pumps. Like pumps, their efficiency
preventing build-up of fibrous matter, which is commonly can be defined and calculated. The hydraulic efficiency
present in municipal wastewater, on the leading edge of of a pump is the ratio of the kinetic energy of the flowing
the blades. fluid to the mechanical energy input by the impeller.
2. Mixed flow. These impellers generate both axial and The mechanical power input by an impeller in a stirred
radial components of velocity and the distribution be- vessel is calculated from the following equation (Note: all
tween the two can be controlled by adjusting the impeller nomenclature are defined in the box on p. 46):
diameter to vessel diameter ratio. Pitched-blade turbines
(Figure 1d) are in this category. PMECH = Po N 3 D5 (1)

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 43


60%
Pitched-blade turbine Fl N D 3 Fl D
Narrow hydrofoil U= = N D (5)
50%
Wide hydrofoil w D w
Flat-blade turbine
Rushton
The energy dissipation rate, or power, of the flowing
40%
High-shear disperser sawtooth fluid is the product of the flowrate and the head that the
30%
Wide hydrofoil pump develops:
Narrow hydrofoil
HYDR, %

Pitched-blade turbine
20% Anti-ragging turbine PHYDR = Q H (6)

10% Where:
2
U
0% H= (7)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 2
Po, dimensionless
FIGURE 2. This graph plots the hydraulic efficiency, HYDR, versus the power Combining Equations (2), (4), (6) and (7), for axial flow
number for various impellers impellers:
2
Po is the impellers power number and it is a drag coef- 4Fl 8Fl 3 (8)
PHYDR = Fl N D 3 N D = 2
N 3 D5
ficient that is determined by the geometry of the impeller 2
(blade width, blade angle, number of blades and so on.).
The primary flow generated by an impeller is calculated PHYDR 8 Fl 3 N 3 D 5 8 Fl 3
from Equation (2): AX = = 2 = 2 (9)
PMECH Po N 3 D5 Po
Q = Fl N D 3 (2)
Similarly, combining Equations (2), (5), (6) and (7), for
Fl is the impellers flow, or pumping number. radial-flow impellers:
Both the power and flow numbers are measured ex-
2
perimentally and typical values for commonly used im- Fl D
pellers are given in Table 1. PHYDR = Fl N D 3 N D
The average velocity in the impeller discharge can be 2 w (10)
2 3 2
calculated from Equation (3): Fl D 3 5
D = N D
2 2 w
Q
U= (3)
ADIS PHYDR
RD = =
PMECH 2
ADIS is the area through which the primary flow is pumped. (11)
2 2
For axial-flow impellers, this is a disk with diameter equal 1 D Fl 3 N 3 D5 1 D Fl 3
to the impeller diameter and for radial-flow impellers it is = 2 3 5
=
the wall of a cylinder with diameter equal to the impeller
2 w Po N D 2 2 w Po
diameter and height equal to the blade width.
For axial-flow impellers: The hydraulic efficiency, , is plotted against the im-
pellers power numbers in Figure 2. The circular symbols
Fl N D 3 4Fl represent data measured by the FMP (Fluid Mixing Pro-
U= = N D
( 4) D 2 (4) cesses) consortium [5] using laser-Doppler anemometry
and the diamonds represent data measured in the PMSL
laboratory using particle-image velocimetry. The data are
For radial-flow impellers: in agreement showing that measurement technique has
no effect on the values of hydraulic efficiency calculated.
The hydrofoils are the most efficient impellers followed
TABLE 1. TYPICAL VALUES OF Po, Fl AND x FOR COMMON by the pitched-blade turbines, then the radial flow flat-
IMPELLERS blade and Rushton turbines. The high-shear disperser
Impeller Power number Flow number x = D / l0 impeller is the least efficient, with a hydraulic efficiency of
Narrow-blade hydrofoil 0.30 0.52 17 less than 1%. The difference in efficiency within a class of
Wide-blade hydrofoil 0.70 0.66
impellers is a result of the impeller to tank diameter ratio.
A larger impeller is more efficient and this definition of
Pitched-blade turbine 1.50 0.80 16
hydraulic efficiency does not take this into account.
Flat-blade turbine 3.00 0.80 An alternative definition of efficiency has been pro-
v

Rushton turbine 5.00 0.65 12 posed by Fort and others [6]. This is the mass of fluid
pumped per unit of energy input by an impeller:
HSD-Sawtooth 0.10 0.05 12
44 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
0.5
Q Fl N D 3 Fl (12)
Pitched-blade turbine
HYDR = = 3 5
= 2
Narrow hydrofoil
PMECH Po N D Po ( N D ) 0.4
Wide hydrofoil
Flat-blade turbine
Rushton
High-shear disperser sawtooth
0.3 Wide hydrofoil

HYDR, kg/J
This quantity has units of kilogram of fluid pumped per Narrow hydrofoil
Pitched-blade turbine
Joule of energy input by the impeller. Anti-ragging turbine
The power input per unit mass of fluid, for a vessel 0.2
where depth is equal to vessel diameter, can be calcu-
lated from: 0.1

Po N 3 D5 4 Po N 3 D 5
= = (13) 0

( 4) T3 T3 0.2 0.3 0.4


D/T, dimensionless
FIGURE 3. Shown here is a plot of the hydraulic efficiency, HYDR, versus
0.5 0.6

Re-arranging for impeller speed: impeller-to-vessel-diameter ratio


where vH and vL are the high and low velocities in the
13
T3 gradient and rH and rL are the radial positions corre-
N= (14) sponding to the locations where these velocities were
4Po D 5 measured. Since the velocities are normalized by the
Substituting Equation (14) into Equation (12) gives the impeller tip speed and the radial positions by the impeller
following: radius, Equation (16) can be re-written as follows:
23
Fl 4 4Po D 5
HYDR = =
=
( ) VTIP
=
VTIP
Po D 2 T3 (17)
23
(15) ( ) R R
43
Fl D 23
= 1.175
Po 2 3 T
( T) Values of , , , and are given in Table 2. Also
the ratio of / HYDFL is shown and, at equal tip speed
The hydraulic efficiency data plotted in Figure 2 are and impeller diameter the Rushton generates the high-
replotted in Figure 3 using the new definition from Equa- est shear rate followed by the pitched-blade turbine and
tion (15) with a power per mass of 1 W/kg and vessel then the hydrofoil.
diameter of 1 m. The effect of impeller diameter is now Engineers are concerned with the power drawn by
taken into account and large diameter impellers (D/T the impeller since this determines the size of the agitator
0.5) are more efficient than smaller ones (D/T 0.3), needed to achieve the desired process result. Equation
pumping approximately twice the mass of fluid per unit (13) can be rearranged to express the power input by
of energy input. the impeller per unit mass of fluid in terms of tip speed:

Shear 3 2
In any flowing system, the shear rate is the time-aver-
4 VTIP D (18)
= 4
Po
aged velocity gradient [7]. T T
Oldshue [3] has compared the time-averaged veloc-
ity gradients in the discharge of a hydrofoil and pitched- The 3 term must be introduced because VTIP = ND.
blade and Rushton turbines to show that the Rushton Comparing different impellers of equal diameter at the
generates higher shear than the pitched-blade, which same scale:
generates higher shear than the hydrofoil. This has be-
come the conventional wisdom in the mixing field. VTIP Po 1 3 (19)
Figure 4 shows the mean velocity profiles for a hydro-
foil (in green) and pitched-blade turbine (in red), which Comparing any impeller with the hydrofoil:
were measured using particle-image velocimetry in the
PMSL laboratory. The dashed lines show the average IMP IMP VIMP
velocity gradient in the discharge. Figure 5 shows the = (20)
mean velocity profile for the Rushton turbine and, again, HYDFL HYDFL VHYDFL
the dashed lines show the average velocity gradient in
the discharge. The shear rate is described by the follow- Substituting Equation (19) into Equation (20):
ing equation: 13
v v IMP IMP PoHYDFL
= H L (16) = (21)
rH rL HYDFL HYDFL PoIMP

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 45


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Circle 05 on p. 62 or go to adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-05
TABLE 2: MEAN VELOCITY PROFILE SHEAR RATES the Rushton should create the smallest droplets
Impeller /HYDFL /HYDFL
and the hydrofoil, the largest, with the pitched-
at equal VTIP at equal blade turbines falling somewhere between these
Narrow-blade hydrofoil 0.25 0.14 0.80 0.16 0.17 1.00 1.00
two. In fact, the hydrofoil creates smaller droplets
than the Rushton and two pitched-blade turbines
Pitched-blade turbine 0.35 0.07 0.65 0.12 0.53 3.11 1.91
and the droplets created by the turbines are in-
Rushton turbine 0.60 0.16 0.12 0.04 5.50 24.4 9.55 distinguishable experimentally. This result has also
been observed by Pacek and others [9].
Table 2 also shows the ratio of the shear rates when There is another geometrical property of impellers
the impellers operate at equal power input per mass. that determines how they create the fluid dynamic ef-
Taking power numbers from Table 1, the ranking of the fect that achieves this desired process result. This
impellers does not change. Therefore, whether com- is the trailing vortices that form at the tip of the impel-
pared at equal tip speed or power input the Rushton ler blades.
turbine generates the highest shear rate followed by the
pitched-blade turbine then the hydrofoil. This ranking Trailing vortex
can be tested against a process result that is dependent As the impeller moves through the fluid, the pressure on
on shear, namely the break-up of droplets to create a the leading face of the blade is higher than on the back.
liquid-liquid dispersion. The high- and low-pressure zones meet at the tip of the
blade and the fluid moves from the high- to low-pressure
Process result region creating the trailing vortex. This phenomenon can
Mass transfer between two immiscible liquid phases, with often be observed on airplane wings [10, 11].
or without reaction, is an important process result. The in- In a stirred tank, the velocity and size of the vortices
terfacial area available for mass transfer is proportional to can be measured using laser-Doppler or particle-image
the volume fraction of the dispersed phase and inversely velocimetry, then the kinetic energy and energy dissipa-
proportional to the Sauter mean droplet size [8]. tion rate (the local power input per mass) can be cal-
If the dispersion is agitated for a long period of time culated. The kinetic energy of the trailing vortex is often
(several hours), an equilibrium droplet size is achieved non-dimensionalized by dividing by the impeller tip speed
that is stable in the mixing environment in which the squared. Grenville and others [12] have shown that for
droplets are being formed. This means that there is an impellers with blades:
equilibrium between the forces breaking-up the droplets kMAX
and the forces resisting break-up resulting from the inter- 2
= 0.104 Po1 2 (22)
facial tension between the two liquids and the viscosity of
VTIP
the dispersed phase liquid. Where VTIP = N.D.
Figure 6 shows the Sauter mean droplet size plotted The standard deviation for this correlation is 10%.
versus the average power input per unit mass for Rush- The maximum energy dissipation rate within the vortex
ton, two pitched-blade turbines, with blades angled at is given by the following equation [13]:
45 and 60 deg, a hydrofoil and a high-shear disperser 32
kMAX
impeller. The experiments were carried out with low vis- MAX = A (23)
cosity silicone oil as the dispersed phase and at a very l0
low concentration so that the effect of coalescence on l0 is a length scale related to the flow near the impeller
the droplet size can be ignored. and it is a fraction of the impeller diameter. Substituting
If the hydraulic efficiency and shear rate comparison Equation (22) into Equation (23) and setting l0 = D/x and
quantify the performance characteristics of the impel- A = 1:
lers, when compared at the same power input per mass,
= 1.04 x Po3 4 N 3 D 2
MAX
(24)
r/R, %
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% The standard deviation for this correlation is 15%.
0%

5%
Where measurements have been made, typical val-
Hydrofoil
ues of x are given in Table 1. Generally, the scale of
10% Pitched-blade turbine the trailing vortex for the Rushton and pitched-blade
v/VTIP, %

15% turbines is equal to one-half of the projected height


20% of the blade at its tip. For hydrofoils the scale of the
trailing vortex is equal to the projected height of the
25%
blade at its tip.
30% Equations (13) and (24) can be combined to show that
35% the ratio of the maximum energy dissipation rate to the
40% average power input per mass, K, is:
FIGURE 4. This graph shows a plot of the mean velocity profiles for pitched-
blade turbine and hydrofoil impellers

48 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017


25%

MAX 1.04 x Po3 4 N 3 D 2 T3 20%


K= = = 15%
Po N 3 D 5 4 10%
3 (25)
T3 x T 5%
= 0.82

wp/R, %
0%
4 Po1 4 D
-5%
The ratio is weakly dependent on the type of impeller -10%
(Po), dependent on the scale of the vortex (x) and strongly -15%
dependent on the size of the impeller (D/T). The reason -20%
for this is that a small-diameter impeller must operate at -25%
a higher tip speed than a larger one to input the same 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
v/VTIP, %
power and the maximum kinetic energy is proportional to
FIGURE 5. This graph shows a plot of the mean velocity profiles for the Rush-
the tip speed squared. ton turbine
The droplet size data plotted versus the average power
input per mass in Figure 6 are replotted in Figure 7 versus drofoil, pitched blade and Rushton turbines at G-values,
the maximum energy dissipation rate in the trailing vor- as defined in Equation (26), of 15, 25 and 50 s1. The
tex. The variations in the trailing vortex energy dissipation corresponding values of vessel-averaged power input per
rate generated by the impellers and the effects on the mass are 2.25 104, 6.25 104 and 2.50 103 W/
droplet size are now correctly accounted for, including kg. Grenville and Spicer [16] have re-analyzed these data
the high-shear disperser. and the floc length versus the maximum kinetic energy
The conventional wisdom in the mixing industry has dissipation rate, calculated using Equation (23), is plotted
been that hydrofoil impellers generate low shear and in Figure 8. This approach to the analysis correlates the
Rushton turbines generate high shear [3, 4] and this data and suggests that the concept of a G-value should
is true if only the time-averaged velocity gradients are work for agitator design provided that it is based on the
compared. The maximum kinetic energy dissipation rate maximum energy-dissipation rate in the trailing vortex
within the trailing vortex, MAX, generates the stresses not the vessel averaged power per volume.
that break-up droplets, or any other second phase, in an The selectivity of competitive reactions carried out
agitated vessel. Rather than describing these impellers in semi-batch mode is determined by the local mixing
as high shear, it is more rigorous to call them high dis- rate [17], the micro-mixing rate, in the region where the
sipation or high stress. added reactant is introduced to the vessel [18]. Bourne
and Dellava [19] have shown that the selectivity of an
Applications azo-coupling reaction can be maximized by feeding the
There are many processes in which the fluid dynamic ef- added reactant at the impeller where the trailing-vortex
fect that achieves the process result is commonly con- energy dissipation rate determines the rate of micro-
sidered to be shear although, strictly, the process result mixing. They, and Nienow and others [20], have also
is determined by the maximum energy dissipation rate shown that, provided the feed location is geometrically
within the trailing vortex. One example of a shear driven similar, the selectivity of the reaction can be maintained
process is flocculation of fine particles. Agitators are de- on scaleup if the trailing-vortex energy dissipation rate is
signed to provide a desired shear rate, or G-value. G is the same at the two scales. This has also been shown
defined as: to apply to precipitation reactions where the particle
size and morphology need to be controlled [21, 22].
12 12
1000
P Po N 3 D5 (26) Narrow hydrofoil
G= =
V V Pitched-blade turbine, 45 deg
Pitched-blade turbine, 60 deg
Rushton
This shear rate is based on the vessel-averaged
High-shear disperser sawtooth
power input per volume and the fluids dynamic vis-
cosity. Equation (26) suggests that, provided that the
d32, m

100
average power per volume is kept constant, the same
G-value will be generated and the flocculation perfor-
mance will be the same. Benz [14] has written a review
of the problems that will be encountered taking this
approach to agitator design, especially the fact that it
takes no account of impeller type or diameter. He con-
cludes that G-value has no legitimate use in designing 10
0.01 0.10 1.00 10.00
or specifying agitators. , W/kg
Spicer and others [15] have measured the size and FIGURE 6. This graph shows the behavior of the Sauter mean diameter, d32,
structure of flocculated polystyrene particles using a hy- versus vessel-averaged power input per unit mass

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 49


1000
ample of this.
Narrow hydrofoil In a turbulent agitated vessel, the
Pitched-blade turbine, 45 deg time-averaged velocity gradients are
Pitched-blade turbine, 60 deg of little use, and potentially mislead-
Rushton ing, for comparison of impeller perfor-
High-shear disperser sawtooth mance and agitator design. While the
term shear is used qualitatively to
d32, m

100 describe impellers dispersing capa-


bilities, it must be recognized that the
true mechanism of break-up is deter-
mined by the maximum energy dissi-
pation rate within the impellers trailing
vortices. This understanding enables
engineers to select the appropriate
impellers for their processes. n
10 Edited by Gerald Ondrey
1 10 100 1000 10000
MAX, W/kg
FIGURE 7. Shown here is a plot of the Sauter mean diameter, d32, versus the trailing vortex energy- References
dissipation rate
1. Etchells III, A. W., Lecture notes, CHEG 615 Special
Finally, mixing in crystallization can be used to determine which Topics in Mixing, University of Delaware.
processes requires both rapid local the best impeller to achieve this re- 2. Machado, M. B. and Kresta, S. M., Advances in Indus-
trial Mixing, ch. 2b, pp. 4784. John Wiley and Sons,
mixing to minimize primary nucle- sult will be. It can also be used to New York, N.Y., 2016.
ation and high flow to promote translate laboratory and pilot-scale 3. Oldshue, J. Y., Fluid Mixing Technology, McGraw Hill,
homogeneity, favoring secondary results taken with one type of impel- New York, N.Y., 1983.
nucleation and crystal growth. Also, ler to a larger scale using a different 4. Ducoste, J. J., Clark, M.M. and Weetman, R. J., Turbu-
a balance between crystal growth geometry, provided that the process lence in Flocculators: Effects of Tank Size and Impeller
Type, AIChE J., 43 (2), pp. 328338, 1997.
and crystal damage must be con- result and controlling dynamic effect 5. Brown, D. A. R., Mixer Performance Characteristics:
sidered in choosing the appropriate can be identified. Impeller and Process Efficiency, presented at Mixing
impeller [23]. The term high-shear is commonly XXII, Victoria, B.C., Canada, 2010.
v

used to describe an impellers ca- 6. Fort, I., B. Kysela, B. and Jirout, T., Flow Characteristics
of Axial High Speed Impellers, Chem. Proc. Eng., 31,
Conclusions pability for dispersion of a second pp. 661679, 2010.
Mixing processes can be described immiscible phase generating sur- 7. Pnueli, D. and Gutfinger, C., Fluid Mechanics, ch. 1,
in terms of the desired process re- face area for mass transfer. Simi- p. 11, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.,
sult. Generally this result will be larly, low-shear is used to describe 1992.
controlled by the flow and turbu- impellers that, in multi-phase pro- 8. Russell, T. W. F., Robinson, A.S. and Wagner, N.J.,
Mass and Heat Transfer, ch. 7, p. 302, Cambridge
lence intensity generated by an im- cesses, allow the second phase to University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 2008.
peller. The approach described here grow, and flocculation is a good ex- 9. Pacek A.W.,Chamsart, S., Nienow, A.W. and Bakker,
A., The Influence of Impeller Type on Mean Drop Size
and Drop Size Distribution in an Agitated Vessel, Chem.
1000 Eng. Sci., 54, pp. 42114222, 1999.
10. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViKYFsN3p24.
11. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW4PmUE151c.
12. Grenville, R. K., and others, Flow and Shear in Agitated
Rushton
Maximum average flocculation length, m

Vessels, presented at AIChE Annual Meeting, Philadel-


Pitched-blade turbine phia, Pa., 2008.
Hydrofoil 13. Tennekes, H. and Lumley, J. L., A First Course in Tur-
bulence, ch. 3, p. 68, MIT Press, 1972.
14. Benz, G. T., The G-value for Agitator Design: Time to
100 Retire it?, Chem. Eng. Prog., pp. 4347, March 2007.
15. Spicer, P. T., Keller, W. and Pratsinis, S. E., The Effect of
Impeller Type on Floc Size and Structure During Shear-
induced Flocculation, J. Colloid Interface Sci., 184, pp.
112122, 1996.
16. Grenville, R. K. and Spicer, P.T., Mixing and Flocculation
of Fine Particles, presented at Mixing XXV, Quebec City,
Que., Canada, 2016.
17. Paul, E. L. and Treybal, R.E., Mixing and Product Dis-
tribution for a Liquid-phase, Second-order Competitive-
10 consecutive Reaction, AIChE J., 17, pp. 718724,
0.01 0.1 1 10 1971.
MAX, W/kg
18. Badyga, J. and Pohorecki, R., Turbulent Micromixing
FIGURE 8. This plot shows the maximum average floc length versus maximum kinetic-energy-dissipation in Chemical Reactors A Review, Chem. Eng. J., 59,
rate for hydrofoil, pitched blade and Rushton turbines pp. 183195, 1995.

50 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017


19. Bourne, J. R. and Dellava, P., Micro- and Macro-mix- a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the IChemE, Member of industrial research consortium at BHR Group, which
ing in Stirred Tank Reactors of Different Sizes, Chem. the AIChE and is currently serving as president of the has been running continuously for more than 30
Eng. Res. Des., 65, pp. 180186, 1987. North American Mixing Forum (NAMF). He has co-au- years, and has 20 years of experience in fluid mixing.
20. Nienow, A. W., Drain, S.M., Boyes, A. P. and Carpenter, thored several papers and conference presentations on He has co-authored several technical publications
K. J., An Experimental Study to Characterize Imperfect various aspects of mixing including jet mixing, mixing of and has given presentations at international confer-
Macromixing in a Stirred Semibatch Reactor, Ind. Eng. non-Newtonian fluids, solids suspension and education. ences on fluid mixing and nanoparticle dispersion.
Chem. Res., 36, pp. 2,9842,989, 1997. Jason Giacomelli is a research Padron holds a bachelors degree from the Universi-
and development engineer at dad Metropolitana, Venezuela, a masters degree and
21. Phillips. R., Rohani, S. and Badyga, J., Micromixing in a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College
a Single-feed Semi-batch Precipitation Process, AIChE Philadelphia Mixing Solutions Ltd.
(1221 East Main Street, Palmyra Park, all in chemical engineering.
J., 45, pp. 8292, 1999.
PA 17078; Phone +1-717-832- David A. R. Brown is technical
22. Vicum, L. and Mazzotti, M., Multi-scale Modeling of 8884, jgiacomelli@philamixers. director and senior technical con-
a Mixing-precipitation Process in a Semi-batch Stirred com) where he is responsible for sultant at BHR Group (The Fluid
Tank, Chem. Eng. Sci., 62, pp. 3,5133,527, 2007. running pilot-scale experimental Engineering Centre, Cranfield,
23. Tung, H-H, Paul, E. L., Midler, M. and McCauley, J. A. programs for both internal product Bedfordshire, MK43 0AJ. Phone:
Crystallization of Organic Compounds: An Industrial development and process devel- +44-3301-191-775; Email:
Perspective, ch. 6, John Wiley and Sons, New York, opment on behalf of customers. He also runs computa- dbrown@bhrgroup.co.uk). He
N.Y., 2009. tional fluid dynamic (CFD) models to support these pro- has worked in mixing at BHR
grams. He is a member of AIChE and works with the Group for over 18 years, contrib-
Authors local chapter to help with community outreach pro- uting to the Fluid Mixing Pro-
Richard K. Grenville is director of grams, such as the Science Technology Engineering and cesses industrial consortium in both technical and
Mixing Technology at Philadelphia Math (STEM) Festival in Washington, D.C. Giacomelli managerial capacities, as well as working on a broad
Mixing Solutions Ltd. (1221 East has a B.S.Ch.E. from Rowan University and is currently range of consultancy projects relating to mixer trou-
Main Street, Palmyra PA 17078; studying for a Ph.D. on the subject of solids suspension bleshooting, design and scaleup. Brown has co-au-
Phone +1-717-202-7976, Email: in stirred vessels with professor Harry van den Akker at thored chapters on Experimental Methods (with Pip N.
rkgrenville@philamixers.com) and the University of Limerick in Ireland. He has co-authored Jones, and John C. Middleton) in the Handbook of
has worked in the field of mixing a number of papers and conference presentations. Industrial Mixing (2004), and on Solid-liquid Mixing
for over 30 years including 22 Gustavo Padron is a senior (with Art Etchells III) in Advances in Industrial Mixing
years as a consultant for DuPont technical consultant on indus- (2016). Brown has a bachelors degree in chemical
Engineering. He is an adjunct pro- trial fluid mixing at BHR Group engineering from Heriot-Watt University.
fessor at Rowan University and the University of Dela- (The Fluid Engineering Centre,
ware, where he co-teaches courses on mixing and reg- Cranfield, Bedfordshire, U.K., For additional articles on mixing and other unit
ularly presents seminars to customers and for AIChE Phone: +44-3301-191-902, operations, go to the Chemical Engineering ar-
Student and Local chapters. Grenville has a B.Sc. in Email: gpadron@bhrgroup.co. chives at www.chemengonline.com.
chemical engineering from the University of Nottingham uk). He currently manages the
and a Ph.D. from Cranfield Institute of Technology. He is Fluid Mixing Processes (FMP)

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 51


Environmental Manager

Control Room Design for Chemical Engineers


Chemical engineers bring many essential skills to the diverse teams required for
successful control room design
BAW Architecture
Brad Adams Walker
Peggy Hewitt
BAW Architecture

I
n any continuous manufactur-
ing plant in the chemical pro-
cess industries (CPI), engi-
neers need to consider control
room architecture and design as
part of their responsibility. Chemi-
cal engineers may think that this
is not their area of expertise, and
therefore not their responsibility.
This is understandable, but this ar-
ticle explains why engineers should
spend time thinking about control
room architecture.
FIGURE 1. Many of a plants most critical operational tasks take place in a control room. A thoughtfully
Chemical engineers spend their designed control room will enable collaboration, safe operations and ergonomic working conditions
careers making the world a better
place. They may develop new prod- The operator from which the building blocks of
ucts and materials, manufacture Demographics are such, particularly the new facility take shape. The goal
existing products, recycle waste or in North America, that plants are is to achieve consensus by the end
clean the environment and create losing the most experienced opera- of the three-day process on a block
energy. Design and architecture are tors to retirement faster than new plan direction. Integration of best
not typically their strong suits, and personnel can be hired and trained practices in control room design is
indeed they may not have given the latest generation of workers woven throughout the approach.
much time to understanding the seem to have different aspirations Human factors engineering (HFE) is
configurations that make a control and motivations for their careers. an integral part of the control room
room safe, efficient and produc- In the last 30 years, we we have charrette, and the data gathered
tive. However, architecture and greatly improved understanding of during this phase informs the con-
design have a profound effect on how operators worked and reacted trol room layout, control system and
how one executes the demands of to situations, but that experience console design.
his or her profession. and research applies mainly to an The operator is key to the suc-
The reality is that it takes more older generation. We simply do cessful design of a control room
than four walls and some fancy not know enough about what will (Figure 3). His or her input is in-
desks to design a control room change with a younger generation valuable throughout the entire de-
that will last a generation, be an of operators. For this reason alone, sign process. Beginning in front-
environment where operators can when planning how the process will end engineering design (FEED),
safely manage the chemical pro- be controlled, it is essential to en- the operator should be engaged
cesses and where teams of people sure that the room is designed from in design charrettes all the way
can collaborate to solve problems the operator outward. You should through 100% design completion,
quickly and keep the plant running be asking: What environment will and consulted for such items as
efficiently (Figure 1). ensure that the operator is comfort- workstation design, screen graph-
Thats not to say chemical en- able, has a high situational aware- ics and the human machine inter-
gineers need to come up with all ness and is empowered to make face (HMI). Understanding the op-
the answers there are architec- the decisions necessary to operate erators needs mainly, how they
tural firms that specialize solely in a safe plant? interface with complex systems
control room design of the highest A best practice often used is a within a high-pressure environment
caliber but there are a number of charrette (Figure 2). A charrette is a is square one, and all other
reasons why knowing how to ask workshop-style meeting that is used design decisions flow out from
the right questions is in chemical to gather structured information from that pivotal point. The most suc-
engineers best interest. operators and other stakeholders cessful control buildings have been
52 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
BAW Architecture
designed with the operators in-
volved as part of the team from the
project commencement.

Collaboration
No matter how strongly individu-
als excel in chemical engineering,
no organization can survive with-
out collaboration. One of the key
insights to harnessing collabora-
tion is diversity. Experiments have
shown that groups composed
of only highly adept members
are outperformed by groups with
members of varying skill levels
and knowledge [1].
While having a team made up of a
number of brilliant engineers seems
desirable, encouraging a diversity FIGURE 2. A charrette meeting is useful in planning control room projects in that many different stake-
of perspective will help ensure an holders with diverse backgrounds can contribute their input and reach consensus on important goals
optimal outcome as you plan for a
new control room or a control room ergonomically to suit the operator is costs $1 to fix a usability problem
renovation. To that end, it is recom- proven to reduce human error, ac- during design, it will cost $10 to fix
mended that input be solicited from cidents and illness, and designing once the system is developed, and
not only chemical engineers, but it correctly the first time by utilizing $100 to fix once it is operational.
also from automation engineers, the expertise of an HFE and con- ISO 11064 recommends an it-
control engineers, human factors trol-room architect can save costly erative review process for the de-
specialists, designers, architects redesign efforts after the building is sign of control buildings involving
and, of course, operators. up and running. The 1:10:100 rule operators and engineers that will
As part of this collaboration, one of thumb is often used when engi- be working in the control room in
best practice is allowing sufficient neers are evaluating product qual- meetings and decision-making. It
time in the FEED phase to ade- ity. Through experience and case leads the design work toward the
quately plan and design a control studies, we can also apply this to best possible solution, and will cre-
room by integrating human factors control room design. In short, if it ate buy-in and a sense of owner-
engineering and the ISO 11064 BAW Architecture
standard, which spells out inter-
national standards in control room
design [2]. This ensures that before
the project gets too far down the
road, risks and tasks are analyzed,
and adjacencies and future expan-
sion needs are identified. Draw-
ings are produced and revised
until consensus is reached (Figure
4). To have upper management
commitment and better yet, an
HFE champion and liaison from the
company on board to work with
the team from the beginning and
throughout all phases of the project
offers the most successful ap-
proach to control room design.
Involving HFE early in the FEED
stage to provide expertise at the
beginning lays a solid foundation
for the development of the suc-
cessful design. Involving a diverse
collaboration team in decision-
making throughout the process
makes for a stronger design solu-
tion and allows for their early buy-
in. Designing the work environment FIGURE 3. Seeking operators input is extremely valuable throughout all phases of control room design

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 53


ship in the design. Change management to reduce the risks related to major
In these meetings, participants Organizations are often good at accidents. The key success fac-
need to identify risks associ- managing technical change. Chem- tors for managing organizational
ated with design. Some examples ical engineers must follow very spe- change are as follows:
of these risks are the following: cific change-management proce- Effective planning for the organi-
The control room is not designed dures when making any changes zational changes
to current ergonomic standards to manufacturing processes. Why Communicating with and involv-
The design does not include do we put so much effort into this ing key site personnel
enough area for potential future area? Its simple: change-man- Assessing the risks relating to
expansions agement systems and processes the change, including both risks
If the building is in a remote lo- help to ensure that process and from the process of change and
cation, not having skilled work- technical changes are risk-as- risks from the outcome of the
ers to provide construction labor sessed so that fewer unforeseen change
Poor onsite security consequences occur. Introducing and monitoring the
Poor communication because Organizations often do not apply change as it transitions
of multi-cultural teams the same level of change-man- Furthermore, specific change-
Effectively collaborating when agement scrutiny to organizational management preparation for staff
planning a new control room will changes. Implementing a new con- includes the following:
help on many fronts. The key as- trol room or control room renova- Providing upfront technical train-
pect of having a diverse team (in- tion may involve some technical ing to prepare for new systems
cluding chemical engineers) plan- change, but we need to remember Selecting and nurturing a highly
ning, reviewing and iterating on that the organizational change el- respected project team
the design of the control room will ements can be far greater for the Preparing leaders to lead the
ensure that the final product is one employees. As such, the orga- change in their areas and to col-
that everyone can agree on, and nizational change also must re- laborate across enterprises and
that optimizes the safety, situational ceive comprehensive planning, departments
awareness, job satisfaction and risk-assessment and management Following a disciplined change
productivity of the site. through the transition to make sure process

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54 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017


BAW Architecture

from the authors extensive experi-


ence in designing and building con-
trol rooms and buildings include
the following:
Allow enough time in FEED to start
a control room project off right
Workstations, as well as small and
large screen placement, should
be designed concurrently with the
building design
FIGURE 4. Allowing sufficient time for front-end design work, including conceptual sketches and human Incorporate area for future growth
factors engineering, can save time and reduce costs as the control room project progesses in the control room, rack room
and infrastructure
Sustaining new positive behav- scribed below, are a vital piece to a Communication and collaboration
iors after implementation complex puzzle: across the design team and with
Chemical engineers certainly un- Architect: oversees the overarch- operational staff (including chemi-
derstand the importance of solid ing concept and the design team cal engineering) and the construc-
change management, and their ex- (including structural, mechani- tion team is key to successful or-
perience is essential to help support cal and electrical considerations, ganizational change and control
the organizational change manage- among others) and keeps the room design.
ment that is necessary for planning project on course Edited by Mary Page Bailey
and adapting to a new control room Human factors engineer (HFE):
or renovation. ensures a human-centered ap- References
proach based on ISO-11064 and 1. Goman, Carol K., Seven Insights for Collaboration in
Steps to success industry best practices the Workplace, Reliable Plant, April 2010.
Following a set methodology, Interior designer: integrates all the 2. International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
11064, Ergonomic Design of Control Centres,
each control room design pro- disciplines together into an oper- November 2013.
cess for both new construction ator-centric, ergonomic and func-
and renovations of existing facili- tional environment
ties can deliver exceptional and Hiring experts in the design of Author
tangible results. When a project control buildings ensures the build- Brad Adams Walker is an archi-
tect and founder and owner of
need is identified, a design team ing will be designed correctly the BAW Architecture (300 South
is formed. The makeup of that first time, reducing human error, Jackson Street, Suite 430, Den-
team can facilitate the project avoiding costly renovations, ac- ver, CO 80209; Phone:
303-388-9500; Email: info@
process. An experienced control- cidents and illness related to poor bawarchitecture.com; Website:
room design team integrates les- design. Together, the team of spe- www.bawarchitecture.com). He
sons learned and best practice cialists works collaboratively to de- completed his first control room
knowledge for the new facility. sign a control building that meets design in 1987 and founded
BAW Architecture in 1992. Pushing the boundaries
The design is fine-tuned through- the needs of the operator. Lastly, and conceiving new operator-centric configurations in
out the design process based on an experienced building contractor control room design led to commissions that earned
feedback from many parties. As a can make or break the project by him international recognition relatively early in his ca-
reer. Since then, Walker has completed over 100 built
result, the control room will have providing cost and schedule control control-building projects over the past 25 years for
received input from operators, to keep the project on budget and several global petrochemical companies. He is a dis-
staff and key project stakehold- on time, as well as risk mitigation so tinguished speaker who has made presentations at
ers, often including chemical en- that the job site stays safe. Collabo- numerous conferences related to optimal control room
and control building design.
gineers, and is a multi-disciplinary rating with the owner and architect,
Peggy Hewitt is an independent
collaborative creation. the contractor turns the teams vi- consultant providing business-
Build a great design team. The sion into a reality. development support to BAW Ar-
motivation to design or renovate So the next time there is talk of chitecture (Email: phewitt@
bawarchitecture.com). Before
a control room usually begins with designing a new control room or working at BAW Architecture,
operations, but is mostly decided renovating an existing control room Hewitt spent over 30 years at
by company leadership. Engaging at your organization, remember the Honeywell in four industrial busi-
an experienced architectural team reasons why you should get involved ness sectors. While there, she led
the ASM Consortium, a group of
consisting of architects, engineers, the operator, collaboration and leading companies and universities involved with the
human-factors engineers and in- change management. What these process industries that jointly invested in research and
terior designers is an integral first three areas have in common is the development to create tools and products designed to
prevent, detect and mitigate abnormal situations that
step in the process. Understand- need for a cross-functional approach affect process safety in control-room environments.
ing the value that a new or reno- to job design, work design and plan- Recently, she was interim vice president of member-
vated control room can bring to an ning and implementation, all focused ship at the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innova-
tion Institute (CESMII). In partnership with the U.S.
organization involves a compre- on improving process safety, effi- Department of Energy, CESMII brings over $140 mil-
hensive approach. The roles and ciency and productivity. lion in investment to improve the precision, perfor-
responsibilities of each discipline, de- Some additional lessons learned mance and efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 55


You and Your Job

Outsourcing and Offshoring


Engineering and Fabrication Activities
Follow these tips to get the most out of these
high-risk, high-reward, third-party arrangements
Descon
Carl Rentschler
Engineering Consultant
Goutam Shahani
ShureLine Construction

O
utsourcing is the sub-
contracting of a business
function to an outside en-
tity. The concept of out-
sourcing was first articulated by
David Ricardo, an English econo-
mist in the 19th century. The idea
is that through the use of outsourc-
ing, companies can concentrate on
those activities where they bring the
greatest value. Lower-value activities
are then carried out by other parties
so that a company can focus its
efforts and resources on its core
competencies, and thereby achieve
a comparative advantage in the
marketplace. FIGURE 1. This photo shows a fluegas-conditioning module, which is part of a large process plant that
This principle of outsourcing is was fully fabricated in a local shop in the Middle East to achieve the desired schedule
widely applied in our personal and
business lives. We routinely hire turing and petroleum-refining cor- Pros and cons
outside plumbers and electricians porations maintained their own fully The primary driver for consider-
even if we are able to carry out these staffed engineering and construc- ing outsourcing is cost savings. In
activities ourselves, so that we can tion offices. However, more recently, todays very competitive market,
spend our time on higher-value en- many of these functions have been every effort must be made to save
deavors and still have time for rec- hollowed out and these days, many costs where possible. The cost
reation. In most corporations, such CPI companies now routinely rely on savings can come in various forms
functions as landscaping, cafeteria outside firms to carry out these func- as follows:
services and security, among others, tions more efficiently. Lower per-hour engineering costs
are typically subcontracted out. This The terms outsourcing and off- Lower fabrication costs, even after
provides flexibility, frees up capital shoring are related. Offshoring is potentially adding more shipping
and allows for lower overhead. similar to outsourcing. However, it costs
The maturing chemical process entails sending work outside the Development of construction
industries (CPI) have been under- home country. While outsourc- modules to lower field construc-
going drastic changes in the last ing can be done within the national tion costs
three decades. Innovation was the boundaries, offshoring refers to get- Care should be taken to ensure
primary growth driver in the earlier ting work done outside of the coun- that outsource economic decisions
stages. However, companies are try. Offshoring is typically done to are made with eyes wide open. What
increasingly seeking opportunities take advantage of lower labor and may appear to be huge savings may
to realize further cost savings and material costs, and often carries po- not always be the case. For exam-
efficiency gains for further growth. tential currency-exchange risks ple, if overseas engineering is used
In addition, competitive market fac- both positive and negative. Offshor- at a rate that is reduced by 50%
tors demand faster schedules and ing also has implications to domestic per hour (compared to home-office
flexibility. In the not-too-distant jobs and tends to be a more politi- rates), but then requires two times
past, many large chemical-manufac- cally charged issue. the number of hours to be used,
56 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
Flow Meters For Hot, Dirty Stack and Flue Gases

Meet environmental regulations for Stack and Flue Gas Flow Reporting
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 57


there is no benefit. Outsourcing through the procure- who is fully knowledgeable in the
Similarly, with overseas fabrication, ment function. In its simplest form, services, and someone who is very
care must be taken to ensure that outsourcing can be accomplished well connected in the industry.
shipping costs do not consume fab- through the normal procurement Form alliances with other compa-
rication savings. It is also important process. In this manner the techni- nies. When a long-term relationship
to take into account customs duty cal personnel develop a specifica- is of interest, an alliance between
for importing equipment through an tion, while procurement personnel two or more companies is often con-
outsourcing arrangement. issue a request for quotation (RFQ) sidered as a means of outsourcing.
Schedule-related considerations to qualified bidders. This method This is often considered when one
may also be a significant driver for of outsourcing provides the lowest company needs a technology, and
outsourcing. Perhaps there are in- amount of control and often is not another company offers this technol-
sufficient resources within the com- intended to establish a long-term ogy. One well-known alliance exists
pany for the project to be executed, relationship. This method tends to in the hydrogen production area, in
and the only way to meet schedule be very price competitive but per- which Air Products (www.airprod-
is through the use of external re- haps with less focus on quality and ucts.com) has a long-term alliance
sources. Splitting up work among workmanship. Often, quality audits with Technip (www.technip.com) for
different entities may create ineffi- are relied upon to ensure that quality reformer technology. Often a pric-
ciencies, yet this may be the only al- is maintained through the engi- ing agreement is part of the alliance
ternative to achieve contract sched- neering or fabrication processes, as a tradeoff for the provider being
ule requirements. and there is little or no ongoing the exclusive source of the equip-
work surveillance. ment or engineering. The downside
Different approaches Hire an agent who represents the is that price competitiveness may
When considering outsourcing ei- service company. A somewhat in- come into question over time with
ther domestically or internationally, formal or unstructured approach to no competitive price checks are
there are various options to consider outsourcing is to utilize an agent who being made.
in deciding how to proceed. The represents the service company. This Create partnerships. A partner-
common drivers for pursuing an out- is a far more economical approach ship may be considered as a means
sourcing arrangement are the scope than establishing a local presence in of outsourcing in cases when two
of the work, the level of internal re- an outsource location, and is more companies offer complementary ser-
sources to manage the work, and frequently considered for equipment vices, and together as a team they
the desired outcome. or component fabrication than for provide greater opportunity. For ex-
ample, if a company is strong in EP
Care should be taken to make all outsourcing decisions (engineering procurement) due to
their technology strengths, but weak
with eyes wide open. Apparent or anticipated savings or in C (construction), they may want
to choose a partner that would im-
operational advantages may not always come to fruition prove their chances of winning large
EPC projects. This is the very sce-
If the scope includes significant large engineering projects. nario that developed between Linde
engineering, there may be more of Such an agent provides the service (www.linde.com) and Bechtel (www.
an impetus to establish a local pres- provider with local sales capability in bechtel.com) in the ethylene mar-
ence in the foreign country outsource the U.S. in a very cost-effective man- ket. The partnership has been fruit-
location. If the scope involves strictly ner. Not only can the agent represent ful in winning and executing, among
fabrication by a foreign company, multiple clients with non-competing other things, the large Baytown
it may be prudent to work through interests, but the agent will typically ExxonMobil plant expansion proj-
a U.S. agent of the fabricator, or to understand local customs and busi- ect. Under the partnership arrange-
utilize your own purchasing or pro- ness practices, and reside in the ment, both parties have a contract
curement department to deal with same time zone. For example, if ser- with the owner, which often man-
the fabricator (this will be more of an vices are provided in the U.S. by a ages both companies. The owner is
arms-length arrangement). foreign company, the local agent will able to get the best of all elements of
When internal resources are lim- serve as an intermediary for the for- the project, although there is
ited and the desired goal is a long- eign company. Essentially, such an generally a cost premium under
term relationship, it may be wise to agent will function as the local eyes this arrangement.
consider an alliance or partnership. and ears for the foreign company. Establish a local office. Establish-
Gaining specific technology may be For the buyer, the agent provides ing an office in the outsource loca-
another reason for considering a local knowledge of the providers of- tion is a widely used method to gain
more formalized outsourcing struc- ferings and can serve as a resource access to lower-cost engineering
ture. All facets of the outsourcing for answering questions. The agent services in foreign countries. By way
goals should be evaluated to de- is often counted on to be the front of example, countless companies
termine the best path forward. The line with any warranty issues. The have established offices in locations
most commonly used outsourcing key for this outsourcing method to such as India and China. Establish-
arrangements are described below. be effective is to have a sales agent ing these offices takes time and in-
58 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
volves key personnel from the parent There are situations where local with a lot of direct supervision. How-
company to drive the process at the codes become involved as U.S. com- ever, they are not trained to work
location. Once key employees are panies do work worldwide. These independently or be proactive.
hired, the next step is to indoctrinate countries codes may not be famil-
the outsource location into the way iar to the engineering company or Closing thoughts
of doing business in your company. fabricator and can require a learning Outsourcing and offshoring are well-
This may involve sending key hires to process. For example, if a U.S. com- known techniques to reduce cost,
the home office for extended training, pany is developing a project in Korea, improve schedule, balance workload
and may even involve home-office the Korean Gas Safety Code (KGSC) and improve flexibility. Outsourcing
technical personnel spending peri- must be followed. When outsourcing can be carried out at different de-
ods of time at the outsource location work to a country that has lower labor grees, ranging from using the exist-
to ensure proper indoctrination and and material costs (such as India or ing procurement function or hiring an
implementation of standards. China), care must be taken to ensure agent, to forming an alliance, part-
Once the remote office has been that the provider is capable of work- nering with others or establishing
established, new challenges present ing to the relevant code. on offshore office. Each approach
themselves. Trained personnel in a The time zone difference may also has its own pros and cons and the
foreign country become a sought- become an inconvenience when out- appropriate arrangement must be
after talent. Special efforts are often sourcing to foreign companies. Very chosen based on the scope of work,
necessary to retain key personnel. often, a parent company in the U.S. internal resources and desired cost
And, once that local resource has or Europe arranges meetings and savings. Considerations related to
been established, keeping the group teleconferences during regular work- schedule, quality, labor productivity
busy becomes an important ongo- ing hours in the local time zone. This and control must be also examined.
ing objective. This requires workload may correspond to the evening and Finally, costs associated with freight,
balancing that can affect the home late night for people who live in Asia. custom duty and currency-exchange
office. The home office has to also For most routine interfaces, it is rates have to be taken into account.
remember that it accepts full respon- possible to address communications The best arrangement will be depen-
sibility for the work in the outsource via emails and scheduled conference dent on the specific circumstances
location, and cannot point fingers calls. However, the challenge arises associated with a given project
when problems arise. The phrase when urgent problems occur and a or initiative. n
we instead of they must be the quick response is needed from the Edited by Suzanne Shelley
practiced team terminology. Addi- outsource location. During crucial
tional challenges that are often asso- times of a project, this can be han- References
ciated with this type of arrangement dled by requiring that the outsource 1. S. Shahani, G. Shahani, M. Crisler, L. Kogan, Project
include: communication across dif- location stagger their work schedule management: Construction of modern-day hydrogen
capacity in the Middle East, Hydrocarbon Processing,
ferent time zones and languages. to ensure full coverage during the February 2014.
working hours of the parent com- 2. C. Rampell, Outsource Your Way to Success, New York
Additional challenges panys office. Some companies will Times, November 5, 2013.
Some specific challenges were make whatever accommodations
pointed out above with each out- are necessary to facilitate communi- Authors
sourcing method, but there are also cation with a foreign company. This Carl Rentschler, P.E. is an engi-
some generic concerns that exist includes maintaining staff after hours neering consultant specializing in
project management, business
with offshoring and outsourcing. for conference calls and other com- development, client relationship
These can generally be overcome, munications. management and procedure de-
yet special thought and consider- Finally, language and cultural dif- velopment (210 Main Street,
ation should be given as such ar- ferences may come to bear when Akron, PA 17501; Phone: 717-
951-4772; Email: rentschl@ptd.
rangements are pursued. outsourcing to foreign locations. net). He has more than 40 years of
Most worldwide engineering com- U.S. companies enjoy the advan- varied engineering and manage-
panies and fabricators have a work- tage that technical and business ment experience (in the power and petrochemical fields)
with three international engineering-procurement com-
ing knowledge and certification with professionals in most other countries panies. He has a B.S. in civil engineering from Penn
U.S. codes. Foreign companies speak some English with some profi- State University and an M.Eng. in civil engineering from
have to educate themselves to U.S. ciency, yet there can still be strained Cornell University.
code requirements. This adds to communications. The experience of Goutam Shahani is vice-presi-
their cost and erodes some of their the authors is that personal inter- dent of sales and marketing at
Shure-Line Construction (P.O. Box
lower cost advantage. In instances face is the best way to avoid confu- 249, Kenton, DE 19955; Email:
where U.S. companies build proj- sion. This can be achieved by having GShahani@Shure-Line.com;
ects for eventual deployment over- someone at the outsource location, Phone: 302-420-1100). Previ-
ously, he was business develop-
seas, the company that delivers the or by dealing regularly through a ment manager at Linde Engineer-
outsourced engineering and fabrica- representative. ing North America. Shahani has
tion has to have a thorough knowl- In addition, there may be cultural more than 30 years of industry
experience, and specializes in industrial gases for the
edge of the codes in the country differences. For instance, in some energy, petroleum refining and chemical industries. He
where the equipment will be eventu- countries, young engineers are com- has a B.S.Ch.E from the University of Bombay, and an
ally deployed. fortable completing all defined tasks M.S.Ch.E. from Illinois Institute of Technology, and an
MBA from Lehigh University.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 59
Consulting New & Used Equipment
Product Showcase
GREGORY J. McCARTHY gregchepe@gmail.com
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Distillation Columns, Process Instrumentation, Phone: 847-541-5600 Fax: 847-541-1279
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(952) 933-2559 info@xchanger.com

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Buyers Guide 2018 Hot Topics


Managing Vapor and
Particulate Emissions
Guidebook
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in the Selection, Operation and Troubleshooting

Optimal Pump
Chemical Management

Processing CHEMICAL
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Contact: Diane Burleson


Industry Valves Selection: Optimal Pump Managing Vapor
Operation and Management and Particulate
Tel: 512-337-7890 Troubleshooting Emissions
Fax: 512-213-4855
Email: dburleson
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FREE PRODUCT INFO 14 Engineering, Design & Construction 30 50 to 99 Employees 48 Pumps


(please answer all the questions) Firms 31 100 to 249 Employees 49 Safety Equipment & Services
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Advertisers Index
Advertiser............. Page number Advertiser............. Page number Advertiser............. Page number
Phone number Reader Service # Phone number Reader Service # Phone number Reader Service #

Abbe, Paul O .........................23 Koch-Glitsch ..........................35 RedGuard ..............................27


1-855-789-9827 1-316-828-5110 adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-18
adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-14 adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-11

Ross, Charles & Son Co.......... 11


Ari Valve .................................23 Load Controls ........................24 1-800-243-ROSS
1-770-933-8845 1-888-600-3247 adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-04
adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-01 adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-12

Schenck Process ...................57


*Buss-SMS-Canzler GmbH ....15i Paharpur Cooling adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-19
+49 60 33/85-0 Towers Ltd ............................ C4
adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-02 +9133 4013 3000
adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-13 *Siemens AG ........................... 3i
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Cashco, Inc. ........................... 51
1-785-472-4461 *Plast-O-Matic Valves, Inc. ..... 6i
adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-03 adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-15 WEFTEC 2017......................... 41
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The Clean Air Group, LLC .... 13d Pope Scientific, Inc. ................37
1-973-947-8787 1-262-268-9300
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2017 Chem Show ............. 46-47 Pyromation, Inc. ..................... 21


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Collins Instrument Company, Classiied Index August 2017


Inc. .........................................33
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Equipment, New & Used . . . 61
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Vesconite Bearings ................ 61


Indeck Power 1-866-635-7596
Ekato Process Equipment Company ............. 61 adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-244
Technologies GmbH ..............39 1-800-446-3325
1-201-825-4684 x222 adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-242
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Wabash Power
Equipment Co ........................60
Ross, Charles & Son Co......... 61 1-800-704-2002
Fluid Components 1-800-243-ROSS adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-245
International ...........................57 adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-241
adlinks.chemengonline.com/66431-10

* International Edition Xchanger, Inc. ........................60


Tri-Mer Corporation ............... 61 1-952-933-2559
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August 2017; VOL. 124; NO. 8
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017 63


Economic Indicators
2015 2016 2017

Download the CEPCI two weeks sooner at www.chemengonline.com/pci

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT COST INDEX (CEPCI)


625

(1957-59 = 100) May '17 Apr. '17 May '16 Annual Index:
Prelim. Final Final
2009 = 521.9 600
CE Index ______________________________________________ 567.3 566.6 543.5
Equipment ____________________________________________ 684.5 684.2 649.3 2010 = 550.8
Heat exchangers & tanks _________________________________ 603.5 600.8 560.5
2011 = 585.7 575
Process machinery _____________________________________ 681.0 673.0 650.5
Pipe, valves & fittings ____________________________________ 873.5 885.0 813.0 2012 = 584.6
Process instruments ____________________________________ 403.6 404.2 385.1 2013 = 567.3 550
Pumps & compressors ___________________________________ 979.6 978.6 970.4
Electrical equipment ____________________________________ 516.4 515.5 508.7 2014 = 576.1
Structural supports & misc. ________________________________ 737.1 735.7 719.1 2015 = 556.8 525
Construction labor _______________________________________ 325.9 324.0 325.9
Buildings _____________________________________________ 559.6 556.5 543.5 2016 = 541.7
Engineering & supervision _________________________________ 314.0 314.2 315.6 500
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Starting with the April 2007 Final numbers, several of the data series for labor and compressors have been converted to
accommodate series IDs that were discontinued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

CURRENT BUSINESS INDICATORS LATEST PREVIOUS YEAR AGO


CPI output index (2012 = 100) ____________________________________________________ Jun. '17 = 101.3 May '17 = 100.8 Apr. '17 = 100.9 Jun. '16 = 99.9
CPI value of output, $ billions _____________________________________________________ May '17 = 1,804.1 Apr. '17 = 1,826.6 Mar. '17 = 1,830.1 May '16 = 1,693.5
CPI operating rate, % __________________________________________________________ Jun. '17 = 76.0 May '17 = 75.7 Apr. '17 = 75.7 Jun. '16 = 75.5
Producer prices, industrial chemicals (1982 = 100) ____________________________________ Jun. '17 = 251.3 May '17 = 257.3 Apr. '17 = 256.5 Jun. '16 = 227.0
Industrial Production in Manufacturing (2012=100)* ____________________________________ Jun. '17 = 103.3 May '17 = 103.1 Apr. '17 = 103.5 Jun. '16 = 102.1
Hourly earnings index, chemical & allied products (1992 = 100) ____________________________ Jun. '17 = 174.9 May '17 = 174.7 Apr. '17 = 177.5 Jun. '16 = 166.6
Productivity index, chemicals & allied products (1992 = 100) ______________________________ Jun. '17 = 101.9 May '17 = 102.1 Apr. '17 = 101.0 Jun. '16 = 101.4

CPI OUTPUT INDEX (2000 = 100) CPI OUTPUT VALUE ($ BILLIONS) CPI OPERATING RATE (%)
110 2300 80

105
2200 78
100
2100
95 76
2000
90
74
1900
85
72
80 1800

75 1700 70
J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

*Due to discontinuance, the Index of Industrial Activity has been replaced by the Industrial Production in Manufacturing index from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
For the current months CPI output index values, the base year was changed from 2000 to 2012
Current business indicators provided by Global Insight, Inc., Lexington, Mass.

CURRENT TRENDS

T he preliminary value for the May CE


Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; top; most
recent available) rose compared to the
EXCLUSIVE AD SPACE AVAILABLE! previous months value, making it the
eighth straight month of increasing val-
Feature your marketing message alongside this popular editorial department
ues. New data for carbon-steel plates
Each issue includes editorial departments that feature the current industry trends and pushed the Equipment subindex higher,
the Plant Cost Index. As one of the most valued sections in the magazine, your ad is while gains were also observed in the
guaranteed to reach decision makers each month. Ad runs opposite Cover 3 within Construction Labor and Buildings sub-
indices. The Engineering & Supervision
the Economic Indicators department.
subindex fell by a small margin. The pre-
Contact your sales representative for more information: liminary overall monthly CEPCI value for
May 2017 stands at 4.4% higher than
the corresponding value from May 2016.
JASON BULLOCK TERRY DAVIS PETRA TRAUTES Meanwhile, the latest Current Business In-
jbullock@chemengonline.com tdavis@chemengonline.com ptrautes@accessintel.com dicators (CBI; middle) saw the CPI Output
713-974-0911 404-634-5123 +49 69 58604760 Index for June edge upward slightly. The
27206
CPI Value of Output for May fell compared
to the April number.
64 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM AUGUST 2017
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