F11 Process development Flashcards
Task of process development - definition
What are the key success factors?
What is the Chemist tree?
The development process depends on different considerations
- ex fuel, why do you have to research process development?
—> environmental, economical aspects!
We don’t develop the product because we know that we want fuel so
we change the process
Ex medicine: change the product
:)))
Schematic picture of process development pattern
Good to do many and early evaluations → will be costly if you realise it doesn’t work at industrial plant scale
The mistakes of KiOR
The technology itself worked, but they went too fast. The product yield wasn’t as high as anticipated. Didn’t test in the lab → went too fast to commercial level.
The course of developments
- Modern process development operates in parallel (or cyclic) mode rather than serial
- Many decisions must be taken with incomplete knowledge
- To delay development until all uncertainties have been eliminated would be just as wrong as starting industrial development on the basis of laboratory discoveries alone
- Each development stage is followed by an evaluation (possible decisions: continue, abandon, or start again at an earlier development level)
- Most mistakes are made at the beginning of the activity, (relatively cheap to eliminate)
- The further process development advances, the more expensive it becomes to eliminate mistakes
- In industrial production plants, corrections can only be made with an enormous expenditure of time and money!!!
The laboratory stage. What questions should we ask ourselves and what is important to think about?
- Does the reaction provide satisfactory yields/selectivity?
- Is the separation/purification of the products possible?
Test for different catalyst - which one should be used.
Should have minimum process steps because:
- less costly
- more safe
Rules of thumb when designing the process
When most of the individual research data are obtained the process leaves the research phase and enters the development phase → miniplant
What individual steps need to be integrated?
Miniplants include all the recycling streams/paths because:
- it gives feedback of the big scale
- if you recirculate for ex poisonous substrates in the reactor you can over time detect the effects
How should the pilotplant be designed?
A pilot plant should be designed as a scaled-down version of the industrial-scale plant. Not as a larger copy of the existing miniplant
What does a pilotplant need?
The steps of the pilot plant operation
Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) considerations
What are the preliminary safety indicators?
What are the four levels of safety?
What sustainability quantities are used for evaluation?
Major cost factors and measures to take
