Manufacturing of any chemical in commercial scale involves mutli-step flow of the input material starting with reaction, neutralization, crystalization or precipitation of solids, filtration, washing and drying, as a typical example shows importance optimization of chemical process.
The first step towards optimization of chemical process requires all the processes involved above to be so tuned up that none of the processes in the chain in Optimisation of Chemical Process becomes the bottle-neck which prevents rated production capacity being achieved.
The optimization of chemical process begins by sizing the various equipment in the chain in a manner that the capacity of a given process equipment in the chain like the Dryer , for example, is so chosen that its capacity matches the output from the equipment upstream, filter in this case.
Sizing the Dryer larger than the optimum will result in more idle time for itself and hence loss of capacity with a higher investment, of course. Sizing the Dryer smaller than the optimum will make equipment on the upstream, viz. the Filter unit holding its output till the Dryer is ready to receive the material.
Any mismatch in the plant either during design or during operation, will result in loss of productivity and under-utilzation of the Plant.
Very often in the chemical industry, even if the Plant has been designed optimally and set up, it fails to deliver the targeted quantity and quality merely due to the utilities not matching up with the requirement by process.
For example, Optimisation of Chemical Process of an exothermic reaction may take longer than what it should ideally take because the circulation flowrate of cooling water through the jacket is not enough to remove the heat at the same rate at which the heat is generated during the reaction.
How does Optimization of Chemical Process help ?
Chemical Process Engineers help the end user in determining the set of operating parameters of Optimisation of Chemical Process which can then help them in improving the performance of the reactor in terms of reaction time reduction and hence increased productivity from the existing reactor design, if possible.
At Chemical Process Engineers, we specialize in optimization of chemical process in a manner that Optimisation of Chemical Process bottle-necks in the plant are avoided by properly designing and / or selecting the process equipment and utilities, most often through a calculated approach using principles of fluid flow, thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer.
Also, learn the specific knowledge on how the P and I Diagram works with the chemical reactors.
For a more specific understanding of our approach with regard to design of a batch type chemical reactor, read through our blog on optimization of batch chemical reactors.
