The Fundamentals of Process Intensification
Description
This book goes beyond the classical area of chemical engineering to discuss the theoretical and conceptual basis of process intensification (PI). It shows readers how to use that conceptual basis in the practical development of intensified chemical and biochemical processes. It discusses the mechanisms of the interactions between various energy forms and materials, looking for the synergies at different process levels, and analyzing the ways of manipulating the time characteristics of the events. In addition, the book extensively covers developments in other disciplines from a chemical engineer´s point of view.
The Fundamentals of Process Intensification consists of three major parts. In the first part, the PI principles are introduced, discussed in detail, and illustrated with practical examples. The second part is devoted entirely to fundamental approaches of process intensification in four domains: spatial, thermodynamic, functional, and temporal?described as structure, energy, synergy, and time, respectively. The third and final part explores the methodology for applying the fundamental PI-approaches in practice. The book also addresses the close relation to sustainable (including inherently safe) processing, and presents readers with several case studies of diverse types of chemical processes.
-The first book ever to cover the fundamentals and industry applications of the technology and application of process intensification
-Details technologies and focuses on safety, energy, and environmental issues, giving guidance on how to incorporate PI in plant design and operation
-Explains PI in a more fundamental way, through four generic principles and four elementary domains: spatial, thermodynamic, functional, and temporal
-Describes and discusses developments in disciplines such as chemistry, catalysis, energy technology, applied physics, electronics, and materials science, which are relevant to process intensification from a chemical engineering perspective
Aimed at the postgraduate-level teaching of PI, The Fundamentals of Process Intensification will also be of interest to engineers working in the industry. This includes, not only the chemical processing sector, but the other industrial sectors where the word "efficiency" is the name of the game.
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Persons
Tom Van Gerven, PhD, is Professor of Process Intensification at the University of Leuven, Belgium and head of the Process Engineering for Sustainable Systems section in that University.
Georgios Stefanidis, PhD, is Professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium.
Content
Part One: The Principles
Introduction
The Four Principles
Part Two: The Domains
STRUCTURE - PI Approaches in Spatial Domain
ENERGY - PI Approaches in Thermodynamic Domain
SYNERGY - PI Approaches in Functional Domain
TIME - PI Approaches in Temporal Domain
Part Three: Fundamentals in Practice - Designing a Sustainable, Intensified Process
Process Intensification and Sustainable Processing
Ecological assessment of intensified technologies
Process Intensification and Inherent Safety
How to Design a Sustainable Intensified Process?
Case Studies
1
Introduction
1.1 Short History of Process Intensification
The timeline of process intensification () (Figure 1.1) is about four decennia long. Although the term "process intensification" started to appear in East European publications on metallurgy already in mid-1960s and early 1970s, it was meant simply as equivalent to "process improvement." In chemical engineering, the first appearance of process intensification as we know it today was marked by the paper on application of centrifugal fields (so-called "HiGee") in distillation processes [1] published in 1983 by Colin Ramshaw from the ICI's New Science Group. The ICI project had been triggered by one of the NASA research projects on producing high transfer rates by using centrifugal fields in the zero gravity environment. Consequently, in the first years after its birth process, intensification was dominated by the rotating equipment, which still presents an important area of PI. Gradually, other technologies such as heat exchanger () reactors, intensive mixing devices, or microchannel reactors emerged within the PI domain.
Figure 1.1 Timeline and milestones of process intensification.
Until early 1990s, process intensification was almost exclusively a British discipline. It was also the British BHR Group that organized the first international conference on PI in 1995 [2].
As can be seen in Figure 1.1 , the real acceleration came in the last years of the second and, in particular, the first years of the third millennium, when a fast growth of PI-related activities in industry and in academia was observed. National academic-industrial PI networks have been established, first in the United Kingdom, later in the Netherlands, and in Germany. Process intensification has found its way to the university curricula. First books on PI were published [3-5] and the first PI-dedicated journal Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification was launched in 2007. In 2005, the European Federation of Chemical Engineering recognized the importance of PI by establishing the Working Party on Process Intensification (www.efce.eu/wp_pi). Since then, the Working Party organized five European Process Intensification Conferences () and two International Process Intensification Conferences () held in Barcelona in 2017 and in Leuven in 2019. The European Roadmap for Process Intensification, published in 2008 [6] and based on the contributions by the experts from 16 countries, laid down a foundation for short- and mid-term research programs in the field. In 2009-2011, the roadmap got a follow-up in the form of the Delft Skyline Debates project, during which a multidisciplinary team of 75 leading academics and industrialists from different countries created a scientific vision on long-term developments in the field of process intensification that would reach beyond the horizon of 2050. The vision was published as a series of position papers [7] and also delivered a long-term research agenda for process intensification [8]. It is interesting to note that the above research agenda has gone beyond the traditional application area of PI, i.e. the chemical process industries, and has also addressed other areas including energy, water, and health. Also, in 2009, the European Process Intensification Centre (, www.europic-centre.eu) was established. The center presents an industry-driven platform for knowledge transfer in the field of PI and comprises chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers, technology providers, equipment vendors, and engineering companies. Last but not least, the recently established Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment () Institute (https://www.aiche.org/rapid), with private and governmental (US Department of Energy) funding exceeding 140 million dollars, presents a major development in this field in the United States and a proof of the importance of process intensification for the American economy.
It is interesting to note that after almost 40 years of development process, intensification has been brought again in connection with the space programs. Microchannel reactors for CO methanation are considered a promising technology for the in-situ resources utilization () on Mars or on the Moon [9]. It appears that process intensification may one day revisit its birthplace - the Space.
1.2 Definitions and Interpretations of Process Intensification
From its very beginning, process intensification has been subject to numerous discussions and interpretations. In particular, various definitions of process intensification have been proposed in the literature, as presented in Table 1.1. Here, one can see that a considerable diversity exists in the way the researchers perceive and describe process intensification.
Table 1.1 Definitions of process intensification over the years.
Process intensification . Author (year) References . [is the] devising exceedingly compact plant which reduces both the "main plant item" and the installations costs. Ramshaw (1983) [1] . [is concerned with] order-of-magnitude reductions in process plant and equipment. Heggs (1983) [10] . [is a] philosophy of plant design and construction whereby a given performance is achieved in very much smaller equipment - typically with a volume reduction of 2-3 orders of magnitude. Ramshaw (1985) [11] ... [is the] strategy of reducing the size of chemical plant needed to achieve a given production objective. Cross and Ramshaw (1986) [12] .[is a] novel design approach where fundamental process needs and business considerations are analyzed and innovative process technologies used to meet these optimally. Green (1998) [13] . [is the] development of innovative apparatuses and techniques that offer drastic improvements in chemical manufacturing and processing, substantially decreasing equipment volume, energy consumption, or waste formation, and ultimately leading to cheaper, safer, sustainable technologies. Stankiewicz and Moulijn (2000) [14] . [is the] strategy of making dramatic reductions in the physical size of a chemical plant while achieving a given production objective. Dautzenberg and Mukherjee (2001) [15] . [implies] faster reactions, better conversions, improved or new products and fewer by-products. Swamy and Narayana (2001) [16] ... [is the] revolutionary approach to process and plant design, development and implementation. Providing a chemical process with the precise environment it needs to flourish results in better products, and processes which are safer, cleaner, smaller, and cheaper. BHR Group (2003) [17] . refers to technologies that replace large, expensive, energy-intensive equipment or process with ones that are smaller, less costly, more efficient or that combine multiple operations into fewer devices (or a single apparatus). Tsouris and Porcelli (2003) [18] .[is] any chemical engineering development that leads to a substantially smaller, cleaner, safer and more energy-efficient technology. Costello (2004) [19] ... [is the] holistic approach starting with an analysis of economic constrains followed by the selection or development of a production process. Process intensification aims at drastic improvements of performance of a process, by rethinking the process as a whole. In particular, it can lead to the manufacture of new products which could not be produced by conventional process technology. Degussa (Franke 2009) [20] . [provides] radically innovative principles ("paradigm shift") in process and equipment design which can benefit (often with more than a factor 2) process and chain efficiency, capital and operating expenses, quality, wastes, process safety and more. European Roadmap for Process Intensification (2007) [6] . [stands for] an integrated approach for process and product innovation in chemical research and development, and chemical engineering in order to sustain profitability even in the presence of increasing uncertainties. Becht et al. (2009) [21]The interpretations of process intensification by various authors are quite diverse as well. For some, the miniaturization presents the fundamental issue of PI [22,23], with microreactors being the common...
