Abstract
(Englisch)
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Chemical engineering, process engineering, production technology
This project considers the integration of the two key steps common to conversion processes -reaction and separation - to develop new processes and new process configurations that will make a step change to conventional processes with respect to product yield and product quality, energy consumption, waste generation, environmental impact and capital investment. It is expected that these new processes will contain intensified multifunctional units in which there is a high degree of integration of the processing steps. The project will present opportunities to develop truly novel technologies, which may offer substantial benefits with respect to the above criteria.
Generic models and methods will be developed to allow a range of alternative processes to be screened to best exploit interactions between the reaction, separation and mixing processes. These designs may contain highly novel and highly integrated multifunctional devices, combining reaction, separation and mixing steps within processing units, or the processing steps within an unintegrated sequences may be designed to optimise the benefits of interactions between them. The new models and methods will be applied to industrial case studies relevant to a range of industries (e.g. pharmaceutical and biochemical, as well as petrochemical).
Promising process equipment will be designed, modelled, analysed and tested. Highly novel processes, including the reactive dividing wall column, will be developed and evaluated, and several relatively immature technologies will be further advanced, potentially resulting in step changes in processing technologies. The models and methods developed will form the basis of generic computer-aided process-engineering tools for synthesis and optimisation of reaction-separation sequences. A general methodology will be developed allowing an end user to estimate and. apply the optimal degree of integration regarding the reaction and separation steps.
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