Process Intensification: An Overview of Principles and Practice

Abstract

columns, static mixers. More recent developments include spinning disc reactor, oscillating flow reactor, loop reactors, spinning tube in tube reactor, heat exchange reactor, microchannel reactors, etc. Lately, it has become increasingly important for the chemical process industries not only to remain cost competitive but to do so in an environmentallyfriendly or "green" manner. It is fitting, therefore, that many of the processes based on the PI philosophy also enables clean technology to be practised. For instance, high selectivity operations in intensified reactors on their own will reduce or ideally eliminate the formation of unwanted by-products. Combining such intensified reactors with renewable energy sources such as solar energy would give even greater impetus to achieving these green processing targets. Figure 1. Classification of process intensification equipment and methods [2] 3. Fundamentals of chemical engineering operations 3.1. Reaction Engineering (APH)

Ecological Advanced Innovation Design Approach for Efficient Integrated Upstream and Downstream Processes

“…Process Intensification (PI) can be generally defined as a knowledge-based methodology leading to more efficient processes, equipment and plant design, characterised by reduced energy consumption and losses, raw material and cost reduction, increased process flexibility, quality, safety, and better environmental performance (Boodhoo and Harvey, 2013). The concept of Process Intensification dates back to the research of Prof. Ramshaw and his colleagues (Cross and Ramshaw, 1986;Reay et al, 2013) and subsequently became more diverse in its implementation and practice, from processes mainly involving gas/liquid systems to the handling of solids (Wang et al, 2017).…”

“…The concept of Process Intensification dates back to the research of Prof. Ramshaw and his colleagues (Cross and Ramshaw, 1986;Reay et al, 2013) and subsequently became more diverse in its implementation and practice, from processes mainly involving gas/liquid systems to the handling of solids (Wang et al, 2017). Its modern application is not only limited to chemical engineering and now includes environmental aspects of process engineering (Boodhoo and Harvey, 2013) and challenges of heat and mass transfer in other sectors (Law et al, 2017). The PI technological databases are continuously evolving and currently cover a wide range of more than 155 processing methods and equipment, such as equipment carrying out chemical reactions, operations not involving chemical reactions, multifunctional reactors, hybrid separation methods, alternative energy sources and others (Boodhoo and Harvey, 2013;Wang et al, 2017).…”

“…Its modern application is not only limited to chemical engineering and now includes environmental aspects of process engineering (Boodhoo and Harvey, 2013) and challenges of heat and mass transfer in other sectors (Law et al, 2017). The PI technological databases are continuously evolving and currently cover a wide range of more than 155 processing methods and equipment, such as equipment carrying out chemical reactions, operations not involving chemical reactions, multifunctional reactors, hybrid separation methods, alternative energy sources and others (Boodhoo and Harvey, 2013;Wang et al, 2017). Existing PI databases with intensified equipment types, methods and applications enable engineers to identify and implement the appropriate process-intensifying solution faster in accordance with the objectives and constraints of their development tasks.…”

“…A comparative study of strategy-and ideation-oriented eco-innovation tools is presented in (Tyl et al, 2014). A recent extensive literature review published by the authors (Livotov et al, 2019c) mentions in the field of eco-innovation in process engineering in the first place Green Process Engineering (Poux et al, 2016), Process Intensification (Boodhoo and Harvey, 2013), and Process Design for Sustainability (Azzaro-Pantel, 2015). Since 2000 the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving TRIZ (Altshuller, 1984;VDI 2016) has been applied for development of cleaner and eco-friendly production processes.…”

Reliable Identification and Selection of Critical Innovation Design Tasks for Process Intensification in Process Engineering

“…Sustainable innovation and design can be characterised as a sequence of decisions concerning various requirements and multiple solutions (Masui, 2001;Azzaro-Pantel, 2015;Tyl et al, 2016). Current process design practice in the field of Process Engineering is based on the Process Intensification approach (Boodhoo and Harvey, 2013) and tends to focus on improvements based on the stakeholder requirements without taking into consideration the relationship between importance and fulfilment level of requirements in the existing processes and without anticipation of cause-effect chains and negative side effects from the technical and environmental point of view. Therefore, there is a need to develop a process innovation design method for process intensification under consideration of processing technologies, applied equipment with its advantages and drawbacks, material and energy flows.…”