Advances in Petrochemicals

The petrochemical industry is an important area in our pursuits for economic growth, employment generation, and basic needs. It is a huge field that encompasses many commercial petrochemical and polymer-enabled products. The book is designed to help the reader, particularly students and researchers of petroleum science and engineering, to understand synthesis, processing, mechanics, and simulation of the petroleum processes. The selection of topics addressed and the examples, tables, and graphs used to illustrate them are governed, to a large extent, by the fact that this book is aimed primarily at petroleum science and engineering technologists. Undoubtedly, this book contains must read materials for students, engineers, and researchers working in the area of petrochemicals and petroleum and provides valuable insights into the related synthesis, processing, mechanisms, and simulation. This book is concise, self-explanatory, informative, and cost-effective

Investigation on liquid-liquid dispersion in stirred tanks through experimental approach and computational fluid dynamic (CFD)

Stirred tanks have a vital role in chemical engineering industries. Among the various applications of stirred tanks, mixing of two immiscible liquid phases is of interest in chemical processes. Mixing of two immiscible liquids in the stirred tank is an integral part of achieving a stable emulsion, which impacts the product quality. The design of the stirred tanks including but not limited to the geometry and dimensions of the vessel, the location, size, and the type of the impeller, fluid rheology, and the volume fraction of dispersed phase relies on comprehensive knowledge about the liquid-liquid mixing performance. One of the major factors affecting the stability of liquid-liquid dispersion is droplet size distribution (DSD) of dispersed phase. The study of DSD in liquid-liquid dispersions still relies on experimental data. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of dispersed phase viscosity, volume fraction, and agitation speed on dilute liquid-liquid dispersions. Therefore, the liquid-liquid dispersion in stirred tank has been evaluated through electrical resistance tomography (ERT), focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM), and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). ERT provides a non-intrusive online measurement to evaluate the mixing hydrodynamic of dispersion in the tank. FBRM technique is an online particle size measurement technique which evaluates the effect of mixing process on particle interactions and droplet size distribution. Using CFD coupled with population balance modeling (PBM) is the last step toward complete analysis of liquid-liquid dispersion process

Process Optimization for Liquid-Lquid Extraction

Experiments were designed to confirm the reliability of an Aspen Plus model simulating an active pharmaceutical ingredient recovery process for Sunovion Pharmaceuticals. The process includes a reaction between a triflate salt compound and potassium hydroxide, followed by a liquid-liquid extraction with methyl tert-butyl ether. The experiments looked to verify the previous work, study the effects of pH above pKa on the reaction, and study the effects of temperature on the extraction. Other solvents were examined for feasibility in the process

Developed Hybrid Model for Propylene Polymerisation at Optimum Reaction Conditions

YesA statistical model combined with CFD (computational fluid dynamic) method was used to explain the detailed phenomena of the process parameters, and a series of experiments were carried out for propylene polymerisation by varying the feed gas composition, reaction initiation temperature, and system pressure, in a fluidised bed catalytic reactor. The propylene polymerisation rate per pass was considered the response to the analysis. Response surface methodology (RSM), with a full factorial central composite experimental design, was applied to develop the model. In this study, analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated an acceptable value for the coefficient of determination and a suitable estimation of a second-order regression model. For better justification, results were also described through a three-dimensional (3D) response surface and a related two-dimensional (2D) contour plot. These 3D and 2D response analyses provided significant and easy to understand findings on the effect of all the considered process variables on expected findings. To diagnose the model adequacy, the mathematical relationship between the process variables and the extent of polymer conversion was established through the combination of CFD with statistical tools. All the tests showed that the model is an excellent fit with the experimental validation. The maximum extent of polymer conversion per pass was 5.98% at the set time period and with consistent catalyst and co-catalyst feed rates. The optimum conditions for maximum polymerisation was found at reaction temperature (RT) 75 °C, system pressure (SP) 25 bar, and 75% monomer concentration (MC). The hydrogen percentage was kept fixed at all times. The coefficient of correlation for reaction temperature, system pressure, and monomer concentration ratio, was found to be 0.932. Thus, the experimental results and model predicted values were a reliable fit at optimum process conditions. Detailed and adaptable CFD results were capable of giving a clear idea of the bed dynamics at optimum process conditions

Processing of Heavy Crude Oils

Unconventional heavy crude oils are replacing the conventional light crude oils slowly but steadily as a major energy source. Heavy crude oils are cheaper and present an opportunity to the refiners to process them with higher profit margins. However, the unfavourable characteristics of heavy crude oils such as high viscosity, low API gravity, low H/C ratio, chemical complexity with high asphaltenes content, high acidity, high sulfur and increased level of metal and heteroatom impurities impede extraction, pumping, transportation and processing. Very poor mobility of the heavy oils, due to very high viscosities, significantly affects production and transportation. Techniques for viscosity reduction, drag reduction and in-situ upgrading of the crude oil to improve the flow characteristics in pipelines are presented in this book. The heavier and complex molecules of asphaltenes with low H/C ratios present many technological challenges during the refining of the crude oil