Evaluation of pharmaceutical cream production debottlenecking schemes

The main objective of this work is to model and debottleneck a pharmaceutical production of an anti-allergic cream. The base case process has a minimum cycle time of 29 hours which is equivalent to 66 batches/year. Four schemes were proposed for process debottlenecking due to the anticipated increase of the product demand of 150% in the market. By carrying out throughput analysis study, schemes that fulfil the debottlenecking objective were determined. Out of the four debottlenecking schemes, Scheme 4 was chosen, which proposed a new blending tank and intermediate tank, showed a production increase of over 150%

Optimisation of regeneration unit to achieve zero discharge in a paper mill

The advent of water pinch analysis as a tool for the design of optimal water recovery network has been one of the most significant advances in the area of water conservation over the last decade. Water pinch analysis is a systematic technique for implementing strategies to maximise water reuse and recycling through integration of water-using activities or processes. In this paper, possibility of achieving complete elimination of wastewater, i.e. zero discharge is assessed through the use of water regeneration units. Water regeneration has been widely accepted as an effective mean to further reduce water targets in water pinch analysis. Water regeneration involves the partial or total upgrading of water purity using any purification techniques. The regenerated water can either be reused in other water-using processes or recycled to the same process to further reduce water consumption and wastewater generation. A case study on a water-intensive paper mill process is used to illustrate how the water network can be optimised to achieve zero discharge. The targeting technique of water cascade analysis is used to locate the various network targets prior to the development of detailed network design. A solution with the minimum capital and annual operating costs was obtained

Water cascade analysis technique for minimum flowrate targeting: tabular and numerical approach

This work presents the Water Cascade Analysis (WCA) as a new technique to establish the minimum water and wastewater targets for continuous water-using processes. The WCA is a numerical alternative to the graphical water targeting technique known as water surplus diagram. The WCA is to the water surplus diagram in water pinch analysis as a problem table analysis is to the grand composite curves in heat pinch analysis. By eliminating the tedious interactive steps of the water surplus diagram, the WCA can quickly yield accurate water targets and pinch point locations for water network, thereby offering a key complimentary role to the water surplus diagram in the design and retrofit of a water recovery network. As in the case of the water surplus diagram, the WCA is not limited to mass transfer based operations and is applicable to a wide range of water using operations

Synthesis of maximum water recovery network for batch process systems

Development of maximum water recovery (MWR) networks for continuous processes based on Pinch Analysis has been rather well established. In contrast, less work has been done on the water minimisation problem for batch process systems. This work presents a two-stage procedure for the synthesis of an MWR network for a batch process system, covering both mass transfer-based and non-mass transfer-based water-using processes. The first stage of the synthesis task is to locate the various network targets, which include the overall and interval-based minimum utility targets (fresh water and wastewater flows) as well as storage capacity target using the newly developed time-dependent water cascade analysis (WCA) technique. In the second stage, a new tool called the time-water network is introduced to help in the development of the MWR network to achieve the established utility targets. This new network representation has an advantage of clearly depicting the time-dependent nature of a batch water network

Evaluating heat integration scheme for batch production of oleic acid

Research works on Process System Engineering are well established for conventional sectors of bulk chemical manufacturing, such as that in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries. However, relatively less attention has been given to the area of bio-related and fine chemical production. This paper demonstrates the use of process synthesis and analysis tools in evaluating heat integration schemes for a batch production of oleic acid from palm olein using immobilised lipase. Oleic acid is a fatty acid found in animal and vegetables oils. It is mainly used in the food industry to make synthetic butters and cheeses, as well as to flavour baked goods, candy, ice-cream and sodas. In the first section of this paper, a case study involving the production of oleic acid from palm olein using immobilised lipase is modelled in a commercial batch process simulation software SuperPro Designer v5.0. Apart from performing the mass and energy balances on the overall process, detailed scheduling of the batch manufacturing has also been carried out. This provides the necessary information to carry out the batch heat integration scheme, i.e. the exact start and end time, as well as the duration when the process hot and cold streams exist. In the second section of this paper, technique is presented for integrating hot and cold process streams in the oleic acid production case study. Unlike continuous processes, apart from the heat transfer driving force, time dimension is another important decision variable to be considered in a batch heat integration work. In this case study, the maximum energy recovery (MER) objective is achieved without the use of heat storage system

Engineering aspects of herbal and phytochemical processing: a Malaysian perspective

Malaysia has a strong knowledge base of herbal product usage with a wide user base. Several Malaysian herbs have strong potential to be developed into global herbal medicines such as Tongkat Ali for impotence, Kacip Fatimah for hormone replacement therapy and Hempedu Bumi for diabetes and hypertension. In order to produce herbal medicines, standardisation, i.e. the process of producing herbal extracts or phytochemicals in which product potency is guaranteed through consistency in active compound profile and content level, is essential. Proper process development and effective analysis are the keys to standardisation. Process development of herbal processing in Malaysia involves modelling and optimisation studies of extraction equipment such as batch solid liquid extraction. In order to build effective process models and apply process design methods, physical and chemical data is required of the local herbs. At present very little knowledge is available of such parameters such as solubility, partition coefficient and heat transfer coefficients. In order to build a niche in the herbal medicine market, Malaysia can undertake product development based on local knowledge in terms of product formulation, form, and usage. Lastly, the experiences at the Chemical Engineering Pilot Plant (CEPP), the national research centre for process and product development in natural products and bioprocess is covered

The use of computer-aided process design and simulation tools in undergraduate research projects

This paper demonstrates the use of computer-aided process design (CAPD) tools in guiding undergraduate research projects. Over the past two years, SuperPro Designer, a batch process simulation software has been integrated into the one-year undergraduate research projects at the Chemical Engineering Pilot Plant, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (CEPP, UTM). Four different research projects were successfully carried out and it was found out that the CAPD tools serve as good educational concept in delivering different modes of learning. It was also found that through the use of simulation software that the students underwent all six levels of Blooms Hierarchy of learning

Synthesis of mass exchange network for batch processes - part 1: utility targeting

Synthesis of optimal mass exchange network (MEN) for continuous processes based on Pinch Analysis has been rather well established. In contrast, very little work has been done on mass exchange network synthesis (MENS) for batch process systems. The batch process systems referred to in this work can be defined as processes which operate discontinuously and deliver the product in discrete amounts, with frequent starts an stops. There is a clear need to develop a MENS procedure for batch process systems which are industrially very common as well as important. Techniques developed in this paper for the batch MENS involved the first key steps in the synthesis task, i.e. setting the utility targets ahead of batch MEN design. The utility-targeting approach employs the vertical and horizontal cascading approaches in a newly developed tool, i.e. time-dependent composition interval table that has been adapted from heat exchange network synthesis for batch processes. Prior to MEN design, the targeting procedure establishes the minimum utility (solvent) and mass storage targets for a maximum mass recovery network. These targets are essential for network design and batch process rescheduling

Synthesis of mass exchange networks for batch processes. Part 2: Batch network design

The first part of this series of papers (see (1)) presented a methodology of identifying the minimum utility targets for a mass exchange network (MEN) for a batch process. This paper describes a procedure for designing a minimum utility network. The Time-Grid Diagram (TGD) and the overall time – grid diagram (OTGD) that include the time dimension in network design have been introduced to provide a better representation of the mass exchange network for a batch process. It is desired to design a maximum mass recovery (MMR) network that will achieve the minimum utility targets set during the targeting stage of the synthesis problem [1]