The Fundamentals of Process Intensification

Andrzej Stankiewicz, Tom Van Gerven, Georgios Stefanidis

• Publisher: Wiley-VCH
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783527680153
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Engineering General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This advanced textbook covering the fundamentals and industry applications of process intensification (PI) discusses both the theoretical and conceptual basis of the discipline. Since interdisciplinarity is a key feature of PI, the material contained in the book reaches far beyond the classical area of chemical engineering. Developments in other relevant disciplines, such as chemistry, catalysis, energy technology, applied physics, electronics and materials science, are extensively described and discussed, while maintaining a chemical engineering perspective.
Divided into three major parts, the first introduces the PI principles in detail and illustrates them using practical examples. The second part is entirely devoted to fundamental approaches of PI in four domains: spatial, thermodynamic, functional and temporal. The third and final part explores the methodology for applying fundamental PI approaches in practice. As well as detailing technologies, the book focuses on safety, energy and environmental issues, giving guidance on how to incorporate PI in plant design and operation -- safely, efficiently and effectively.

Part I
Principles

1
Introduction

1.1 Short History of Process Intensification

The timeline of process intensification (PI) (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 (HEX) 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 (EPIC) and two International Process Intensification Conferences (IPIC) 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 (EUROPIC, 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 (RAPID) 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 (ISRU) 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 s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• About the Authors
• Part I: Principles
• Part II: Domains
• Part III: Fundamentals in Practice – Designing a Sustainable, Intensified Process
• Index
• End User License Agreement