Chemical processes involve reacting products to form new ones, often building larger molecules from smaller ones. Catalysts can aid reactions, and pilot plant testing is important before building a full-scale plant. Raw materials are procured and purified, and waste is minimized for an efficient and profitable operation.
A chemical process is any laboratory or industrial activity in which products are chemically reacted with each other to form new products. The reactions change the structure of the product molecules, rather than adding them together in a mixing process. Mixtures may result from these activities, but a chemical change has occurred in one or more of the reacted materials.
Process designs often involve building larger molecules from smaller molecules found in raw materials. Some reactions can break apart larger molecules and rearrange them in different ways to produce a final product. Multiple reactions may be required to produce a desired molecule and may include additional raw materials or changes in temperature or pressure to cause different products to form. A process can be a single reaction step or an industrial operation that creates finished chemicals on a large scale.
Chemicals are first produced in lab-scale equipment, both to confirm the necessary steps and to fine-tune the reaction temperatures and pressures often needed for reactions to occur. Many industrial chemical processes take place at high temperatures and/or pressures, but less frequently the reactions can take place at very low pressures or under vacuum, or at very low temperatures.
Catalysts can be used to aid the chemical reaction when designing a chemical process. These are products that speed up or speed up the reaction, produce more of the desired end product than other byproducts, or in some cases allow reactions to occur at lower temperatures or pressures to reduce costs. High pressure or temperature reaction vessels can be expensive to manufacture, so a catalyst can be important when designing chemical plants.
Testing in pilot plants, or small-scale operations, can be the next step in process design. Reaction times, temperatures and pressures must be reviewed and optimized to produce the correct chemicals and reduce waste materials. Products must be separated and purified in additional steps, and further reactions may be required before making a final product. Waste materials must be determined and ways to neutralize or dispose of them must be found to minimize environmental problems. Pilot plant testing is important, because some laboratory tests do not work well when done in larger equipment, and design changes may be necessary before a full-scale plant can be built.
A large-scale industrial chemical process can take years to build at great expense, so care is taken to verify all equipment and process control requirements before construction begins. Chemical plants require raw materials to be procured by train or truck, using liquid tanks, cylinders or high pressure vessels for gas, and storage space for bags or drums. Reaction tanks or towers are required to produce the raw or unpurified end products, and all piping, electricity, and instrumentation must be designed to connect all parts of the process. Chemical process designs include methods to separate and recycle unused raw materials at the front of the process to reduce waste and operating costs.
When finished products have been purified and separated from the chemical process stream, storage may be required until they are shipped to customers. This may include additional tanks for liquids, gas cylinders and storage for drums or bags and some products may have specific storage temperatures or conditions to maintain quality and avoid safety issues. A manufacturer may have trucks or tankers available to ship large quantities to customers, and these fleets may be owned or leased.
Each reaction in a chemical process is one step, and many can be combined into a complex chain of events called a chemical plant. Chemical process engineers and plant designers carefully consider the interaction of all stages to create an efficient operation. Product quality, energy efficiency and waste minimization are all carefully considered in process design and are critical to producing a profitable chemical operation.
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