Chemical Engineering December 2010 - 22

Fractionation Column
Did somebody say pilot plant?
D
uring the first three days of last
month's AIChE Annual Meeting
(November 7-12; Salt Lake
City, Utah), like many attendees,
I hopped from session to session
listening to those papers that were of
the most interest to me. Generally, I
attended the energy, environmental
and separation sessions. I saw many
graphs, tables, process flow diagrams
and conclusions. I am guessing that
almost half of the projects that the
speakers described were computer
simulations. Of those computer simulation
projects, very few described
how their models were corroborated.
Regarding separations, for example,
WSMC-Comi-Condor-Tomoe 1-3 page Black & Blue - Chem Eng (r...
I do not remember any presenter stating
that their thermodynamic models
were checked against laboratory data,
and, many of the systems being studied
were non-ideal and highly nonideal.
Meanwhile, I saw biofuels computer
studies that failed to use the " f "
word, filtering.
That made Don Glatz's presentation
on the fourth day all the more
refreshing. I do not recall whether
he performed computer simulations
of the processes that he studied, but,
if he did, he had real pilot-plant data
to corroborate the models employed
by his computer software. Don works
for Koch Modular Process Systems
(KMPS; Paramus, N.J.; www.modularprocess.com).
Don's slide presentation
included drawings and photographs of
a Houston pilot plant. KMPS had performed
liquid-liquid extraction testing
on two completely different feed
streams, one using a Karr reciprocating
plate extractor, and one using a
Scheibel rotating disc contractor. The
columns, the pumps, the valves, the
Mike Resetarits is the technical director
at Fractionation Research Inc. (FRI; Stillwater,
Okla.; www.fri.org), a distillation
research consortium. Every month, Mike
shares his first-hand experience here
feeds and the products were all real.
That said, I am worried about the
next generation of chemical engineers
- the Facebook/Youtube/Twitter gang
of today's High Schools, the 100-textmessages-per-day
teenagers, " hardware
and software geniuses " according
to their helicoptering parents. Eventually,
a significant fraction of them will
be asked to actually pump, catalyze
and boil some real fluids. Valves will
need to be opened and closed. Columns
will need to be pressured up. Hands
will need to get dirty. The aptitudes of
the next generation might reside elsewhere.
Compounding my worries is
the appearance that the U.S. governmental
agencies that approve grants
seem to devote just as much money to
computer simulation work as they do
pilot planting. Computer simulations
certainly save money, but corroborations
of that work with pilot-plant and
industrial data will certainly sometimes
be required.
It would be foolish of me to be computer
software averse. I grew up performing
thermodynamic and process
simulation work - carrying 8-in.
thick decks of input cards back and
forth to the computer window associated
with my company's mainframe
computer. I loved it, but eventually I
had to go into real plants to check the
willingness of Mother Nature to abide
by my simulations' wishes. She was
never completely compliant.
I salute the pilot plant engineers and
Circle 23 on p. 58 or go to adlinks.che.com/29257-23
22 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com DeCember 2010
technicians of our industry. I also salute
the simulation engineers. Clearly,
we need them both. Someday, I would
like to introduce them to each other. ■
Mike Resetarits
resetarits@fri.org
https://nymail.accessintel.com/exchange/jcooke/Inbox/Fwd:%20eme...
http://www.fri.org http://www.modular http://www.process.com https://nymail.accessintel.com/exchange/jcooke/Inbox/Fwd:%20eme http://adlinks.che.com/29257-23 http://www.Che.Com
Chemical Engineering December 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering December 2010
