Chemical Engineering October 2011 - 20

Kirkpatrick Award
KirKpatricK award Honorees
T
he three other Kirkpatrick award finalists were also honored
at the September 12 reception in Houston.
Environ International Corp. (Arlington, Va.; www.environcorp.com)
was recognized for its system for biological treatment
of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The system utilizes existing
biological wastewater-treatment facilities for destruction of biodegradable
VOCs and other organic, hazardous air pollutants
(HAPs). Environ's technology has been demonstrated at three U.S.
petroleum-refining and chemical facilities, and the company has
plans to extend the U.S. patent-pending treatment approach to
eight additional facilities in coming months.
Environ developed the treatment method, known as VOC
BioTreat, as an alternative to incineration or to systems involving
activated-carbon VOC treatment. The VOC BioTreat protocol has
demonstrated the ability to meet VOC and HAP handling requirements
in U.S. state and federal emissions regulations.
VOC BioTreat works by piping VOC offgases into an existing
wastewater-treatment tank that contains activated sludge at depths
of greater than 18 ft. Microbes in the tank break down VOCs as
they bubble up through the tank. VOC BioTreat can be retrofitted
into existing wastewater treatment facilities for somewhat lower
capital costs than those associated with installing thermal oxidizers
or activated-carbon VOC-treatment systems, but the annual operating
costs are less than 10% of those for conventional systems.
In addition to the VOC BioTreat technology, Environ has developed
a test method to confirm the performance of the proprietary
technology within a plant setting. The ability to reliably test for
VOCs is critical for acceptance from the regulatory authorities, the
company says.
The VOC BioTreat technology recently received the grand prize
for research excellence in the American Academy of Environmental
Engineers' E3 competition.
NSR Technologies Inc. NSR (Decatur, Ill.; www.nsr-tech.com)
has developed a " green " chemical pathway to potassium hydroxide
(KOH) solution using membrane separations technology and
ion-exchange chromatography. The manufacturing process, which
yields 45-50% KOH solutions and 7% hydrochloric acid, is the
first environmentally friendly, cost-effective alternative to electrolysis
(chlor-alkali) in decades, NSR says. The process generates
high-purity products free of mercury and oxidizing species. Also,
it does not produce chlorine gas.
The strong base KOH is used for the manufacture of potassiumcontaining
products, such as the food additive potassium citrate
and the water-treatment agent potassium permanganate. It is also
a key ingredient in soap and detergent processes, as well as agricultural
fertilizers and pharmaceuticals.
NSR's process uses a multipass design that reduces the fluid recirculation
requirements, allowing a smaller plant size and lower costs.
The company also designed filter cells that minimized internal leaks
and shunt/stray losses. Finally, NSR's chromatographic purification
process removes 95-99% of the salt from cell-stack KOH product.
with sizes in the range of 0.1 to 5.0 mm
in width. The smaller dimensions allow
processes to accelerate by a factor of 10
to 1,000 by reducing the distances required
for heat and mass transfer, thus
decreasing the transfer resistance between
process fluids and channel walls.
NSR's process consumes 40% less energy than a conventional
process per unit of product manufactured.
Invensys Operations Management. Along with ConocoPhillips
(Houston; www.conocophillips.com), Invensys Operations
Management (Plano, Tex.; www.invensys.com) has developed a
method for online monitoring of hydrofluoric acid (HF) catalyst in
the production of octane. The non-spectroscopic method, called
ACA.HF Alkylation Measurement Solution, lowers the cost of online
HF monitoring while simplifying the measurement and reducing
risk to plant workers.
To measure HF levels, the Invensys approach involves analyzing
differential responses from online sensors. The system takes readings
of water concentration from electrode-free, non-contacting
conductivity sensors, as well as simultaneously measuring density
and mass-flow levels with a Coriolis flowmeter. The company has
developed specialized software to calculate HF levels from the
readings.
HF alkylation is a widely used process to produce isooctane for
blending into gasoline. In the process, HF catalyzes the reaction
between isobutane and four-carbon olefins to form octane. There
are three main components in the alkylation catalyst stream, Invensys
explains: HF (usually around 90%); water (about 1%); and
acid-soluble organic molecules (ASO; which make up the rest).
" Tight control of these constituent concentrations, which can save
millions of dollars per year, requires accurate monitoring of the levels
of all three components, " the company says. Using the formula
%HF + %water + %ASO = 100%, the Invensys system can correct
for temperature effects and for second-order influences of interactions
between ASO and water.
Early approaches to HF monitoring involved manual samples
and laboratory analysis, which offers limited accuracy and can
expose laboratory workers to toxic substances. More recent Fourier-transform
near infrared (FTNIR) techniques are very accurate,
but their adaptation for realtime online monitoring is complex and
costly, Invensys says.
The new HF monitoring system costs about half as much as
an FTNIR system, and it requires minimal maintenance because
its core components are built from rugged materials
long-proven in industrial HF applications. The sampling system
amounts to a continuously flowing sample from a slipstream
of the process, Invensys says. " Based on established
industry methods, estimated mean time between failures of the
technology exceeds 29 years, " the company adds. Additional
advantages include minimized potential for corrosion and
greatly reduced potential for plant and laboratory workers to
be exposed to the sample.
The system's hardware is a sampling panel, located in the hazardous
area, that contains all fluid-handling components, sensors
and signal transmitters. Data are transmitted from the panel to a
distributed control system (DCS), with which users interact via a
human-machine interface in the nonhazardous area.
■
As a result, system volumes can be
reduced ten-fold or more compared to
conventional hardware, such as fixedbed
or slurry-bed reactors.
A major advantage to microchannel
reactors revolves around the greatly
enhanced productivities compared to
20 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com oCtober 2011
traditional plants that are enabled
by the microchannels. The ability to
boost productivity through distributed
production - production carried
out in small-scale plants located
near the source of feedstocks, as well
as near markets - has been made
http://www.environ http://www.conocophillips.com http://www.corp.com http://www.invensys.com http://www.nsr-tech.com http://www.Che.Com
Chemical Engineering October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering October 2011
