Solids processing operations are commonly encountered in flowsheets for petrochemical, polymer, inorganic and biochemical processes. Specialty polymers and biochemical processes are high growth areas where new plants design are being developed and efficient methodology to screen the numerous design alternatives is needed. Petrochemical and inorganic processes are more mature but could be more competitive if retrofitted to reduce raw materials and energy cost. The purpose of this work is to develop systematic procedures that can be used for the conceptual design of plants that include solids processing. Processing is commonly done in stages, where more detail and more accuracy are added to the design at each level in a hierarchial manner. The goal of the first step is to determine if any flowsheet is profitable, an if so, to find the best three of four flowsheets. Conceptual design is the rapid screening of process alternatives (using shot cut design models) to identify the best process to develop. The PIs plan to divide the work into three components: 1. The development of a 'system' approach to the synthesis of solids processes, i.e., equipment selection guidelines,an understanding of alternative flowsheet structures, the identification of the dominant design variables, and the sensitivity of the total processing costs to model parameters and the functional form of models. 2. The development of new models for solid processing units so that there is a consistent description of the process behavior, for example, the existing models for crystallizes contain descriptions of the particle size distribution, but the models for centrifuges, filters and dryers do not. 3. The development of a new testing stragtegy for solids processes, so that the minimum information about the characteristics of the solid (obtained by a chemist) can be used to develop a first design. The procedure will help the user to select the process equipment, to select the interconnections between the units, to identify the dominant design variables, to estimate the optimum design conditions for the process alternatives selected, to list other alternatives that should be considered, and to identify the best alternative. An interactive computer code based on this procedure will be the final product of the project.
