2616results about "Process control/regulation" patented technology

The invention relates to processes and plants for continuous solution polymerization. Such plant and processes include a pressure source, a polymerization reactor, downstream of said pressure source, pressure let-down device, downstream of said polymerization reactor, and a separator, downstream of said pressure let-down device, wherein said pressure source is sufficient to provide pressure to said reaction mixture during operation of said process plant to produce a single-phase liquid reaction mixture in said reactor and a two-phase liquid-liquid reaction mixture in said separator in the absence of an additional pressure source between said reactor and said separator.

Energy-efficient gasification-based multi-generation apparatus, facilities, or systems, and methods of modifying existing gasification-based multi-generation apparatus and the various conventional thermal coupling arrangements, are provided. Apparatus for managing waste heat recovery through integration of a gasification-based multi-generation facility or other multi-generation system with a hydrocarbon refining facility or other hydrocarbon refining system and methods of providing the respective integration are also provided. An exemplary apparatus includes an integrated site energy management system configured according to one or more process-based thermal coupling schemes comprising one or more thermal coupling arrangements between a gasification-based multi-generation system or facility and a hydrocarbon refining system or facility. The gasification-based multi-generation system or facility can include an acid gas removal system or plant configured to remove acidic contaminants from a raw syngas feed to thereby provide a treated syngas feed, the acid gas removal system or plant containing a separation section including a solvent regenerator, and a gasification system configured to generate the raw syngas feed from a carbon-based feedstock. The hydrocarbon refining system or facility can include an aromatics system or plant containing a xylene products separation section including one or more of the following: an Extract column and a Raffinate column. The integrated site energy management system can include a hot-water system extending between the separation section of the acid gas removal system or plant and the xylene products separation section of the aromatics system or plant, and a plurality of added heat exchanger units providing various advanced thermal coupling arrangements.

A system for on line inference and control of physical and chemical properties of polypropylene and its copolymers is described. The system comprises models for the inference of physical and chemical properties that are not continuously measured and relevant models to control these properties as well as production rate, density of the reaction medium and other process variables of interest. The described control system allows to maximize production rate as well as catalyst yield in the producing process.

A method, apparatus, and system for a solar-driven chemical plant are disclosed. An embodiment may include a solar thermal receiver aligned to absorb concentrated solar energy from one or more solar energy concentrating fields. A solar driven chemical reactor may include multiple reactor tubes located inside the solar thermal receiver. The multiple reactor tubes can be used to gasify particles of biomass in the presence of a carrier gas. The gasification reaction may produce reaction products that include hydrogen and carbon monoxide gas having an exit temperature from the tubes exceeding 1000 degrees C. An embodiment can include a quench zone immediately downstream of an exit of the chemical reactor. The quench zone may immediately quench via rapid cooling of at least the hydrogen and carbon monoxide reaction products within 0.1-10 seconds of exiting the chemical reactor to a temperature of 800 degrees C. or less.

Off-gas from a carbon black furnace is employed as a combustion gas feed stream to the burner or combustion zone of the same or a different carbon black furnace in accordance with certain embodiments, suitable conduit and valving is provided to pass off-gas, from which carbon black has been substantially removed, from any and all of multiple different carbon black furnaces to the burner. The off-gas is heated, preferably by plasma heating, and dewatered. Carbon dioxide stripping or rather stripping of gas components from the dewatered heated off-gas is found to be unnecessary to achieve economically favorable use of off-gas recirculation.

Fluid sensor methods and systems adapted for monitoring and / or controlling distillation operations in fluidic systems, such as batch distillation operations or continuous distillation operations, are disclosed. Preferred embodiments are directed to process monitoring and / or process control for unit operations involving endpoint determination of a distillation, for example, as applied to a liquid-component-switching operation (e.g., a solvent switching operation), a liquid-liquid separation operation, a solute concentration operation, a dispersed-phase concentration operation, among others.

Off-gas from a carbon black furnace is employed as a combustion gas feed stream to the burner or combustion zone of the same or a different carbon black furnace in accordance with certain embodiments, suitable conduit and valving is provided to pass off-gas, from which carbon black has been substantially removed, from any and all of multiple different carbon black furnaces to the burner. The off-gas is heated, preferably by plasma heating, and dewatered. Carbon dioxide stripping or rather stripping of gas components from the dewatered heated off-gas is found to be unnecessary to achieve economically favorable use of off-gas recirculation.

Multiple components are selected, conveyed, and measured in a polymerization system. A control system adjusts the system variables to the desired values. Portions of the components can be fed to a pre-contactor before introduction into the polymerization reactor. The catalyst component concentrations and residence times are tightly controlled in the pre-contactor to affect product properties. The pre-contactor can be a single or multiple combinations of a CSTR or plug flow pre-contactors.

The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for making a peroxycarboxylic acid. The apparatus includes a reaction catalyst and a guard column for pretreating one or more reagents, which can increase the life, activity, and / or safety of the reaction catalyst. The peroxycarboxylic acid compositions made by the method and apparatus can include one or more peroxycarboxylic acids.

A method, apparatus, and system for a solar-driven chemical reactor are disclosed, including a solar thermal receiver aligned to absorb concentrated solar energy. Some embodiments include a solar driven chemical reactor that has multiple reactor tubes. Some embodiments include one of 1) one or more apertures open to an atmosphere of the Earth or 2) one or more windows, to pass the concentrated solar energy into the solar thermal receiver. This energy impinges on the multiple reactor tubes and cavity walls of the receiver and transfer energy by solar radiation absorption and heat radiation, convection, and conduction. In this way, the energy causes reacting particles to drive the endothermic chemical reaction flowing in the reactor tubes. The design of the multiple reactor tubes and solar thermal receiver can be adapted per a solar flux profile to take advantage of variations in the concentrations of solar flux in the profile.

Described herein in one embodiment is a plant for the continuous solution polymerization of one or more monomers in a solvent, e.g., a hydrocarbon solvent. In one aspect, the plant comprises a high pressure pump and at least one heat exchanger downstream of the pump. In another aspect a feed is cooled by three heat exchangers which are refrigerated by means of a common three stage compressor. In another aspect, the plant comprises a primary reactor and a secondary reactor arranged to operate in parallel, in which the ratio of volume of the primary reactor to the secondary reactor is in the range of 60:40 to 95:5. In another aspect, a method of defouling a heat exchanger is provided in which the level of liquid refrigerant in the heat exchanger is temporarily lowered.

Parallel flow reaction systems comprising four or more reaction channels are disclosed. Distribution systems, and parallel flow reaction systems comprising such distribution systems are also disclosed. Specifically, the distribution systems comprise a feed-composition subsystem for providing a different feed composition to each of the four or more reactors. In preferred embodiments, the feed composition subsystem comprises at least one set of four or more feed-component flow restrictors, each of the four or more feed-component flow restrictors having a flow resistance that varies relative to other flow restrictors in the set.

A polymerization process and apparatus in which olefin monomer is polymerized in a liquid diluent in a loop reactor having a relatively smooth inner wall. Another aspect of the invention includes a first polymerization step in which at least one olefin monomer is polymerized in a liquid diluent in a loop reactor to produce a first product fluid slurry comprising liquid diluent and solid olefin polymer particles having a relatively low melt index. A second polymerization step is then provided in which at least one olefin monomer is polymerized in a liquid diluent in the same loop reactor to produce a fluid slurry comprising liquid diluent and solid olefin polymer particles having a relatively high melt index.