TABLE OF CONTENTS The problems in this appendix are typical of industrial design problems. They are grouped into sections corresponding to different sectors of the chemical and fuels industries. Most of these are variants on commercially practiced technologies, but many are novel processes that may not yet be commercialized.
The problem statements are intentionally short, and little information is given beyond one or two references. Most of the problems are referenced to U.S. patents that give process concepts, chemical paths, and yield data, as this is often the starting point for technical and economic analysis in industrial design. There is no copyright on U.S. patents, and all of the referenced patents are available in the online material at http://books.elsevier.com/companions. Patent references are not given for older "traditional" processes, as flowsheets and yields for these processes can be found in the encyclopedias listed in Chapter 8.
An effort has been made to include a range of problems reflecting the broad spectrum of industries in which chemical engineers are employed. It must be recognized, however, that reliable price data for bulk quantities of specialty compounds may be hard to obtain. Many of the problems are therefore based on products and feeds for which the prices are listed in ICIS Chemical Pricing or Oil and Gas Journal.
Biochemical processes, i.e., processes that use enzymes, cells, or micro-organisms to effect chemical transformation or separation, are now prevalent in almost every sector of the chemicals industry. In almost any industry, chemical engineers are faced with...
