Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes, Third Edition

Chapter 22 Process Troubleshooting and Debottlenecking

Imagine that you are responsible for a chemical process unit. The pressure in a chemical reactor begins to increase. You are concerned about material failure and explosion. What do you do? For a case such as this with potential catastrophic consequences, it may be necessary to shut the process down. However, process shutdown and start-up are very costly, and if a safe alternative were available, you would certainly want to consider it as an option. In another scenario, what would you do if it had been observed that the purity of product from your unit had been decreasing continuously for several days, and customers had begun to complain of poor product quality and have threatened to ...