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Process Intensification
(PI) is a revolutionary approach to process and plant design, development
and implementation.
The concepts
of PI were originally pioneered in the 1970s by Colin Ramshaw and
his co-workers at ICI, where PI was defined as a 'reduction in plant
size by at least a factor 100'. At BHR Group this definition has
been developed to say more about the 'why' and 'how'. PI is about
providing a chemical process with the precise environment it needs
to flourish, which results in better products, and processes which
are safer, cleaner, smaller - and cheaper.
Originally developed
for the bulk chemical industry, PI developments at BHR Group and
elsewhere have more recently been focused on the higher added-value
chemicals and pharmaceutical active ingredient sectors.
First and foremost,
PI (as practised at BHR Group) is a business driven approach - the
focus is always on what business benefits are targeted and might
be achieved. To ensure this is achieved, BHR Group has developed
structured methodologies for the application of PI.
Features
of PI Solutions
- Move from
batch to continuous processing
- Use of intensive
reactor technologies with high mixing and heat transfer rates
(e.g. FlexReactor, HEX Reactors) in place of conventional stirred
tanks
- Multidisciplinary
approach, which considers opportunities to improve the process
technology and underlying chemistry at the same time
- 'Plug and
play' process technology to provide flexibility in a multiproduct
environment
Established
PI Benefits
Typical
examples are:
- capital
cost reduced by 60%
- 99%
reduction in impurity levels resulting in significantly
more valuable product
- 70%
plus reduction in energy usage and hence substantial reduction
in operating cost
- 93% yield
first time out - better than fully optimised batch process
- 99.8%
reduction in reactor volume for a potentially hazardous
process, leading to inherently safe operation
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