Intensification in Microstructured Unit Operations Performance Comparison Between Mega and Micro Scale

Abstract

Process intensification refers to technologies and strategies that enable the physical sizes of conventional unit operations to be significantly reduced. The concept was pioneered by ICI in the late 1970s, when the primary goal was to reduce the capital cost of a production system. The motivation behind this approach was the recognition that the main plant items involved in the process (i.e. reactors, heat exchangers, separators etc.) only contribute to around 20% of the cost of a given plant. The balance is incurred by installation costs that involve pipe-work, structural support, civil engineering and so on. A major reduction of equipment size, coupled preferably with a degree of ``telescoping'' of equipment function --- for example reactor/heat exchangers or combined condenser/distillation/re-boilers --- could generate very significant cost savings by eliminating support structure, expensive column foundations and long pipe runs. Process intensification has the potential to deliver major benefits to the process industry, and many other sectors, by accelerating the response to market changes, facilitating scale-up and providing the basis for rapid development of new products and processes.