Engr.

Kiran Khurshid
Batch vs. Continuous
 Variables to Consider:
 Size
 – Batch < 500 tonne/yr ~ 1.5 tonne/day
< 2 m3 of liquid or solid per day)
 – Continuous > 5000 tonne/yr
Batch vs. Continuous
 Flexibility
 – Batch can handle many different feeds and products –
more flexible
 – Continuous is better for smaller product slate and
fewer feeds

 Continuous allows the process to benefit from the

“Economy of Scale,” but the price is less flexibility
Batch vs. Continuous
 Other Issues
 – Accountability and quality control – FDA requires
batch accountability
 – Safety – batch is more accident prone
 – Scheduling of equipment – may be most important
issue
 – Seasonal demands – e.g., antifreeze, food products
Profit Margin

 If $ Products - $ Raw Material < 0,

 then do not bother to pursue this process, but start

looking for an alternate route
Recycle

 Since raw materials make up from 25 to 75% of total

operating costs, should recover as much raw material
as possible
 Exception is when raw materials are very cheap

 For example, Air Separation

Basic Recycle Structures

 Separate and purify unreacted feed from products and

then recycle
 Recycle feed and products together and use a purge
stream, e.g., hydrogen with purge as fuel gas
 Recycle feed and products together but do not use a
purge stream - must come to Equilibrium
 Discuss issues related to recycling streams in food
industries.
Batch Processing
 Needs:
 Small production volume
 Seasonal variations in product demand
 Requirement to document history of previous batch
 Difference from continuous process
 Require transient balance
 Sequencing – order & time of processing steps
 If one equipment is producing more than 1 product
 Optimal size of equipment
 Time take for a complete process
 Trade off between economics & operability
Design calculations
 Recipe
 Operations are unsteady state
 Often existing equipment is used – not designed
specifically for recipe
 Transfer from equipment and cleaning important
 Recycling and energy integration issues
Design calculations
 In the production of an Active Pharmaceutical
Ingredients, the following batch recipe is used:
 Step 1: 500 kg of reactant A (MW = 100 kg/kmol) is
added to 5000 kg of a mixture of organic solvent (MW
= 200 kg/kmol) containing 60% excess of a second
reactant B (MW = 125 kg/kmol) in a jacketed reaction
vessel (R-301). The reactor is sealed, and the mixture
is stirred and heated (using steam in jacket) until the
temperature has risen to 95oC. The density of the
reacting mixture is 875 kg/m3 and the time taken for
the reaction to complete is 1.5 h.
Design calculations
 Step 2: Once the reaction mixture has reached 95oC, a
solid catalyst is added and reaction takes place while
the batch is stirred. The required conversion is 94%
and the time taken foe completion is 2 hours.
 Step 3: The mixture is drained from the reactor and
passed through a filter screen (Sc-301) that removes
the catalyst and stops any further reaction. The time
taken to complete this step is 0.5 hour.
Design calculations
 The reaction mixture (containing API, solvent &
unused reactants) is transferred to a distillation
column, T-301, where it is distilled under vacuum.
Virtually all of the unused reactants and approximately
50% of the solvent are removed as overhead product
(time taken = 3.5 h). The end point for the distillation
is when the solution remaining in the still contains less
than 1 mol% of reactant B. This ensures that the
crystallized API, produced in Step 5, meets
specifiaction.
Design calculations
 Step 5: The material remaining in the still is pumped
to a crystallizer, CR-301, where the mixture is cooled
under vacuum and approximately 60% of the API from
Step 2 crystallizes out. (time taken = 2.0 h)
 Step 6: The API is filtered from the crystallizer and
placed in a tray dryer, TD-301, where any entrapped
solvent is removed (time taken = 4 h)
Design calculations
 Step 7: The dried API is sealed and packaged in a
packing machine, PK-301, and sent to a warehouse for
shipment to the customer (time taken = 1.0 h).
Perform a preliminary design on the required items for
this batch process
Design calculations

 Transfer from equipment and cleaning important

Gravity drain or pump
Cleaning – GMP/documentation

 Recycling and energy integration issues

Recycling – often use dump tank and accumulate material

from several runs
Design calculations
 Design the equipment using sequence
 Step 1: Reaction Vessel-Preheat
 Step 2 Reaction Vessel – Reaction
 Step 3 Draining Reaction Vessel & Catalyst Filtration
 Step 4 Distillation of Reaction Products
 Step 5 Cooling & Crystallization of Products
 Step 6 Filtration & Drying
 Step 7: Packaging
Gantt charts & Scheduling
 Draw the Gantt Chart that illustrates the sequence of
events in the production of the API in the previous
example
Gantt Chart & Scheduling
Sample
Process Unit Time spent
Sequence Operation
Step 1 Reactor
Step 2 Reactor
Step 3 Filter
Step 4 Still
Step 5 Crystallizer
Step 6 Dryer
Step 7 Packaging
Time = 0 1 3 5
Prepare the Gantt Chart for the
example
Time spent
RC-301
SC-301
T-301
CR-301
TD-301
PK-301
NonOverlapping, Overlapping
Operations & Cycle Time
 Repeat of sequence
 If one unit is able to produce 600 kg, then how many
times will you be able to produce 5000 kg
 How would we arrange the sequence?
Example of NonOverlapping
Time spent
R-
301
Sc-
301

T-
301
CR
-
301
T
D-
301
PK
-
301
Nonooverlapping
 The total processing time for this sequence:
𝑚

𝑇𝑁𝑂 = 𝑛 ෍ 𝑡𝑖
𝑖=1
 Calculate the total time required to produce 5000 kgf
the product produced in Example
Nonooverlapping
 Using this scheme, describe what happen to the unit
 Fine for a plant that has only one shift a day
 The length of shift will be fitted to the complete
sequence cycle
 Limitation: only one batch is produced per day
 Not efficient
 Easy to schedule
 No prolonged waiting of intermediate products
 Backward shifting
(Ovelapping example)
Time spent
R-
301
Sc
-
301
T-
301
CR
-
301
T
D-
Shift backward
301
PK
-
301

Reduced total
time
 Limiting case
Time spent
R-
301
Sc-
301

T-
301
CR
-
301
TD
-
301
PK
-
301
Exercise
 Compare the amount of time spent when you arranged
the set example using the nonoverlapping and
overlapping operations method
 What can you deduce?
Cycle time
 A batch process involves 4 pieces of equipment with
the following process times
 Heating and Mixing 2.5 h
 Reaction 3.5 h
 Filtration and Drying 1.5 h
 Crystallization and packaging 2.0 h
 Determine the cycle times for non-overlapping and
overlapping operation.
Multiple Products

 When we have multiple products that can be produced

in the same equipment, the scheduling of multiple
batches requires careful planning
 The different products may require the same
processing steps, or more often will require only a
subset of all possible steps.
 Moreover, the order in which a batch process uses
different equipment might also differ from product to
product
Flowshop Plants
 A plant that must produce three type of products, namely
A, B & C
 Use the same equipment & in the same sequence but not
time

A
B Mixer Separator Packaging
Reactor
C

 The total time for overlapping depends on the number of

runs of each product & their respective schedule
Flowshop Plants
 When we want to produce multiple products using the
same equipment then we can either:
 run campaigns of the same product followed by
campaigns of the next product followed by…… i.e., run A
- nA times followed by B - nB times followed by C -nC
times - AAAAAAAABBBBBBBBCCCCCCC
 Intermingle the products so that we run ABCABCABC…
or ACBACBACB…, or AABCAABCAABC
Example
Equipment times (in hours) needed to produce A, B & C

Product Time in Time in Time in Time in Total

mixer reactors separator PK time

A 1.5 1.5 2.5 2.5 8.0

B 1.0 2.5 4.5 1.5 9.5
C 1.0 4.5 3.5 2.0 11.0
Determine the total number of batches that can be produced in a
production cycle equal to one month of operation of the plant using
separate campaign for each product
Assume: 1 month operation = 500 hours (based on 1/12 of 6000 h of a
3-shift plant operating five days a week)
Example
 Consider similar case as previous, determine the number
of batches that can be produced in a month (500 h) using
a multiproduct campaign strategy with the sequence
ABCABCABC…
Example
 You can try other variations:
 BACBACBAC…
 ACBACBACB….
 CBACBACBA…
Jobshop plant
 Plant producing multiple products but
 Not all product using the same equipment
 Or same sequence
Jobshop plant
 Example
Jobshop Plants
 For running multiple products
 Single product campaigns
 The cycle time
 Number of batches
 Can be determined using the previous method
(flowshop)
 Drawing a Gantt chart is required
 Construct the Gantt Chart for overlapping single product campaigns
for A, B & C and for multiproduct campaign with sequence
ABCABCABC…

For a t = 500 hours and equal number of batches of A, B and C,

calculate how many batches that will be produced.
Product storage
 Product Storage for Single-Product Campaigns
When using combinations of single-product
campaigns in a multi-product plant, it is necessary to
store product during the campaign.
The amount of storage is dependent on the rate of
production and rate of demand for each product and
the cycle time.
Intermediate storage
 For Multi-product Campaigns
 So far, assumed no intermediate product storage
available. This type of process is a zero wait, or a zw-
process.
 Flow to equipment directly from previous equipment
in recipe.
 Delay in
Intermediate storage
 It may be possible to store product in the equipment that
has just been used.
 e.g. if two feed streams are mixed in a vessel, the mixture
could be stored until the next process unit in the
production sequence becomes available. This holding-in-
place method may not work for some unit operations, e.g.
in a reactor.
 The upper limit of the intermediate storage concept occurs
when there is unlimited intermediate storage (uis)
available, and this is referred to as a uis-process.
Intermediate storage
Intermediate storage
Parallel Processing Units
 Reduce bottlenecks caused by a single piece of
equipment by duplicating the equipment.
 Trade-off between added equipment (and
maintenance) cost vs. higher throughput.
 Makes sense when one equipment dominates cycle
time.
Equipment design for Multiproduct
Batch Processes
 The design of equipment sizes for multiproduct batch
processes depends on the
 Production cycle time
 Whether single- or multi-product campaigns are used
 The sequence of products for multi-product campaigns,
 Use of parallel equipment.
Example

Identify the limiting unit