Hi, need your inputs on this.
Often for aamking small volumes of chemicals like in pharma industry or fine chemicals industry or resins/polymers where capacity is less than say 10KTA(kilo tons per annum), processes are often designed in batch mode.
what Iam trying to understand is, are there any general thumb rules or design criteria as to when you can convert or change a current batch design into a continous process to increase productivity and reduice vessel volumes?
1. what are typical capacities of plants at which you start considering continuous?
2. what are the trade-offs to consider when deciding on batch vs continuous?
3. what are the design conraints which limit this choice to one or the other?
4. are there examples of small capacity plants that are run continuously? like say a 1-5KTA plant run in continuous mode