2 replies to this topic

[Stefani562]

Hi all,

I am a final year chemical engineering student working on a design project to design an Isopropanol production plant by direct hydration of propylene. I am required to include any feed purification processes in my design.

My question is if the feed water used in this process requires demineralisation or any form of purification prior to being fed to the reactor (the reaction is in liquid phase). I am assuming that water is supplied as potable water but I am unsure if the water specification for producing solvents such as Isopropanol is higher than that of potable water.

Apologies if this is a basic question, I can't seem to get an answer on the internet.

Any suggestions and answers would be much appreciated.


Many thanks,
Stephanie.

[sgkim]

Hi Stefani, 

 

Raw water shall be treated by passing thru various treating units before feeding to chemical process plants.  The allowable mineral and oily contents usually depends on each process requirements.  Even at very low concentrations. inorganic chemicals such as metal sulfates, chlorides or phosphates can be accumulated in the vessels or heat exchangers as 'scale' on the surface of metals or as impurities in the product or byproducts.  Some chemicals give severe effects on the catalyst and lots of residual heavy metal ingredients may be toxic to humans.  Such kind of chemicals in shall be completely removed from the 'process water'. 

 

Potable water also has a good variety of ingredients of minerals. If it is used without further treatment, some part of these minerals would be remained in the IPA product. Contaminated IPA with such minerals, for example, may not be suitable for the cleaning solvents in electronic-component processing plants.   

 

Refer to one of the following "water handbooks' on the treatment of industrial waters:    

Betz Handbook, Nalco Handbook, GE Handbook, Degrement Handbook, etc.

 

~Stefano  0

Edited by sgkim, 06 February 2017 - 05:30 AM.

[Stefani562]

Thank you so much for your response. 

 

I was thinking the same but I thought the trace amounts of chemicals wouldn't be a problem since the capacity of the plant is 100,000 tpa. I will take your suggestions into consideration and add a deionising unit for the water.

 

 

Thanks again for you help,

Stephanie.