5 lecture room i

Lecture Room - I Chemical Engineering, Process Equipment Design & Simulation

5th

Symposium on Engineering Science (SES) Wednesday April 2, 2014

2

Recovery of krypton and xenon from atmosphere1

Dr. Waheed Afzal2

Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering

Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology

University of the Punjab, Lahore

Dr. John M Prausnitz Professor of Graduate School

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

University of California, Berkeley

Abstracts

Krypton and xenon are useful rare gases for several applications in buildings, automobile lights

and medical appliances. However, both krypton and xenon are quite expensive. The high prices

of krypton and xenon are in-part due to the energy-intensive cryogenic process for their recovery

from oxygen that is obtained from air. Ionic liquids may provide a cost-effective absorption

process at ambient temperatures for the separation of the rare gases from the oxygen stream of a

liquid-air plant. The polarizabilities of xenon and krypton are higher than that of oxygen;

therefore, xenon and krypton solubility may be significantly higher than that of oxygen in a

suitable ionic liquid. Experimental solubility measurements are needed for solvent selection.

In this talk, we will present our key findings in our project that aimed at discovering new and

perhaps more economical processes that can potentially be used for the recovery of rare gases

using ionic liquids. We will address, some challenges such as high viscosity of solvent and

present possible solutions. Finally, we present our thoughts about a possible process design.

1 Invited Lecture

2 [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Chemical Engineering, Process Equipment Design & Simulation

3

Removal of Thiosulfate from Aqueous Solution via Hydrogen Peroxide ( )

Advance Oxidation Process (AOP) with Ferric Oxide ( ) Catalyst

Riazud Din, SaeedGul+

+Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar

P.O. Box, 814, University Campus, Peshawar, 25120, Pakistan

Abstract

Wastewater that is generated from chemical industries mostly contains thiosulfate substance that

is totally polluted and can cause severe pollution if not discharge with proper treatment

Examples of these wastewater streams in petroleum refineries and gas processing plant include

sour water, sour water stripper bottom and spent caustics. The Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) and various local agencies have placed limits on the allowable levels of these substances

in industrial wastewater effluent streams.

Therefore, wastewater had to be treated first before it is being discharged or reintroduced into the

receiving streams or environment. This project involves the study of the factors effecting the

thiosulfate removal from the aqueous solution by using the advance oxidation technique.

Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) is proposed as the oxidation agent in this study with the presence of

solid Ferric Oxide (Fe2O3) catalyst because it can convert thiosulfate to sulfate efficiently.

Besides, the use of the heterogeneous catalyst could lower the operating cost because the

pollution of the treated water by the catalyst itself can be avoided.

The study concerning the factors that will affect the advance oxidation process also is proposed

which are thiosulfate concentrations in the aqueous solution, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)

concentrations, amount of the catalyst and operating temperatures. The expected results for the

research are the value of thiosulfate concentration drop and sulphate formation.

Other parameters which are temperature and pH value are also being recorded to observe their

trends throughout the study. The analysis of the result will be done using UV Visible

Spectrophotometer to determine the effectiveness of the study. At the end of the project, the

kinetic model for the process would be developed.

To whom all the correspondence must be address3

3 Email: [email protected]


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Thermochemical Kinetics of Indigenous Resources Coal and Agricultural Residue

Sadiq Hussain

NFC Institute of Engineering and Technology Khanewal Road Multan, Pakistan

Abstracts

Recent energy crises of Pakistan have triggered an interest of researchers in utilization of

indigenously available low grade coal and other renewable resources of energy.

In the present study the coal samples belonging to Salt range mine and agricultural residue such

as bagasse was analysed using thermogravimetricanalyser TGA-701.

Coal samples were crushed and grinded to the sizes 250,355 500, 710 μm and 1 mm. The impact

of size reduction on the % age of ash and sulfur released including the change in heating value

were determined.

It was observed that decreasing the size; increased the % age (w/w) of ash and sulfur released. It

also affected the heating value of coal sample. The overall 66.67 % age conversion of Salt range

coal sample for size 700 µm at a maximum temperature of 950 0C was observed. The broad de-

volatilization curve and high thermal conversion was observed for bagasse. The impacts of size

reduction on activation energy during the three stages of thermal conversion

(de-moisturization, de-volatilization and fixed carbon) were also determined.


5

Comparative review of Open Source free Process Simulation Softwares

Muhammad Shoaib, Walter Woukovits++

, Saeed Gul+

+Department of Chemical Engineering University of Engineering & Technology Peshawar, Peshawar Pakistan

++TU WIEN Vienna Austria

Abstract

Process simulation is a symbolic representation of chemical, biological or physical process. The

softwares employed for this purpose are called "process simulation softwares". These softwares

evolved over a period of last twenty years or more, with so (George Stephanopoulos, 2011)

many advanced features for modelling, design, simulation and optimization of any industrial

process. Some of the major commercial chemical engineering process simulation softwares are;

Aspen Plus, ChemCAD, ProSim and HYSYS, etc. Open source free chemical engineering

process simulation softwares is a relatively new concept having a provocative demand in the

chemical process simulation. The reason behind this extensively growing popularity of a newly

introduced form of chemical engineering process simulation softwares is; "the proprietary

(commercial) softwares employed are too expensive" (for academic as well as learning

purposes). Moreover, they lack the availability of source code to the users (Adilson José de

Assis, 2006), with little or no modification capabilities and most importantly are used

illegitimately.

The issues associated with the never-ending requirement and unaffordable prices of commercial

chemical process simulation softwares have been reviewed. Thus, it became a necessity to

evaluate the capabilities of open source free chemical engineering process simulation softwares

in terms of their computation capability, thermodynamic property packages and unit operation

modules (flowsheeting).

The main areas of analysis included the features, working, diversity and applicability of the

selected open source free chemical engineering process simulation software. The simulation

software selected for detailed analysis was "COCO" (Cape-Open to Cape-Open). COCO is Cape-

Open compatible simulation software. Cape-Open provides standards that must be followed to

interface process modeling software components specifically developed for design and operation

of industrial processes (Alejandro O. Domancich, 2010). The preset criterion was on the

comparison of COCO with contemporary commercial software Aspen Plus. The flexible

structure and the user friendly environment of COCO led to its selection among various open

source softwares. The main reason for COCO being chosen for this comparative analysis was its

flowsheeting environment very similar to that of Aspen Plus. This tremendous similarity of

COCO and Aspen Plus also became a basis for comparison of the results generated through two

softwares.

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This comparative analysis led to the identification of areas for further development keeping in

view the promotion of usage/ adaption of open source free chemical engineering process

simulation softwares. Two cases have been solved in COCO which involved physical property

package template creation, model selection, flowsheeting in COFE (Cape-Open Flowsheeting

Environment) and its solution, sensitivity analysis, design specifications and heat integration.

The results of these cases have been compared with those of Aspen Plus. The results obtained

have highlighted some of the limitations in Physical Properties database and solver of the COCO

as well as inability for carrying out sensitivity analysis and design specification simulations, but

it also brought into focus, a very positive aspect of COCO. That is its physical property database

can be supplied with a component's physical properties package from outside making use of

source code, its solver is quite accurate in giving results exactly the same as those obtained

through any well developed commercial software and its flowsheeting environment is very

sophisticated as is the case with any commercial software like Aspen Plus.

To whom all Correspondences must be address4

4 Corresponding

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]





7

Regeneration of Anionic Exchange Resin used in Hexavalent Chromate Removal

Waqar Ali Khan+5

+NFC Institute of Engineering & Fertilizer Research Jaranwala road Faisalabad

Abstract

Chromium based compounds have extensive use in many industries like chrome tanning and

electrochemical industries. Chromate ions (especially hexavalent; Cr+6

) are toxic pollutants, as

they are carcinogenic in nature and its removal from industrial waste water is important.

Different methods have been employed for the removal of highly toxic chromium from effluents.

Chemical process, electrochemical process and ion exchange process are various techniques for

this removal. These methods work under two categories; some of them reduce hexavalent

chromium to trivalent and then separates it and some remove hexavalent chromium as insoluble

chromates or dichromate.

Present work is being undertaken to produce regeneration data for parameters like flow rate,

concentration of the solution passed through resin bed and temperature using an anionic

exchanger (Purolite A-400) after chromate removal. Atomic absorption spectrometer was used

for the measurement of chromium concentration in resin.

5Email: [email protected]


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8

Proximate and Heating Value analysis of selected Indigenous

Agricultural Wastes

Mahmood Saleem, Abid Hussain, Hafiz Asad Masood, Qasim Zia Butt, Mubashir Riaz Khan+6

+Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology, University of the Punjab, Lahore

Abstract

Pakistan is an agricultural country where substantial amount of agricultural residue is available

for use as an energy source. For characterization of the residues, proximate analysis and calorific

values are two key parameters. The purpose of this work is to obtain an analysis of locally

available biomasses and their higher heating values. So, it would be a building stone for using

biomasses to overcome the energy crisis and minimizing the land wastes. In this paper an

experimental study carried out for the proximate analysis and calorific value of different biomass

samples is presented. The tested samples includes corn, rice husk, banana peels, wood (saw

dust), baggasse, wheat straw, animal dung, leaves (mango) and rice straw. The highest content of

moisture was present in rice straw among the samples. The highest content of volatile matter and

ash was in animal dung. The content of fixed carbon was highest in wheat straw. The highest

calorific values among the samples were of wood (saw dust), bagasse and wheat straw.

6Corresponding Emails

Abid Hussain: [email protected]

Hafiz Asad Masood: [email protected]

Qasim Zia Butt: [email protected]

Mubashir Riaz Khan: [email protected]






9

Osmotic Membrane Distillation (OMD) For Fruit Juice Concentration

Sher Ahmad+, Mohammad Younas

7

Department of Chemical Engineering University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan

Abstract

The demand for fruit juices with high quality rather than the whole fruits has been increasing day

by day. However, transportation and storage of fruit juices is uneconomical and unsuitable as it

subjects to rapid spoilage. Concentration of liquid foods in general and fruit juices in particular

to high concentration up to 70-80% removes a significant amount of water. Hence it causes a

significant reduction in transport, packing and storage cost with much greater stability of the

concentrates. Recently, many modern techniques have been used for juice concentration in food

industry. They include evaporative concentration, reverse osmosis and freeze concentration.

However, these techniques suffer several disadvantages and in one way or another do not fully

satisfy the standards set by manufacturers and the customers. Another novel technique, called

Osmotic Membrane Distillation (OMD), has become of increasing interest to many researches

and food scientists as a competitive alternative to other concentration techniques as it give high

quality and concentrated product juice.

The current research work focusses the theoretical investigation of dehydration of clarified fruit

juices through a laboratory scale hollow fiber membrane contactor. OMD works on the transfer

of water molecules from fruit juices from one side of a polymeric membrane to other side of the

membrane where osmotic agent was kept in contact. Aqueous solution of calcium chloride

(CaCl2) was taken as osmotic agent and sucrose solution of 10 – 12 0Brix was treated as model

solution for fruit juices. Activity difference between the two solutions causes a difference in

vapour pressure gradient which consequently causes the evaporation and condensation of water

molecules across the membrane where the model sucrose solution and brine is flowing,

respectively. The membrane used was hydrophobic thus avoided from wetting it. Theoretical

mass transfer model is developed where negligible heat transfer effects are assumed during the

transfer of water molecules across the membrane. Resistance-in-series model is adopted and

water transport flux estimation is developed in hollow fiber membrane contactor. Feed (sucrose

solution) and osmotic agent (CaCl2) flow in either side of membrane. Knudsen flow was

dominated because of the pore size of the membrane. The developed model was then simulated

using MATLAB. The predicted water flux obtained from the simulation results was then

validated with experimental results. Finally, the effect of different parameters on water trans

membrane flux was studied.

7 Corresponding Emails:

Sher Ahmad: [email protected]

M. Younas: [email protected]



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10

Study of Hydrodynamics of Indigenous Biomass-sand mixture in FBC

Shahid Hussain, Mahmood Saleem+8

+Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology, University of the Punjab, Lahore

Abstract

Biomass- sand mixtures are used in thermochemical conversion processes like pyrolysis and

gasification using circulating fluidized bed reactor or fast fluidized bed reactors. In order to

optimize the performance of the reactor and to improve the quality of product, hydrodynamics of

the process is taken into account. In the present studies the mixture of biomass (maize stalk) and

sand mixture is subjected to fluidization in a cold fluidization column.

The size of biomass and sand used is-30, +60 meshes.The pressure difference across the column

is determined and plotted versus superficial velocity to find the minimum fluidization velocity

and mapping of different regimes observed during fluidization is carried out. Various

hydrodynamic parameters like minimum bubbling, slugging and transport velocities are

determined to find out the best operating conditions of the reactor. The bubble dynamics is also

studied which includes the minimum, mean and maximum bubble sizes, bed expansion

coefficient, slugging frequency and fluidization index are determined. The effect of varying

compositions of biomass on various hydrodynamic parameters is investigated along with the

effect of varying bed height. The biomass ratio studied are 0, 5, 10, 15 percent.




11

Removal of formaldehyde present in Volatile Organic Compounds

(VOC) of pulp and paper industry

Malik Zeeshan, Kaleem Azher, Muhammad Shahbaz, Abdul Hannan,

Muhammad Suleman Tahir

+9

+Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Gujrat

Abstract

Pakistan is emerging country and requirement of paper increasing day by day. About 37 paper

mills are working in country they are producing about 400000 ton per year paper and 90000-

110000 ton per year high quality pulp. In this paper we have gone through the real problem of a

plant. This plant is producing bleached pulp from wood chips up-to 150 Ton per day by Kraft

process, through digestion process volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the form of exhaust gas

obtained. Unfortunately some of compound did not meet the environmental standards and

increasing atmospheric pollution. In VOC Formaldehyde is most important and present in high

quantity. It about 16 % weight of VOC of exhaust gases. 3870 .40 mg/m3 amount of

formaldehyde reduced to 2.5 mg/m3 to meet OSHA standards. Formaldehyde has high solubility

in water so it is used in absorption technique to capture high amount of formaldehyde present in

VOC before discharging in atmosphere

9Corresponding Emails:

M. Shahbaz: [email protected]

Malik Zeeshan: [email protected]

Kaleem Azhar: [email protected]

M. Suleman Tahir: [email protected]

Abdul Hannan: [email protected]






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Scale Up of Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactor for

Copper Recovery from Waste Water

Iftikhar Ahmad, Mohammad Younas10+

+Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar

Abstract

Copper is becoming a vital metal due to continuous rise in its demand for circuit boards in

microelectronics industry, electro refining industry, mining waste and fertilizer industry.

Effluents streams of mining and metal processing industries containing heavy metal is

considered to be potential threat for environment. In most part of the world there are large

reserves of copper mines which catch the attention of researchers to think about cost effective

and environment friendly process for the extraction. Therefore it is imperative to develop

efficient techniques for copper (II) extraction industrial scale. It has been found that recovery of

heavy metal in hollow fiber membrane contactor is favourable if organic solvent is diluted in less

toxic and more environmental friendly diluent.

In the current study recovery of copper (II) from aqueous waste streams has been studied

theoretically through hollow fiber membrane contactor. Copper (II) reacted with an organic

extractant at the membrane interface and thus copper complex molecules was transferred from

one side of membrane to other side of membrane. Later one copper (II) was stripped out from

copper-complex solution and thus the extractant was regenerated. Mathematical model

describing mass transfer phenomena, poiseuille flow and design equations were integrated. The

integrated process model algorithm was scripted in MATLAB® 8.1.2.

Simulations have been performed for a wide range of different operating, process conditions and

membrane/module structural characteristics in order to determine the optimum set of variables

for a particular operation. The model results were found to be in good agreement with the

experimental work available in literature. It was found from simulation that the model predicted

the data reasonably well, proving the model to be a useful tool for evaluating the potential

applications of the technology at large scale.




13

Investigation of Temperature distribution in Secondary Reformer

Burner using ANSYS-CFD simulator

Maryam Shakur11

, Dr. Mahmood Saleem Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology, University of the Punjab, Lahore

Abstract

Secondary reforming is an essential process for hydrogen production in ammonia plant.

Two processes occur simultaneously in secondary reformer, combustion of hydrogen

followed by conversion of methane to carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Combustion process

provides heat for the endothermic methane conversion reaction. Therefore optimum

performance of combustion section and especially the secondary reformer burner is

important. This paper aims to model hydrogen combustion process, temperature and gas

flow patterns in combustion section of secondary reformer by modifying the configuration

of the typical industrial burner using CFD software. Simulation results are compared with

local industry data as well. It is concluded that to obtain optimum burner performance

number of holes of the burner should be increased and by entering air at an angel mixing in

combustion zone enhances.



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Effect of sparingly-soluble gases on the density of some industrially-important

liquids

Madiha Rashid, Zona Rauf, Muhammad Sarfraz Akram, Muhammad Rashid Usman,

Waheed Afzal12

Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54590, Pakistan

Abstracts

Densities of liquids play an important role in designing various process equipment. However,

effect of sparingly-soluble gases such as nitrogen, oxygen and air is generally considered

negligible on the density of liquids. Degassing and defoaming of liquids is a critical step towards

obtaining reliable density data.

In this work, we used some industrial-important liquids saturated with nitrogen and oxygen and

measured there densities using a state-of-the-art vibrating–tube density meter. We report new

density data and find that the influence of sparingly-soluble gases on the densities of liquids not

negligible.

12

Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]



15

Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Hollow Fiber Membrane

Contactor for Liquid-Liquid Extraction

Amir Muhammad+13

, Mohammad Younas +Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Gujrat

Abstract

Hollow fiber membrane contactors (HFMCs) have been found as a novel technique for

separation science for the last few decades. It is due to their dispersion free contact, higher mass

transfer interfacial area and compactness of the unit that overcome the drawbacks of

conventional extractors. HFMCs allow two phases to come into a direct contact without

dispersion of one phase into another inside pores of membrane. Numerical modeling and

simulation of mass transport analysis of HFMCs has been remained a focus of interest for several

researchers in recent years.

In the present study a 2-Dimensional axial-radial numerical model was developed to study the

transport of copper (II) solute through a single hypothesised “flow-cell”, adapted from the

previous study for the baffle less HFMC contactor module for liquid-liquid extraction. The flow-

cell consists of three sections i-e tube side, inside membrane and shell side. Aqueous feed that

contains the solute flows in tube side while organic solvent flows in shell.

The aim of this work is to study the distribution of copper(II) in three sections of flow-cell

through mathematical modelling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The solute

transfer in shell side i-e “flow-cell” side and inside fiber occurs through diffusion and convection

and is described by steady-state continuity equation. The transfer of solute through the

hydrophobic membrane occurs through diffusion only. Similarly the velocity distribution inside

fiber and shell is studied using Navier-Stokes equation.

The model equations with associated boundary equations are solved with CFD techniques. For

this purpose COMSOL MultiphysicsTM

software is used. COMSOL Multiphysics employs finite

element method (FEM) for numerical solution of model equations. The finite element analysis is

combined with adaptive meshing and error control using numerical solver of UMFPACK. A

scale factor of 200 was applied in axial direction due to large difference between length and

radius of module. Scaling the problem avoids excessive amounts of element and nodes and thus

minimizes the cost of simulation.

It has been found from concentration profile simulations that as aqueous feed moves along

membrane its concentration decreases while concentration of organic phase increases along its

pathway because of continuous transfer of copper (II) solute from aqueous to organic phase. The



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effects of feed and organic flow rates were also investigated. It was found that decreasing feed

flow rate increases solute removal efficiency while the organic flow rate has an opposite effect.

Keywords: Mathematical modeling, Copper extraction, Hollow fiber membrane contactor,

Computational fluid dynamics

5 lecture room i

Documents

university of engineering

recovery of krypton

chemical industries

krypton solubility

possible process design

wastewater streams

polarizabilities of

engineering science