Structure, Energy, Synergy, Time—The Fundamentals of Process Intensification

Abstract

Process intensification (PI) is commonly seen as one of the most promising development paths for the chemical process industry and one of the most important progress areas for modern chemical engineering. Often illustrated with spectacular examples, process intensification struggles, however, with its definition and interpretation. Instead of narrowing the scientific discussion down to finding a commonly accepted definition of PI, it is more important to determine its position within chemical engineering and to identify its fundamentals. Accordingly, the paper presents a fundamental vision on process intensification. The vision encompasses four approaches in spatial, thermodynamic, functional, and temporal domains, which are used to realize four generic principles of PI. The approaches refer to all scales existing in chemical processes, from molecular to meso-and macroscale, and are illustrated with relevant examples with special attention given to the molecular scale.

Technical viability and exergy analysis of membrane crystallization: Closing the loop of CO2 sequestration

“…In addition, the main advantages of membrane crystallization have been already demonstrated: 1) it is possible to control the maximum level of supersaturation due to a defined mass transfer through the membrane [29]; 2) the membrane induces heterogeneous nucleation; 3) size, shape and purity of crystals can be controlled; 4) there is a significant reduction of energy consumption compared to conventional crystallization by means of cooling or evaporation [30]; and 5) comparable or slightly higher nucleation rates with respect to batch crystallizers or tubular precipitators have been obtained [24]. Furthermore, the use of membranes has been already considered to satisfy the requirements established by the "process intensification" strategy [31][32][33].…”

Beyond Organometallic Flow Chemistry: The Principles Behind the Use of Continuous-Flow Reactors for Synthesis

“…8,9 The aim of Process Intensification is to have a drastic improvement of the equipment performance and process efficiency. One of the most popular Process Intensification technologies are microreactors, as it allows to intensify heat transport, mass transport and photon transport phenomena.…”

Pulsed activation in heterogeneous catalysis

“…Efforts towards building the perfect reactor can be categorized into four different approaches [22]:…”