June 6 – 8, 2017 | Toronto, ON
This year’s Process Development Symposium (PDS) will focus on chemical engineering basics. The theme of this year’s symposium is “Scaling up Processes: Solving Common Challenges” and it will cover topics that are relevant to all industries that are served by chemical engineers and chemists. The symposium will feature speakers from the chemical engineering profession sharing their wisdom, knowledge, tips, and personal experiences related to process development
Transitioning from Batch to Continuous Processes
Chair: Tom Enright, Manager, Process Engineering, Xerox Research Centre of Canada
The benefits of continuous versus batch chemical processes are well established – including higher product throughput and yield, lower space requirements and capital investment, faster product changeover, more consistent quality, and the ability to safely run reactions at more extreme conditions. However, companies are often hesitant to invest in continuous processes due to historical experience, proficiency with batch processes, and general risk aversion. This session will focus on the practical aspects of process intensification as it relates to the development of continuous processes to both replace and integrate alongside standard batch processes. This will include case study examples that describe a variety of unit operations, common challenges and pitfalls, economic aspects, and rules of thumb that have been learned in the field.
Presentations
Barry Perlmutter, BHS-Sonthofen
David Lawton, Xerox Research Centre of Canada
Long Sang,
Posters
Using Reaction Calorimetry for Safe Process Scale-up
Sodium borohydride (NaBH4) is a versatile reagent used to convert carbonyl groups into alcohols and it can be used in aqueous or alcoholic solutions. It is also known that sodium borohydride reduction is an exothermal reaction with vigorous hydrogen evolution and this can pose a significant problem for scaling-up of bench experiments.
Maria Birau, Xerox Research Centre of Canada