Preface

One of the most important challenges facing humanity is the need for a sustainable development that accommodates the escalating demands for natural resources while leaving future generations with the opportunities to realize their potential. This challenge is especially important for the chemical process industries that are characterized by the enormous usage of natural resources. To effectively address this challenge, it is inevitable for industry to embrace the concept of sustainable design, which involves process-design activities that lead to economic growth, environmental protection, and social progress for the current generation without compromising the potential of future generations to have an ecosystem that meets their needs. Consequently, a growing number of industries are launching sustainable-design initiatives that are geared toward enhancing the corporate stewardship of the environment. Although these initiatives are typically clear in their strategic goals, they are very difficult for technical managers and process engineers to transform into viable actions. A sustainable design should endeavor to conserve natural resources (mass and energy), recycle and reuse materials, prevent pollution, enhance yield, improve quality, advance inherent safety, and increase profitability. The question is how to achieve and reconcile these objectives? Processing facilities are complex systems of unit operations and streams. Designing these facilities or improving their performance typically entails the screening of numerous alternatives. Because of the enormous number of design alternatives, laborious conventional engineering approaches that are based on generating and testing case studies are unlikely to provide effective work processes or reach optimal solutions. Indeed, what is needed is a systematic framework and associated concepts and tools that methodically guide designers to the global insights of the process, identify root causes of the problems or key areas of opportunities, benchmark the performance of the process, and develop a set of design recommendations that can attain the true potential of the process.

Over the past three decades, significant advances have been made in treating chemical processes as integrated systems and developing systematic tools to determine practically achievable benchmarks. This framework is referred to as process integration and is defined as a holistic approach to design and operation that emphasizes the unity of the process. Process integration can be used to systematically enhance and reconcile various process objectives, such as cost effectiveness, yield enhancement, energy efficiency, and pollution prevention. Many archival papers have been published on different aspects of process integration. Because of the specialized nature of these papers, readership has been mostly confined to academic researchers in the field. On the other hand, many industrial projects have been successfully implemented on specific aspects of process integration. Because of the confidential nature of most of these projects, details have not been widely available in the public domain. This book was motivated by the need to reach out to a much wider base of readers who are interested in systematically developing sustainable designs through process integration. The book is appropriate for senior-level undergraduate or first-year graduate courses on process design, sustainability, or process synthesis and integration. It is also tailored to serve as a self-study textbook for process engineers and technical managers involved in process innovation, development, design and improvement, pollution prevention, and energy conservation. A key feature of the book is the emphasis on benchmarking the performance of a process or subprocess and then methodically detailing the steps needed to attain these performance targets in a cost-effective manner.

The approach of this book is to first explain the problem statement and scope of applications, followed by the generic concepts, procedures, and tools that can be used to solved the problem. Next, case studies and numerical examples are given to demonstrate the applicability of the tools and procedures. Chapter 1 introduces the key concepts of sustainability, sustainable design, and process integration. Motivating examples are given on the development and integration of sustainable design alternatives. The chapter also describes the learning outcomes of the books. Chapter 2 provides a detailed coverage of process economics including cost types and estimation, depreciation, break-even analysis, time value of money, and profitability analysis. Applications involve a broad range of conventional and contemporary problems in the process industries. Because of the extensive nature of the chapter, it can be used in senior-level process design and economics courses. Chapter 3 introduces the concept of overall benchmarking (targeting) and focuses on the identification of performance targets for the consumption of fresh materials, the discharge of waste materials, and the production of maximum yield. Chapters 4 through 9 present graphical techniques (pinch diagrams) for the targeting of direct-recycle systems, mass-exchange networks, overall processes, heat-exchange networks, combined heat and power systems, and property integration. Chapters 10 through 13 are based on algebraic procedures for the design of direct-recycle networks, mass-exchange networks, heat-induced separators, and membrane-separation networks. Chapter 14 covers the basic approaches to the formulation of optimization problems as mathematical programs and the different types of formulations. Examples are given on transforming tasks and concepts into optimization formulations. Also, the use of the software LINGO is described. Chapters 15 through 20 are devoted to the solution of sustainable design problems through optimization. Several classes of problems are addressed, including direct-recycle networks, mass-exchange networks, heat-exchange networks, and combined heat and reactive mass-exchange networks. Chapter 21 covers the conceptual design and techno-economic assessment of integrated biorefineries. The focus is on top-level and quick synthesis and screening of alternative designs. Macroscopic process integration approaches are addressed in Chapter 22, with several applications such as eco-industrial parks, material flow analysis, environmental impact assessment, and life cycle analysis. The book culminates in Chapter 23, which offers a discussion on commercial applicability of process integration for sustainable design, track record and pitfalls in implementing process integration, and starting and sustaining process integration initiatives and projects.

Various individuals have positively impacted my path of learning about and contributing to sustainable design through process integration. I very much appreciate the professional associates and leaders of the process systems engineering and the sustainability communities whose contributions have made a paradigm shift in the understanding and tackling of sustainable design problems. I am especially grateful to Dr. Dennis Spriggs (president of Matrix Process Integration) who has mentored me in numerous industrial applications and has consistently shown the power of the “science of the big picture” in tackling complex industrial challenges in a smooth and insightful manner. I am also thankful to the academic partners with whom I had the honor of collaborating. Specifically, I would like to thank the following professors and their students: Drs. Ahmed Abdel-Wahab (Texas A&M University-Qatar), Mert Atilhan (Qatar University), Mario Eden (Auburn University), Nimir Elbashir (Texas A&M University-Qatar), Amro El-Baz (Zagazig University), Fadwa Eljack (Qatar University), Xiao Feng (China University of Petroleum), Dominic C. Y. Foo (University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus), Arturo Jiménez-Gutiérrez (Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya), Ken Hall (Texas A&M University), Mark lottzapple (Texas A&M University), Viatcheslav Kafarov (Universidad Industrial de Santander), B. J. Kim (Soongsil University), Patrick Linke (Texas A&M University-Qatar), Vladimir Mahalec (McMaster University), Sam Mannan (Texas A&M University), Pedro Medellín Milán (Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí), Denny Ng (University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus), Martín Picón-Núñez (Universidad de Guanajuato), José María Ponce-Ortega (Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo), Abeer Shoaib (Suez Canal University), Paul Stuart (Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal), and Raymond Tan (De La Salle University).

I am very grateful to the numerous undergraduate students at Texas A&M University and Auburn University as well as attendees of my industrial workshops, short courses, and seminars whose invaluable feedback and input was instrumental in developing and refining the book.

I am indebted to my former and current graduate students. I have learned much from this distinguished group of scholars, which includes: Nesreen Ahmed (Suez Canal University), Nasser Al-Azri (Sultan Qaboos University), Hassan Alfadala (Barwa), Eid Al-Mutairi (King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals), Abdul-Aziz Almutlaq (King Saud University), Meteab Al-Otaibi (SABIC), Saad Al-Sobhi (Qatar University), Musaed Al-Thubaiti (Aramco), Selma Atilhan (Texas A&M University-Qatar), Srinivas “B.K.” Bagepalli (Danaher), Buping Bao, Abdullah Bin Mahfouz (SABIC), Ian Bowling (Chevron), Ming-Hao Chiou, Benjamin Cormier (BP), Eric...