Introduction - CE1PPD: Process and Product Design Assignment
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As it is known that a chemical can be synthesised by following various routes in the laboratories and for commercial purpose in the production of Formalin following methods can be used:
Using Methanol
Formox Process:
In the recent approach of production of Formalin formox process is being considered in a wide range. This newer approach of industrial production of Formalin was developed by " Perstop and Reichhold Chemicals".
Major Reactions for the production of 37/3 Formalin
In the Formox process of production of Formalin, the methanol is oxidized partially (Abbas et al.2020).
Iron or molybdenum is used as a catalyst. Recently use of Vanadium is also in practice
The system is then heated at a high of 300 degree Celsius.
Water is removed from the system.
It is an exothermic process.
Process
Methanol is taken in a tank and mixed with recycled methanol stored in the other tank (Anshory et al.2020) .
Then the mixture is kept at 37.4 C and at 14.7 psi. A pump is connected to the tank, which raises the pressure to about 35 psi.
This vaporizers the methanol.
Then the methanol is condensed and kept in a separate container (Islam, M.A., 2020).
Water and Hydrogen gas produced during the process are then separated from the product using an absorber and a vent.
No harmful toxin is produced (Vujanovi? et al. 2021).
Demerits
The temperature produced during the partial oxidation may overheat the system.
High pressure has to be maintained all the time.
Water Ballast Process Using Silver Catalyst
At first, the Formalin is produced industrially with the help of using the silver catalyst. Catalyst can be described as the element or a compound which does not undergo any change in the chemical state during a chemical reaction; rather, they lower the energy barrier and help to accel; are the process of reaction. The process was banned after some time due to the emission of toxic gasses into the environment (Cruz et al.2019 ). This process also generates poisonous steam, which generally contains about 0.2% of the Formalin, which cannot be separated hence cannot be used in the process of recycling.
The catalyst used in the reaction is Silver. The catalyst helps in the process of partial conversion of methanol which is the chief reactants, into Formalin. The average efficiency of using Silver as a catalyst increases the efficiency of the reaction to 90%. The product is obtained as a mixture of formal, methanol and water, which can be separated by using the process of dehydration and distillation. Though after a proper distillation, there is always a slight trace of Formalin present in the system. This causes an increase in the cost of further treatment (Shakeel et al.2020 ).
The production of Formalin in this process is carried out by using the catalytic oxidation and removal of hydrogen from the methanol.
Partial Oxidation
It is an endothermic process as the reaction absorbs heat from the surrounding systems.
Dehydrogenation
This process is the exothermic one.
The release of energy by this exothermic reaction plays a great role in the maintenance of the average required temperature in the reactor. The temperature also helps and facilitate the production of water. This can increase the quantity of the Formalin produced in the process. This reaction is always accompanied by some unwanted side reaction which can significantly regulate the quantity of the Formalin produced. The chief side reaction occurring in the process
In this approach, the use of off-gases is generally avoided. The gas produced in natural ways is purchased and used as a fuel to produce a temperature for the generation of the steam (sciencedirect.com, 2021).
Apart from these two processes, other routes which do not have to depend on the presence of methanol can be used in the laboratory, but there is no commercial or practical application of those processes.
Feed Ratio
Table 2: Feed Ratio
Block Diagram
Figure 2: Water Ballast Process Using Silver Catalyst
The time and the heat required to initiate the reaction is less.
Demerits
The gas produced as a by-product in the process can prove to have a toxic effect.
The distillation process is lengthy and costly.
Hydrogenation Of Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide is a toxic and suffocating gas produced during combustion in the low oxygen concentrated environment. The oxygen forms a double bond with a carbon molecule. Thus it requires more physical elements like heat or pressure to break the double bond between carbon and oxygen. Hence to produce Formalin with the help of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, first the bond between carbon and oxygen has to be broken, and then the hydrogen is introduced into the system. To overcome the strong double bond, an impractically high pressure has to be used in the system. Addition of high pressure significantly increases the risk in the production plant; hence the process is ignored (onlinelibrary.wiley.com , 2021).
"2C+O2=2CO"
"CO+H2=CH20"
Merits
No methanol is used
Catalysts are not used
Demerits
An unimaginable amount of pressure is generated inside the system. It makes the system prone to explosion.
The average yield of Formalin during this process is low.
Partial Oxidation of Methane
Another approach to get the Formalin without using methanol is by using the Methane. Methane is the natural gas produced mainly during the decomposition of the organic matters. Methane is highly flammable in nature and requires a lot of cautiousness while working on it. Methane is a highly stable compound. In methane, the carbon atom is well balanced by the 4 hydrogen atoms. So to perform the partial oxidation, the bond has to be broken. Hence this process also requires a lot of heat or pressure for its operation. If the heat and pressure is raised to a certain extent, the methanol present in the system can start combustion making the whole process a hazard. Apart from this, the by-products produced in the reaction have a similar boiling point with Formalin; hence it cannot be separated with the help of distillation. This process is again very costly, and the quantity and the quality of the Formalin produced by this process is low. Hence the process is disregarded.
No exchange of heat takes place between the system and surroundings during the course of reaction.
Demerits
Methanol can be highly flammable
The process of separation among the desired products and others makes the process very lengthy and prone to be expensive.
The amount and quality of the Formalin yielded by this process can be very low to use as a commercial process.
Cost Viability
The cost remains one of the chief concerns while producing chemical products. Most of the organic products require a huge cost of separation as the organic compounds are generally contaminated by water and other hydrocarbons. The costs are influenced by the different physical elements like pipelines, tanks and container fuel to generate heat machinery. There are other variables that can influence a cost of a chemical plant like the fees of the experts and working in the plant and various contingency equipment are bought to minimise the effect of any sudden occurrence of the risk. Commercial Formalin are produced by the process of dehydrogenation and partial oxidation . Apart from this other p[rocess are not generally used. The process of producing Formalin using silver catalyst is banned in many areas due to the production of hazardous gas produced as a by-product. The other two non methanol routes are avoided due to the cost and the difficulties to manage the physical environment. As the process requires a huge amount of heat and pressure, the fuel used to attain such a temperature is huge, thus increase the cost for production. Along this, the amount and the quality of methanol produced in this process are quite low (go.gale.com , 2021). Hence taking this route may bring low profit with a high percentage of risk. The other non methanol route where methane is used in place of methanol are also avoided. The final product produced in this route is contaminated with the unwanted products with similar boiling point. This makes the process of distillation more complex. So it is safe to say that using the process of partial oxidation and dehydrogenation is most suitable when it comes in the context of producing Formalin. The process requires minimum regulation of temperature and the Formalin produced in the process is not much contaminated, making the distillation process easier.
References
Journal
Puhar, J., Vujanovi?, A., Awad, P. and ?u?ek, L., 2021. Reduction of cost, energy and emissions of the formalin production process via methane steam reforming. Systems, 9(1), p.5.
Yin, X., Jing, Y., Chen, Q., Abbas, A.B., Hu, J. and Xu, H., 2020. The intraperitoneal administration of MOTS-c produces antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects through the activation of AMPK pathway in the mouse formalin test. European journal of pharmacology, 870, p.172909.
Yasa, N.S., Anshory, L., Purnomo, S.J. and Samadan, G.M., 2020, October. Induction of Hsp60, Hsp70, and Hsp90 in formalin exposed white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) stress test. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 584, No. 1, p. 012054). IOP Publishing.
Islam, M.A., 2020. Food adulteration and unethical use of formalin.
Puhar, J., Vujanovi?, A., Awad, P. and ?u?ek, L., 2021. Reduction of cost, energy and emissions of the formalin production process via methane steam reforming. Systems, 9(1), p.5.
Cruz, L.A., Díaz, M.A., Gupta, M.P., Lopez-Pérez, J.L., Mondolis, E., Moran-Pinzon, J. and Guerrero, E., 2019. Assessment of the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of the stem methanol extract of Diplotropis purpurea. Pharmaceutical biology, 57(1), pp.432-436.
Shakeel, K., Javaid, M., Muazzam, Y., Naqvi, S.R., Taqvi, S.A.A., Uddin, F., Mehran, M.T., Sikander, U. and Niazi, M., 2020. Performance comparison of industrially produced formaldehyde using two different catalysts. Processes, 8(5), p.571.
Online Article
sciencedirect.com, 2021 Production of Formalin Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874117305445 [ Accessed on : 27/02/2021]
onlinelibrary.wiley.com , 2021 Production of Formalin Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/raq.12160 [ Accessed on : 27/02/2021]
Website
go.gale.com , 2021 Production of Formalin Available at: https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA649839160&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=25870998&p=AONE&sw=w [ Accessed on : 27/02/2021]
