Main Industrial Processes Research Articles

Synergy of alloy and ligand for CO2 hydrogenation to formic acid on PdAu/HPC-AP

Formic acid (FA) is of great significance given its extensive applications in various industrial fields. At present, methanol carbonylation is the main industrial production process of FA. However, this process uses two kinds of raw materials from fossil fuels and emits a large amount of CO2. Alternatively, converting CO2 into FA can not only achieve the production of value-added chemicals but also effectively address environmental issues caused by CO2 emission. To improve the low reactivity of CO2, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic systems have been widely evaluated, among which heterogeneous catalytic systems are attracting ever-increasing attention owing to their great industrialization prospects. However, some of these heterogeneous catalysts suffer from low catalytic performance. Herein, PdAu alloy nanoparticles anchored on amine-functionalized hierarchical porous carbon (PdAu/HPC-AP) were constructed to drive efficient converting of CO2 into FA. Characterization and testing results demonstrated that the introduced Au atoms caused lattice distortion and charge redistribution on the surface of the bimetallic catalyst, facilitating the adsorption and activation of reaction molecules. Furthermore, the modification of HPC with an appropriate amount of amine ligands was found important to the chemical adsorption of CO2 and the dispersion of PdAu NPs. The Pd60Au40/HPC-AP catalyst with the optimum synergy of alloy and ligand demonstrated excellent activity for the target reaction with a TOF value of 486 h–1 at 100 °C. Moreover, it can even catalyze the reaction at room temperature with a TOF value of 13 h–1.

Potential Industrial Synergies in the Steelmaking and Metal-Processing Industry: By-Products Valorization and Associated Technological Processes

Steelmaking and ferrous metal processing companies are suppliers of great importance to a wide array of industries, thus being quintessential for the social and financial growth of regions and countries. Most used processes (i.e., blast furnace, basic oxygen furnace, and electric arc furnace-based) are, however, highly pollutant, generating hazardous wastes that were usually landfilled. Generated wastes are important sources of secondary raw materials such as zinc and iron, presenting interesting market value. Hence, aiming to develop green procedures, industries have been using diverse approaches to treat and detoxify hazardous wastes, extract and reuse added value components, or even use their existing infrastructures to convert the wastes generated by other industries into secondary raw materials for steel manufacturing. This paper reviews the main industrial processes, focusing on the waste-generating steps, and discloses the most recent and relevant industrial synergies toward a circular economy. The final contribution of this study consists of the compilation of industrial synergies and recovery technologies for the steelmaking and metal processes.

New business models in the Circular Economy

Abstract Circular Economy is becoming an important part of the trend on global business development. Companies and public organizations are facing new challenges and strive to integrate fresh concepts and instruments within their value chains. Strategic environmental goals are based upon reused resources and reintegrated materials, reduced carbon emissions, renewable energy, innovation, and overall optimization of models and processes. Governmental agencies are also preoccupied to enact specific regulations, to favor the economic and social integration of the circular economy. The advantages of the 6 R’s integration (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair, remanufacture, redesign) for businesses are straightforward, from cost optimizations, price volatility control, to increased automation and innovation. This paper is the first step of a more complex research endeavor, aiming to assess the feasibility of various fine tunings on specific business models that integrate circular economy principles. We have based our current assessment on six industries, with a major impact on the environment, and that can provide impacting solutions for environmental preservation. For each analyzed industry, a specific original diagram was provided, integrating the main industrial processes, outcomes, and reuse opportunities, derived from circularity principles. The literature review was intended to support each industry’s development pattern, highlighting different types of solutions for waste recycling, and business reorganization redesign.

Academician G. K. Boreskov: Catalysis as Destiny

The article is a biographical outline of the life and achivements of an outstanding chemist Georgy Konstantinovich Boreskov (1907–1984). G. K. Boreskov entered the history of domestic and world science as an outstanding scientist, engineer and teacher. The bright life of the scientist-chemist Boreskov was devoted to the study of catalysis and the closely related problems of chemical kinetics and chemical technology. In his work, fundamental research on catalysis as an interesting chemical phenomenon were harmoniously combined with the successful solution of the most important problems of the chemical industry. With the development of a new catalyst for one of the main industrial processes – the production of sulfuric acid – that G. K. Boreskov began his career in science. Thanks to the introduction of technologies based on his developments, a real breakthrough occurred in some areas of industrial production related to catalysis. In Novosibirsk, Academician Boreskov played the main role in the creation of the country’s first Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which now bears his name. No less important is the merit of Academician Boreskov as the founder of the scientific school in the field of heterogeneous catalysis.

Multi‐scenario simulation on reducing CO2 emissions from China's major manufacturing industries targeting 2060

AbstractCO2 emissions from industrial processes are the main components of global greenhouse gas emissions. Based on analyzing the industrial activity level, technological progress, raw material substitution, and CO2 recycling ratio from the cement, aluminum, ammonia, steel, lime, and ferroalloy industries, this paper considers three scenarios, namely, national determined contribution (NDC), carbon mitigation scenario (CMS), and deep mitigation scenario (DMS), and systematically explores the CO2 emissions from future industrial processes as well as relevant cumulative emissions, emission sources, mitigation potentials, and mitigation sources in China. The results demonstrate that CO2 emissions of the six main industrial processes can be continuously and significantly reduced in China. In the scenarios, compared with the 2020 level (1448 million metric tons of CO2), the CO2 emissions can be reduced by 71%, 82%, and 94%, respectively, in 2060, mainly owing to the reduction of the activity level, the adjustment of the product structure and the application of carbon capture and storage (CCS) under the DMS scenario. This paper provides several major policy implications to reduce the CO2 emissions through adjusting the industrial structure and current lifestyles, improving the durability of industrial products and the management and technical levels, increasing the substitution ratio of low‐carbon raw materials in industrial production, supporting innovative low‐carbon technologies, the establishment and operation of the carbon market and carbon pricing mechanism, and further promoting the current “leader” system of energy‐intensive industries.

Microbial Resources of Alkaline Bauxite Residue and Their Possible Exploitation in Remediation and Rehabilitation

Bauxite residue is the by-product produced by Bayer’s process, the main industrial extraction process of aluminum. The currently estimated deposit of bauxite residue is about 3 Gigaton which is increasing every year by 120 Megaton. It is characterized by high pH, salinity along with the presence of many heavy metals and radioactive elements and is the main source of environmental pollution. Due to the absence of any prominent reuse option rehabilitation of bauxite residue disposal site is of primary concern. However, management and remediation by physico-chemical methods are neither economically viable nor environment friendly. This bauxite residue harbors functionally and genetically diverse indigenous microbial communities which have been studied by both culture-dependent and metagenomic approaches. These extremophilic microbiota has not only adapted to hostile environment but also play a critical role in the biogeochemical processes. Attempts have been initiated to assess the potential of these microbial resources for possible application in bioamelioration, bioremediation, and bioleaching of metal values from bauxite residue. Implementation of these technologies however demands success in both pilot-scale and field-level experimentations. This review will provide updated information on microbial resources of bauxite residues and their potential role in the bio-management of this unique environment.

Levels of radium-226 in the rainbow trout, macroinvertebrates-substrates and water adjacent to the mining concession Loma Larga, Azuay-Ecuador

Mineral processing has been identified among the twelve main industrial processes that must be under control due to the expose to natural radioactive sources. The modification and, generally, the increase in the concentration of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) in the earth's crust cause an imbalance in the ecosystem. Imbalance that affects the fauna, which are able to bio accumulate these radioisotopes and introduce them into the trophic chain. The main purpose of this work was to establish a radio-ecological baseline. For this purpose, the concentration levels of 226Ra in rainbow trout, in macro invertebrate matrices-substrates and water from the Irquis and Portete rivers were evaluated. A study area adjacent to the Loma Larga mining concession was selected. The measurements were made using the Lucas cells coupled to a Pylon AB6A counter and the "Can Technique", using LR-115 passive detectors. The results indicated that rainbow trout bio accumulated in bones and organsa mean of 94.7% of the total 226Ra detected, which values varied from 4.69 to 2.46 Bq/kg, while macro invertebrate-substrate matrices showed a concentration that ranged between 0.7 and 1.3 Bq/kg in the Irquis River, while in the Portete River was between 1.1 and 19.3 Bq/kg. The water samples, in the sampling points of the Irquis River, showed concentrations that ranged between 37.3 and 119.1 mBq/l and in the Portete River between 43.5 to 146.4 mBq/l.

Understanding deep dehydrogenation and cracking of n-butane on Ni(111) by a DFT study.

Steam reforming is a main industrial process for hydrogen production. In particular, with the carbon chain increasing to n-butane, a main component in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and shale oil gas, chemically different C-C bonds ((C-C)α,β and (C-C)β,β') will be involved in cleavages. In addition, understanding the role of catalysis in these pathways is critical toward the advancement in technology, yet is largely lacking. As such, we have performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study the two possible C-C cleavage pathways of n-butane on Ni(111), i.e., the (C-C)α,β cleavage from the n-butane deep dehydrogenation product of 1-butyne, and the (C-C)β,β' cleavage from 2-butyne. The results indicate that these two different pathways have distinct dehydrogenations to butyne, and that Ni is suitable for the deep dehydrogenation. The C-C cleavage in both pathways serves as the rate-determining step with a higher energy barrier than that for the preceding C-H bond cleavage. In addition, the 1-butyne pathway was found to be more favorable than that of 2-butyne in thermodynamics and kinetics. Our results provide insights into the alkane dehydrogenation and cracking of long-chain hydrocarbons on Ni-based catalysts.

Assessment of multi-air emissions: Case of particulate matter (dust), SO2, NOx and CO2 from iron and steel industry of China

Industrial activities are generally energy and air emissions intensive, requiring bulky inputs of raw materials and fossil fuels and emitting huge waste gases including particulate matter (PM, or dust), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), and other substances, which are severely damaging the environment. Many studies have been carried out on the quantification of the concentrations of these air emissions. Although there are studies published on the co-effect of multi-air emissions, a more fair and comprehensive method for assessing the environmental impact of multi-air emissions is still lacking, which can simultaneously consider the flow rate of waste gases, the availability of emitting sources and the concentrations of all emission substances. In this work, a Total Environmental Impact Score (TEIS) approach is proposed to assess the environmental impact of the main industrial processes of an integrated iron and steel site located in the northeast of China. Besides the concentration of each air emission substance, this TEIS approach also combines the flow rate of waste gases and the availability of emitting sources. It is shown that the processes in descending order by the values of TEIS are sintering, ironmaking, steelmaking, thermal power, steel rolling, and coking, with the values of 17.57, 16.68, 10.86, 10.43, 9.60 and 9.27, respectively. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was conducted, indicating that the TEIS order is almost the same with the variation of 10% in the permissible CO2 concentration limit and the weight of each air emission substance. The effects of emitting source availability and waste gas flow rate on the TEIS cannot be neglected in the environmental impact assessment.

A partitioned solution algorithm for fluid flow and stress-strain computations applied to continuous casting

Continuous casting is currently the main industrial process for steel production. Since long time, industries search for efficient simulation methods, by which macrosegregation and deformation induced cracks can be predicted. As a first step this requires achieving concurrent simulation of fluid flow and stress-strain. Therefore, a partitioned solution algorithm is developed for such simulation with application to continuous casting. Liquid flow induced by natural convection or filling step, solidification shrinkage as well as thermally induced deformation of solid phase are accounted for.

The fascinating effect of niobium as catalytic promoting agent

Abstract Niobium is a very important element in catalysis, active component of many catalytic systems. But it is not only a major component in many catalytic systems; in addition, it is usually used as a key promoter, because it has a rich complex chemistry and is able to react with many elements forming a wide range of compounds and oxide phases with complex structures. Thus, present contribution makes a brief review on the main industrial catalytic processes in with niobioum have been used as a promoting agent during the last decade. The uses of niobium as main component in the catalytic formulations have not been considered.

Recent developments and prospectives of acid-base and redox catalytic processes by metal oxides

This review paper deals mainly with acid-base, oxidation catalytic reactions, but also more general catalytic properties of metal oxides and their recent developments in the field of heterogeneous catalysis, a field largely covered by Prof. Guido Busca, during his scientific career. It includes a description of the main metal oxide catalysts used for acid-base (various reactions), partial and total oxidations, and other reactions, and of the main industrial processes using or expected to use them. Some case studies have been chosen as examples of recent progresses in metal oxides syntheses leading to new 2D, 3 D materials and these reactions. Particular attention is borne on recent and future researches and perspectives, mainly monitored by actual society regulations related to environmental issues, uses of biomass derivatives, carbon neutral processes and sustainability.

Scrap production of extruded aluminum alloys by direct extrusion

The growing globalization of the different types of market requires that companies invest, in a recurrent way, to optimize and improve all the processes inherent to their activities. Aluminium extrusion is the main industrial process used to create profiles of a fixed cross-section. This process requires appropriate processing parameters to be used, in order to produce diverse profiles and high-quality products. The company’s ability to adapt and improve the productive process are differentiating factors against the competition. Thus, understand the main operations and dynamics of the companies is crucial. This work presents an empirical study concerning the extrusion process of a Portuguese company in the aluminium sector. By analysing a real data base provided by the company, the main objective is to model the aluminium extrusion process. Taking into account the variables that most influence the extrusion of different profiles, the aim is to minimize the production of scrap. First, by studying the literature in the subject, the variables that most contribute to scrap production were identified. Since the database provided by the company did not present all the variables described in literature, proxy variables were considered. Next, a multivariate linear regression model for explaining the amount of scrap taking as explanatory the identified variables was estimated. With this analysis, it was possible to identify levels of significance of the variables under study, and therefore understand how each of the variables contributes to the increase or decrease of the amount of scrap on the production of aluminium profiles. The results show that variables concerning with extrusion temperature, time, speed, pressure and die geometry are crucial to improve and control the scrap production. The obtained model will be improved, in future work, by including further variables of the extrusion process. Furthermore, factor analysis and GHML methodologies will also be considered for explaining the production of scrap and therefore improve the production process.

Nonideality in the Adsorption of Ethanol/Ethyl Acetate/Water Mixtures On ZIF-8 Metal Organic Framework

Fisher esterification of acetic acid (or acetic anhydride) with ethanol (EtOH) is the main industrial process for the synthesis of ethyl acetate (EA). Nonetheless, the separation of the produced ester from ethanol is challenging since these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) form an azeotropic mixture. In this work, the adsorption and separation EtOH/EA/water mixtures on the ZIF-8 metal–organic framework is studied. The present study aims to characterize the adsorptive behavior of ZIF-8 with non-ideal EtOH/EA/water mixtures. Single and multicomponent adsorption isotherms, obtained by gravimetry and breakthrough experiments, show high adsorption capacity and selectivity toward ethyl acetate. Pulse chromatography experiments confirm the higher interaction strength between EA and ZIF-8 in the low-pressure range at a low degree of pore filling (Henry’s region). The breakthrough profiles show development of intermediate plateaus in specific concentration ranges, with complex breakthrough evolution that has been...

Shell of Planet Earth – Global Batch Bioreactor

AbstractOur planet Earth, precisely speaking its surface shell, might be considered as a huge multiphase batch biochemical reactor heated by the Sun, whose energy is a unique resource. The Sun ensures our earthly life unconditionally; moreover, it compensates the heat losses of land, water, and ice by radiation emitted from the Earth surface to its surrounding space at night. It is evident that in this macroreactor the complex transport phenomena occur in many phases, involving mass, heat, and momentum. Obviously, such a responsive batch system is strongly limited by raw resources of all elements including carbon materials necessary for a good living standard and utilized both in the energy production and for the main industrial chemical processes.

Mo.nalis.a: a methodological approach to identify how to meet thermal industrial needs using already available geothermal resources

Mo.nalis.a is a conceptual model aimed at identifying the most suitable local geothermal sources to match the nearest industrial thermal needs. The methodological approach proposed is based on investigating industrial thermal processes and then identifying suitable geothermal solution plants that match these thermal requirements. The model was tested in Apulia (southern Italy) as a case study for assessing how the methodology could contribute to reducing the use of conventional energy resources for the industrial heat supply sector. The medium thermal needs in Apulia are always higher than 60 °C, and the main strategic industrial processes discussed into this work are “pasta and flour production” “wastewater treatment/sludge digestion” and “swimming pool management”. In order to match these industrial thermal demands, the most suitable proposed plant is the ground water heat pump system, limited to the first 100 m, the depth involved in the heat exchange through vertical probes of model. Finally, Mo.nalis.a identifies the Apulian areas with a possible development of these three activities using geothermal resource: the Foggia province, Murge and Salento sectors.

Development and application of a modular- based, multi- level approach for increasing energy efficiency

This paper presents a methodology how energy consumption and energy inefficiencies can be quantified for industrial processes based on a general, branch- independent approach for the purpose of increasing energy efficiency. For many companies the information of the actual energy use of their processes is very limited. Therefore, knowledge of energy consumption is only available on an overall basis and the product- specific energy costs are often calculated with a common cost- plus system. This deficiency in information is part of the reasons, why energy efficiency potentials are often neither known nor realized. For that reason a general approach is needed, which (1) uses the actual economic data of a company and (2) combines and compares it with thermodynamic analyses in order to (3) calculate the actual energy consumption of processes and products to (4) identify and quantify the energy efficiency potentials. The suggested general approach is branch- independent and analyses energy efficiency potentials. Firstly this is conducted through a modular- based, three- level industrial model mapping process. Each module contains production units (industrial plant assets), where main industrial processes are integrated into one module. The different modules are then connected on different levels in order to find product- specific production pathways. Secondly, both a top- down and a bottom- up approach are implemented. The top- down approach uses economic and overall energy consumption data and transfers it to the modular view. The bottom- up approach applies technical data of the used production units and quantifies energy consumption based on thermodynamic and general technical data. Through this methodology it is possible to derive actual energy consumption of processes and corresponding manufactured products, which furthermore helps to understand energy cost generation for various products. It also divides the possible inefficiencies into a technical and an organisational part which leads to technical, organisational and social measures. The described modelling of industrial processes on a modular, multilevel approach is applied to case studies for several Austrian foundry companies. Actual data is used for (1) building the model (2) evaluate the model and (3) make the actual energy consumption of processes more transparent. The case studies show that important information is concealed through wrong energy allocations and thus prevents the knowledge of energy efficiency potentials. The application of the model approach in foundry companies enables to (1) calculate energy consumption for various important modules, (2) transfer economic and technical data to a process- oriented picture of the energy use, (3) calculate energy demand of various products and (4) provides the first basis for energy efficiency potential analysis.

Material flow analysis and energy requirements of mobile phone material recovery processes

Proper recycling of mobile phones and other electronic products is important in order to reduce the generation of large amounts of hazardous waste, lessen environmental and social problems associated to the extraction of minerals and primary production of materials, and also minimize the depletion of scarce materials that are often difficult to substitute. Current material recovery processes are used to recycle electronic waste of various compositions. Based on a review of the recycling processes and material flow analysis (MFA), we attribute the material and energy required to recover metals from 1 tonne of discarded mobile phones. We estimate that the recovery rates of gold, palladium, silver, copper, nickel, lead, antimony, and tin from the recycling processes described are 80 to 99 % (16.4 % of the phone in weight). The two main industrial processes used at present time (pyrometallurgical and combined pyro-hydrometallurgical) have similar energy consumptions (7,763 and 7,568 MJ/tonne of mobile phones, respectively). An average tonne of used mobile phones represents a potential of 128 kg of copper, 0.347 kg of gold, 0.15 kg of palladium, 3.63 kg of silver, 15 kg of nickel, 6 kg of lead, 1 kg of antimony, and 10 kg of tin as well as other metals that are not yet profitable to recover but might be in the future. We find that the energy consumed to recover copper from mobile phones is half of that needed for copper primary extraction and similar or greater energy savings for precious metal refining. Nevertheless, only 2.5 % of mobile phones arrive to industrial recovery facilities. There is a great potential to increase the amount of metals being recovered, thereby reducing energy consumption and increasing resource efficiency.

NMR spectrometry isotopic fingerprinting: A tool for the manufacturer for tracking Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients from starting materials to final medicines

In the frame of increasingly stringent quality assessment required by the regulators, the pharmaceutical industry has to face increasingly sophisticated counterfeiting practices. Counterfeits based on deliberate copying of processes or on the infringement of current patents for generic medicines are not straightforward to detect, unless the molecular probe is the active molecule itself. In this context, impurity profiling is limited. A tool based on the determination of intramolecular isotopic profiles has been developed to provide manufacturers of APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) with a new solution to meet this double requirement. Stable isotope analyses by NMR gives direct access to site-specific isotope content at natural abundance. In this report, it is shown how both 2H and 13C NMR spectrometry can provide complementary and valuable information that could be applied to link APIs to their manufacturing source. Isotopic 13C NMR offers additional benefits over 2H NMR in using robust adiabatic polarization transfer methods, leading to a tremendous reduction in experimental time. Two approaches are illustrated. Firstly, the use of 2H and single pulse 13C NMR spectra obtained on 20 commercial ibuprofen samples from different origins show that this combined strategy leads to (i) a unique intramolecular isotope identification and (ii) a preliminary classification of the samples according to the synthetic pathways of the main industrial processes. An approach employing polarization transfer methods applied to 11 commercial naproxen samples, for which 2H and single pulse 13C NMR spectra are not exploitable and/or are not accessible in reasonable time. The relative and partial intramolecular 13C distribution obtained on naproxen by applying this methodology is sufficiently informative to allow the same conclusions as for ibuprofen. The additional benefits that these approaches should bring to API manufacturers are discussed.

ChemInform Abstract: The Past, Present and Future of Heterogeneous Catalysis

AbstractReview: 459 refs.