3+Meeting+Minutes

= Meeting on 01/20/11 =

First meeting with Dennis O' Brien

Purpose of meeting:
 * Get to know mentor
 * Determine what stages we have to go through during the process design
 * Determine what are we going to produce in this project
 * Meet with the other group and determine the process of two groups working together

Meeting:
 * Debating on producing Diesel or Methanol
 * Diesel from gasification has the following advantages:
 * Clean fuel with a cetane number of around 100 achieved easily
 * No aromatics or contaminants
 * A relatively green process
 * BUT Diesel requires Fischer Tropsch process which is extremely complicated and thus ruled out.
 * Methanol production is another option with the following advantages:
 * Good Fuel
 * Easy to store
 * Easy way to store hydrogen for future use
 * Very flexible product, can be a building block for several other useful chemicals
 * Simple process to make
 * The syn gas will be produced using MSW through a plasma gasifier
 * Things needed to be determined for the process
 * Set basis, a production rate of 5000 tons/day would be good
 * Feed ratio
 * Competing processes
 * why is it a good process? Storage is better
 * why do we choose to use MSW why not natural gas, coal, biomass
 * think of other
 * Reactors
 * Separation of products
 * Market outlook
 * Plant seals? even though it is to be determined down the road but think about this. Since Methanol is volatile it will probably need a double seal.
 * Material and Energy Balances
 * Units in the plant, what units are needed to get the plant working
 * Other things required/side notes
 * We must take notes during meetings with Dennis
 * We must upload notes on internal meeting

= Meeting on 1/27/11 =

Date: 1/27/11 Location: 525 W. Monroe Suite 1350 Chicago, IL Attendees: Dennis O' Brien, Daniyal Qamar, Scott Morgan, Sukhjinder Singh, Brian Mottel, Priya Chetty

Purpose:
 * Choose between high pressure/low pressure reaction conditions
 * Come up with and assign tasks for all team members
 * Develop a basic block flow digram and units needed

Meeting:
 * Since 4500 psi is very high pressure and is in the gun barrel range we need to go for the low pressure process.
 * This will save on starting costs, maintenance, pumps, and energy
 * save on compressor costs
 * Decide between screw compressors or reciprocal compressors
 * Determine: Feed -> Reaction -> Separation -> Storage.
 * Compressors for the syngas, find out if there are any other components in the feed gas
 * For the reaction use a multiple bed split feed reactor.
 * We have to locate all the methanol plants in the US and find out what kind of technology they are using.
 * Look up patents uploaded and learn from their teaching sections.
 * Possibly find a code that can calculate the products from a reactor.
 * Do we need water for this reaction?
 * If we do, then take care of water purification: GE, Viola, and NALCO are some companies
 * Temperature and Pressure
 * For the separations what kind of columns do we need, do we have to take care of azeotropes how much water is produced in the reactions? Drying of the products

Duties:

Brian and Daniyal: Reaction
 * Conditions
 * Reactor
 * Feed
 * Products

Scott: Compressor
 * How many do we need
 * What kind

Sukh: Water Purification Priya: Economics
 * Method
 * Equipment
 * Cost
 * Equipment cost
 * product cost details
 * by products and their costs

Meeting Notes 2/4/11 Location: CEB 850 S Clinton Chicago, IL Attendees: Brian Mottel, Sukhjinder Singh, Scott Morgan, Daniyal Qamar Use of ICI Synetix Reactor For Monday 2/7/2011 Priya: Feed Scott and Daniyal: Reaction Brian and Sukh: Products We also decided to use a rough basis of 1000 tons/day of clean syngas for the mas and energy balances Look into how to purge/seperate H2 and CO from any part of the reaction process.
 * Ratios (what ratios are need for the reactor
 * Look into Slurry reactor
 * Find info on low pressure methanol reaction
 * Find reaction conditions
 * Are there any companies in the world that are using this process?
 * All side reactions
 * Selectivity
 * Conversions of the reaction(s)
 * How many reactors are needed for the necessary product?
 * Reaction conditions (50-70 atm, 270 C)
 * By products from methanol synthesis
 * Selectivity and reaction conditions for by products
 * Amount of product (3000-5000 ton/day)

Meeting on 1/25/11 Class Presentation Here are the group meeting notes for the Q&A section after our presentation.

This was brought up several times but what incentive does group Delta have to give syngas at a certain pressure? What is it in for Delta to give our syngas at our needed pressure? Our process is at high pressure (which we talked to Dennis about and decided at 1500 psi) What is the price to transfer clean syngas to our section of the plant? (How much does piping cost and what kind of piping do we need for the given pressure?) Low pressure means big/large compressor and it's too dangerous Higher alcohols are produced from multiple distillations, is there a market for the by products? Is it possible or plausible to treat the by-products as a waste material?

Look into high end by-products and methane. What are some of the uses of the high end by-products and the efficiences associated with this.

--- Meeting Notes 2/10/11 Location: CEB 850 S Clinton Chicago, IL Attendees: Brian Mottel, Sukhjinder Singh, Scott Morgan, Priya Chetty, Daniyal Qamar

Purpose: · Progress on the material balance · Quick overview and sections completed and overall direction of the project · Obstacles confronted and methods being implemented · Present process flow scheme diagram and areas of improvement Meeting: · Utilize ICI multiple feed reactor to maintain optimum temperature · Neglect balance material balance over the multiple feed reactor just a dicussion for presention · Overall scheme reactor > separator > distillation column · Use simple, two stage compressor (3 to 1 compression ratio) · Compression of syngas determined to be 300psi · Max heat exchanger pressure 300psi · Still researching amount of byproducts in rxn · Determine selectivity conversion on side reactions and ideal catalyst

**Meeting on 2/24/2011**

Date: 2/24/11 Location: 525 W. Monroe Suite 1350 Chicago, IL Attendees: Dennis O' Brien, Daniyal Qamar, Scott Morgan, Sukhjinder Singh, Priya Chetty

Purpose: Meeting: § Neglect mediocre points § Include vital skills computer program languages overall GPA with well rounded activities research experience and Internships § Cover Letter Taylor to the target § good- objective title and explanation on why undertaking this project § suggested to condense the sentences and reduce word length § have Delta edit the Abstract § two Treaters- water removal § two fractionators (RTL) assume conversion reactor rough reflux research published literature to obtain values search Aspen and DOE website to gain insight on size and data use Aspen to estimate based on model then go back and research if something doesn’t match hand calculated mole balance for efficiency then energy balance § Kinetics (best precursor for data) Look at Aspen website *overall conversion factors: Ø 75 btu/lb hydrocarbon (petroleum industry)- has 1 stage rxn in reactor Ø 500 btu/lb methanol Vapor phase rxn (300psi) Ø find critical temperature and pressure for product and reactant component Ø verify using additional research § use patent data for columns § know TR from PR > (T=250°C P= 300psi) § quench (crack quench) > use water or methanol – shift reaction § break multiple reactor § note syngas component will be in liquid thus pressure issue § drops temperature § creates shaft work –energy can be used somewhere else § uses minimum HP compression § 30psi § condense water or air based on pressure § note vapor has low pressure § Use cooling water (90°C) – eliminates need for cooling tower Ø If liquid stream goes to reactor then don’t cool it  Ø If using quench method- cool the quench stream § 1st > flash> recycle § 2nd > distillation- cool and condense methanol- (bottom contains methanol and heavy alcohols) Ø Address azeotrope (methanol + water) – separation method o Membrane separation v. sev’s (requires drying via drying column) § Treat as black box § CO2 at 1500psi -use selexol (CO2 can be reduced by approximately 85%) § H2 -use membrane separation based on selectivity § Use fixed rule § Use splitter in row configuration § Make slides to answer question addressed on the last presentation § Progress updates § List assumptions make § Apply aspen economics then verify with published material § Gain vendor quotes (capital cost estimates) on towers § Reactor and compressor since customized quotes will vary
 * Discuss resume and insight into what to include
 * Project abstract
 * Advise on using Aspen
 * Obtaining data on the Reactor
 * Expectations on the next presentation
 * Resume
 * Abstract:
 * Reactor
 * Material balance refinement
 * Separator
 * Reverse Turbo expander- utilize from separator (high pressure )to obtain two phase
 * Tower
 * Multistage compressor
 * Process scheme
 * Gasifiers
 * Purge stream component elimination – CO2, H2, and CO (can assume whatever concentration needed to keep steady state)
 * Recycle stream
 * Power point suggestion
 * Wiki updates needed
 * Economics

Group Presentation #3 3/8/2011
 * Compressing to 1200 psi- what type of compressor is needed and how to get the heat out?
 * Compressors do not like 500 F either in or out, so we need to cool it before it gets to them.
 * There are 2 kinds of compressors that we will need to use most likely, so Dennis will talk to us about those.
 * 36.0% IRR is way too high so it raises a flag of concern. Need to go through the economics and lower the IRR.
 * $1.37/gallon for methanol is from research and seems to be the correct market value.
 * $6/ MM BTU is for natural gas, and this value is way too low for syngas. Need to talk to Delta and figure out a good price for the syngas.
 * Waste streams- where do they go and what do we need to do with them?
 * Liquid wastes- what do we need to do with all of them?
 * Water disposal- the water will be contaminated and will need to be treated. Find the associated cost with this treatment? (Scott can probably find this from his Dad)
 * Find out what to do with the compressor discharge.
 * Cost is affected by pressure drop so go through process and find all of the pressure drops
 * Show Q in term of Work terms. Can show both at the same time. Easier to see what kind of power is needed for the equipment.
 * The heat exchanger is very different than the compressor in terms of power/energy
 * Turbo gives off electricity, what do we plan on doing with that and how do we use it?
 * In a energy sink/load diagram have pieces of equipment that gives off heat next to what needs that heat.
 * Lump together pieces that need work from one another so there is less space between the equipment.
 * Floating room tank for methanol storage?? MeOH sucks of water so this tank will not work. Need to find what storage tank is best for storage of MeOH.
 * Make sure that the storage tank is feasible.
 * Reactor price is still not correct, so we need to refine this by next time.
 * On the next presentation, have pictures of the internal of our reactor (inside pieces), that make it productive and efficient
 * Purge off of the recycle, huge CO2 buildup. Find out how to do this since a membrane will not work will, since it would create the lose of MeOH,.

Group Presentation #4
 * What are we doing with the purge stream? It is nasty with its composition. Could use thermal oxidizier. It is pressurised so it could be sent to a gas turbine.
 * Put flare on plant layout. Might need ground flare due to location.
 * Adam will present flares/utilities next week.
 * Ground flare has storage and residence time. Can achieve efficiency.

Here is the meeting minutes document with all them formatted the same way.