*This was a group project i worked on during my 1st year of Chemical Engineering at Newcastle University. This project won the "Best Project" award sponsored by BP as it was a simple yet comprehensive project outlining the refinery process, mass balancing and providing a preliminary cost analysis to produce 20,000 tonnes of refined Sunflower Oil.
Introduction
Refining of sunflower oil is an essential industry process for removing free fatty
acids from the oil, for optimasing a uniform colour and for removing unpleasant
smells that the raw oil may have. This can done by combining different continuous
batch processes such as neutralisation, de-colourisation, hydrogenation and
de-odourisation.
In this refinery the removal of free fatty acids (FFA) is carried out by reacting this
acid with Sodium Hydroxide. This will then form a soap which is washed out with
de-mineralised water and removed by two centrifuges. Subsequently, to impart
an uniform colour, fullers earth is added and a vacuum is applied. Then the sunflower
oil remaining was filtrate. The next process is hydrogenation process. The
Sunflower oil has 6 saturation points, i.e. each oil molecule requires 6 hydrogen
atoms to be fully saturated . 65% of the product is fully saturated and the rest is
mono-saturated (i.e. only 3 hydrogen atoms required). In this process a Nickel
catalyst is used to speed up the reaction. Finally is the de-odourisation process
where the hydrogenated sunflower oil is heated up, moved from one open tank
to another 5 times, de-odourised and cool down.
A detailed heat and mass balances were calculated in order to get the sunflower
oil flow rate required to produce 20,000 tones in 6,000 hour per year. This calculations
also give information of the amount of chemical that are needed. Therefore
the production costs can be found.
As in many other chemical processes, the chemicals used and produced in this
refinery can be hazardous for people and can have an impact on the environment.
Therefore, in this project, a safety analysis an a environmental impact were
done in order to prevent any accidents and to take safety actions and disposed
the waste produced in the most appropriate way.
REFINERY PROCESS
To refine Sunflower oil it is necessary to follow different chemical processes such
as neutralisation, hydrogenation, de-colourisation and finally de-odourisation. In
order to determine the required feed flows, temperatures of the streams and
composition, mass and energy balances must be applied. The calculations were
based on 1000 kg of feed and then scaled up to get the 20,000 tonnes product
desired.
Product -Hydrogenated Oil
Required: 20,000 tonnes/year → 2283.105 kg/hr
Composition by percentage
99.87% -Hydrogenated Sunflower Oil
0.03% -Free fatty acid
0.05% Colour Compounds
0.05% -Odour Compounds
Plant operates 6000 hr/yr
Product flowrate = Required production / Plant Operation
Product flowrate = 20, 000, 000 [kg/yr] / 6, 000 [hr/yr]
= 3333.33kg/yr
• Assume conversion Rate = 100%
• Proposed solution using 1000 kg/hr as feed flow rate
Final Flow rate of Product = 984.6931 = 985 kg hr−1
Required Flow = Product required/working hours
Required Flow = 20, 000, 000/6000
= 3333.33 kg hr−1
The calculations were done on a basis of 1000 kg. However, to calculate the initial
flow rate that will produce 3333.33 kg hr−1 , a multiplying factor was calculated.
This factor indicates the amount by which the initial flow rate should be
increased to obtained the desired amount of product. Also this factor can be
multiplied by any of the flow rates at any given point if the composition is
needed, but all the results were kept in percentages so that this will not be
needed.
Multiplyingfactor = required outlet/Outlet calculated flow rate = 3.384
Therefore the initial flow rate needed to produced 20,000 tones per year in 6000
working hours is:
Initial flow rate = 1000 X 3.384kg hr−1= 3384 kg hr−1
Click HERE for PART II of the Sunflower Refinery which discusses the PROCESSES.
And Click HERE for part III which discusses the timing of the processes and preliminary cost of plant.
Introduction
Refining of sunflower oil is an essential industry process for removing free fatty
acids from the oil, for optimasing a uniform colour and for removing unpleasant
smells that the raw oil may have. This can done by combining different continuous
batch processes such as neutralisation, de-colourisation, hydrogenation and
de-odourisation.
In this refinery the removal of free fatty acids (FFA) is carried out by reacting this
acid with Sodium Hydroxide. This will then form a soap which is washed out with
de-mineralised water and removed by two centrifuges. Subsequently, to impart
an uniform colour, fullers earth is added and a vacuum is applied. Then the sunflower
oil remaining was filtrate. The next process is hydrogenation process. The
Sunflower oil has 6 saturation points, i.e. each oil molecule requires 6 hydrogen
atoms to be fully saturated . 65% of the product is fully saturated and the rest is
mono-saturated (i.e. only 3 hydrogen atoms required). In this process a Nickel
catalyst is used to speed up the reaction. Finally is the de-odourisation process
where the hydrogenated sunflower oil is heated up, moved from one open tank
to another 5 times, de-odourised and cool down.
A detailed heat and mass balances were calculated in order to get the sunflower
oil flow rate required to produce 20,000 tones in 6,000 hour per year. This calculations
also give information of the amount of chemical that are needed. Therefore
the production costs can be found.
As in many other chemical processes, the chemicals used and produced in this
refinery can be hazardous for people and can have an impact on the environment.
Therefore, in this project, a safety analysis an a environmental impact were
done in order to prevent any accidents and to take safety actions and disposed
the waste produced in the most appropriate way.
To refine Sunflower oil it is necessary to follow different chemical processes such
as neutralisation, hydrogenation, de-colourisation and finally de-odourisation. In
order to determine the required feed flows, temperatures of the streams and
composition, mass and energy balances must be applied. The calculations were
based on 1000 kg of feed and then scaled up to get the 20,000 tonnes product
desired.
The description of the feed materials composition, targeted products and available
services are shown below.
services are shown below.
Feed -Raw Oil (Composition by percentage)
97.7% -Sunflower Oil
1.5% -Free Fatty Acid
0.5% -Colour Compound
0.3% -Odour Compound
97.7% -Sunflower Oil
1.5% -Free Fatty Acid
0.5% -Colour Compound
0.3% -Odour Compound
Other Feed Materials
• 5 Mol/dm3 of NaOh
• Fullers Earth
• Clay adsorbent
• Nickel Hydrogenation Catalyst
• Hydrogen
• 5 Mol/dm3 of NaOh
• Fullers Earth
• Clay adsorbent
• Nickel Hydrogenation Catalyst
• Hydrogen
Available Services
• Steam at 1000 kPa ≈10 Bar
• Demineralised water at 20℃
• Cooling Water at 20℃
• Three phase elecrical suply at 415V
• Steam at 1000 kPa ≈10 Bar
• Demineralised water at 20℃
• Cooling Water at 20℃
• Three phase elecrical suply at 415V
Product -Hydrogenated Oil
Required: 20,000 tonnes/year → 2283.105 kg/hr
Composition by percentage
99.87% -Hydrogenated Sunflower Oil
0.03% -Free fatty acid
0.05% Colour Compounds
0.05% -Odour Compounds
Plant operates 6000 hr/yr
Product flowrate = Required production / Plant Operation
Product flowrate = 20, 000, 000 [kg/yr] / 6, 000 [hr/yr]
= 3333.33kg/yr
• Assume conversion Rate = 100%
• Proposed solution using 1000 kg/hr as feed flow rate
Final Flow rate of Product = 984.6931 = 985 kg hr−1
Required Flow = Product required/working hours
Required Flow = 20, 000, 000/6000
= 3333.33 kg hr−1
The calculations were done on a basis of 1000 kg. However, to calculate the initial
flow rate that will produce 3333.33 kg hr−1 , a multiplying factor was calculated.
This factor indicates the amount by which the initial flow rate should be
increased to obtained the desired amount of product. Also this factor can be
multiplied by any of the flow rates at any given point if the composition is
needed, but all the results were kept in percentages so that this will not be
needed.
Multiplyingfactor = required outlet/Outlet calculated flow rate = 3.384
Therefore the initial flow rate needed to produced 20,000 tones per year in 6000
working hours is:
Initial flow rate = 1000 X 3.384kg hr−1= 3384 kg hr−1
Click HERE for PART II of the Sunflower Refinery which discusses the PROCESSES.
And Click HERE for part III which discusses the timing of the processes and preliminary cost of plant.
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