New Technology in Unit Process Operation Engineering Essay

New Technology in Unit Process Operation
Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
New Technology in Unit Process Operation
The importance of chemical engineering can be felt across industries like pharmaceuticals, oil, and food in the research, design, and optimization of the production process. Industrial production in chemical operations requires the innovative processes to ensure that cost reduction and efficiency. Technological advancements are most effective in ensuring efficiency in production and reduction of cost for industries. This paper looks at different technologies that have been recently adopted in chemical engineering unit process operations in the last five years. It provides an overview of the technological adoptions in different unit operations.
* Distillation
Despite the maturity assumptions of many researchers about distillation, the field has undergone numerous technological advancements which are mostly based on process intensification raising various innovations like membrane distillation, dividing-wall column and HiGee distillations (Kiss and Maleta, 2018). According to the duo, cyclic distillation has been used as a way to further intensify the process with recent developments on the method focusing on better control of phase movement. The separate phase movement principle of cyclic distillation has been enhanced by the computing power of today’s mechanics with new additions in the contact devices. Distillation has also adopted the installation of heat pumps for increased energy discharge to shrink the use of utilities based on their lack of intrinsic temperature limitations (Kiss, 2019). The length of operation of equipment in industrial production is very essential in ensuring efficiency. Distillation columns present some of the direst challenges in terms of energy consumption due to foaming, internal pressure reduction and fouling (LePree, 2019). To overcome these challenges, customized, anti-corrosive materials have been adopted to reduce the fouling issues and replacement of the conventional trays with smaller packages for pressure regulation.
* Evaporation
The concentration on evaporation technologies is mainly centered on materials that make the heat exchanger which mainly affects the number of emissions. An adaptation of polymeric materials in evaporation technologies has been popular because they enlarge the surface area for the process (Patrick, n.d.). The preference of polymeric materials has been enacted in industrial evaporation due to its low cost and high quality which reduces process effluents. Secondary factors that complicate the evaporation process (air reaction and element separation) are also becoming the central concern of industrial evaporation (Chandler, 2019). Chandler (2019) explained how the use of a golden membrane to allow water passage as well as take note of the temperatures more accurately. The article explained the mechanics of using a golden membrane due to its resistance which aided in achieving accurate calibration as evaporation is based on pressure differences.
* Filtration
Water conservation and treatment is the main objective of the advances that have been realized in the filtration process. Filtration is arguably the unit process that has...