Case Study – General Chemical Inc.

Capacity Upgrade of a Liquid Ferric Sulfate Plant

Situation

A leading supplier of liquid ferric sulfate used in waste water flocculation desired to reduce process cycle times by 25% or more, primarily focusing on changes in operation with minimal capital investments.

Approach

IMPACT performed a plant throughput assessment of the facility, including the generation of a plant capacity computer model, to determine the feasibility of achieving a 25% or greater reduction in cycle time.  All major unit operations were analyzed to identify bottlenecks. The primary reaction kinetics and feed introduction methods were also analyzed in an attempt to maximize product yields per batch. Experiments were performed to quantify improvements in product yield.

Results

IMPACT determined the reactor to be the primary bottleneck and made recommendations that achieved the targeted goal of a >25% reduction in process cycle time.  IMPACT also provided the client with additional long term process modifications that would enable significantly higher capacity improvements above and beyond the requested 25%.