Unit Two Research and Development-4

《化学工程与工艺专业英语》
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（3) Process improvement. Process improvement relates to processes which are already operating. It may be a problem that has arisen and stopped production. In this situation there is a lot of pressure to find a solution as soon as possible so that production can restart, since ‘down time’ costs money.

More commonly, however, process improvement will be directed at improving the profitability of the process. This might be achieved in a number of ways. For example, improving the yield by optimizing the process, increasing the capacity by introducing a new catalyst, or lowering the energy requirements of the process. An example of the latter was the introduction of turbo compressors in the production of ammonia by the Haber process. This reduced utility costs (mainly electricity) from $6.66 to %0.56 per ton of ammonia produced. Improving the quality of the product, by process modification, may lead to new markets for the product.

In recent years, however, the most important process improvement activity has been to reduce the environmental impact of the process, i.e., to prevent the process causing any pollution. Clearly there have been two interlinked driving forces for this. Firstly, the public’s concern about the safety of chemicals and their effect on the environment, and the legislation which has followed as a result of this. Secondly the cost to the manufacturer of having to treat waste (i.e., material which cannot be recovered and used r sold) so that it can be safely disposed of, say by pumping into a river. This obviously represents a charge on the process which will increase the cost of the chemical being made. The potential for improvement by reducing the amount of waste is self-evident.

Note, however, with a plant which has already been built and is operating there are usually only very limited physical changes which can be made to the plant to achieve the above aims. Hence the importance, already mentioned, of eliminating waste production at the design stage of a new plant. Conserving energy and thus reducing energy cost has been another major preoccupation in recent years.