Thesis submitted for the award of Membership of the Institution of Chemical Engineers

S F Bush

Summary

The application of the jet principle to four chemical engineering design objectives is described. The four applications are to:

• the determination of the kinetics of carbon deposition on surfaces;
• the blending of viscous liquids;
• the vaporisation of heat sensitive liquids;
• the stabilisation of exothermic reactions.

 
The applications thus cover a range of viscosities and phases on both the laboratory and full scales. The experimental and theoretical results on which the designs are based are given. Some general conclusions about the utility of the jet principle in mixing and heat transfer are derived.

Group II Research Note, ICI Central Instrument Research Lab.

S F Bush

Summary

This document contains proposals for a research programme to be carried out at CIRL, Bozedown House, on the manufacture of ethylene by cracking hydrocarbon feedstocks. The programme is designed to cover the cracking and quench sections and can be enlarged to include natural gas cracking as well as naphtha cracking if this is required. Proposals are made for the construction of a kinetic model based on a programme of experimentation, the setting up of a detailed mathematical model of the cracker and quench sections of the process, investigation of the rate and nature of carbonaceous deposits in these sections, and optimisation of process design based on the results of the foregoing elements of the programme. A short series of kinetics experiments on the cracking of propane as a simple test feedstock have been carried out in the Laboratory’s jet-mixed reactors in order to test the feasibility of a longer programme. The kinetic results have been incorporated into a first-attempt computer model of a cracker tube.