WHODUNNIT? The Mystery of CO2 Emissions: Is the Flowsheet or Equipment to Blame?

Chemical processes consume a large amount of the world’s resources, as raw materials to produce various products as well as energy sources to drive the processes. The chemical and petrochemical industry accounts for 30% of global industrial energy use and 16% of direct CO2 emissions (IEA, 2007). Therefore, in order to develop energy efficient processes, reduce raw material requirements and alleviate the environmental effects associated with processes, there is growing need for innovation in the design and operation of chemical processes.

The Centre of Material and Process Synthesis (COMPS) at the University of the Witwatersrand presents this webinar on novel techniques for designing chemical process flowsheets with an emphasis on reducing material and energy consumption as well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The webinar demonstrates an approach based on fundamental concepts: mass, energy and entropy balances. These concepts can be used to provide global insights into processes, establish rigorous targets for processes, enhance process performance, conserve natural resources and reduce negative environmental impact.

This webinar is of benefit to engineers involved in the design of chemical processes, and faculty at universities who teach courses and carry out research in process flowsheet design. Participants are taught a systematic approach for designing flowsheets for new chemical processes, and how to incorporate energy and environmental concerns at the very early stages of the design process.

COMPS is a research and engineering solutions group with the main focus area in chemical engineering and mineral processing. Its objective is to provide the latest cutting-edge methodologies and techniques to synthesise, integrate and optimise processes that support sustainable industrial practice. Through close links with 15 research entities within Wits and internationally, the Centre provides a unique multidisciplinary outcome focused approach to generate innovative and efficient solutions. COMPS also offers consulting and customised training to its industry partners. The Centre's expanding pool of engineers and scientists have developed tools to identify optimum solutions in the field of Process Synthesis.Over the past 20 years COMPS have made substantial progress in the fields of CTL, GTL and BTL, notably developing technologies to drastically reduce the associated carbon dioxide emissions resulting from these processes.