Understanding Batch Chemical Processes : Modelling and Case Studies

Batch chemical processes, so often employed in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical fields, differ significantly from standard continuous operations in the emphasis upon time as a critical factor in their synthesis and design.

With this inclusive guide to batch chemical processes, the author introduces the reader to key aspects in mathematical modeling of batch processes and presents techniques to overcome the computational complexity in order to yield models that are solvable in near real-time. This book demonstrates how batch processes can be analyzed, synthesized, and designed optimally using proven mathematical formulations. The text effectively demonstrates how water and energy aspects can be incorporated within the scheduling framework that seeks to capture the essence of time. It presents real-life case studies where mathematical modeling of batch plants has been successfully applied.

Thokozani Majozi is a full professor in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at Wits University where he also holds the NRF/DST Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering. His main research interest is batch chemical process integration, where he has made significant scientific contributions that have earned him international recognition. Some of these contributions have been adopted by industry. Prior to joining Wits, he spent almost 10 years at the University of Pretoria, initially as an associate professor and later as a full professor of chemical engineering. He was also an associate professor in computer science at the University of Pannonia in Hungary from 2005 to 2009. Majozi completed his PhD in Process Integration at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in the United Kingdom. He is a member of Academy of Sciences of South Africa and a Fellow for the Academy of Engineering of SA. He has received numerous awards for his research including the Burianec Memorial Award (Italy), S2A3 British Association Medal (Silver) and the South African Institution of Chemical Engineers Bill Neal-May Gold Medal. He is also twice a recipient of the NSTF Award and twice the recipient of the NRF President’s Award. Majozi is author and co-author of more than 150 scientific publications, including 2 books in Batch Chemical Process Integration published by Springer and CRC Press in 2010 and 2015, respectively.

Esmael Seid obtained his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Bhair Dar University, Ethiopia. He then worked in process industry for three years after his B.Sc. before joining University of Pretoria, South Africa, in 2009, where he obtained his MScEng and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering. Dr Seid has several publications in international refereed journals on design, synthesis, scheduling, and resource conservation, with particular emphasis on water and energy for multipurpose batch plants. He is currently a visiting scholar at Chemical Engineering Department, Texas A&M University working on Sustainable process design through process integration.

Jui-Yuan Lee

is an assistant professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan. Dr Lee received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU) in 2011, and conducted postdoctoral research at NTU (2011-2013) and University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (2013-2014). His research centres on process integration for energy savings and waste reduction, with research interests covering low-carbon energy system planning and hybrid power system design. He has published more than 30 journal papers and 40 conference papers, and coedited a book on batch process integration. Dr Lee is working closely with several collaborators mainly in South-east Asia and Africa.