The phthalic acid production scale-down project (Appendix C, Project 3) involves determining a method for scale-down of phthalic acid production by 50 %. The feed section of this process was discussed in Section 22. 4.

a. Identify potential bottlenecks to the 50 % scale-down.

b. Quantify the answer to Part (a); that is, determine the primary bottleneck to \(50 \%\) scale-down.

c. Debottleneck your answer to Part (b).

d. Repeat Parts (b) and (c) until 50% scale-down or a maximum possible scale-down is achieved.

Data from section 22.4

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Phthalic anhydride can be produced by reacting naphthalene and oxygen. The feed section to a phthalic anhydride process is shown in Figure 22.7. The mixed feed enters a fluidized bed reactor operating at five times the minimum fluidization velocity. A stream table is given in Table 22.2. It is assumed that all frictional pressure losses are associated with equipment and that frictional losses in the piping are negligible. It is temporarily necessary to scale down production by 50%. Your job is to determine how to scale down the process and to determine the new flows and pressures.