Editor-in-Chief:
Hiroyuki Honda (Nagoya University)

Associate Editors-in-Chiefs:
Manabu Shimada (Hiroshima University)
Takao Tsukada (Tohoku University)

Editors:
Ryuichi Egashira (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Jun Fukai (Kyushu University)
Choji Fukuhara (Shizuoka University)
Takayuki Hirai (Osaka University)
Masahiko Hirao (The University of Tokyo)
Jun-ichi Horiuchi (Kitami Institute of Technology)
Eiji Iritani (Nagoya University)
Yoshinori Itaya (Gifu University)
Hideo Kameyama (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)
Masahiro Kino-oka (Osaka University)
Toshinori Kojima (Seikei University)
In-Beum Lee (Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTEC))
Shin Mukai (Hokkaido University)
Akinori Muto (Osaka Prefecture University)
Nobuyoshi Nakagawa (Gunma University)
Hiroyasu Ogino (Osaka Prefecture University)
Naoto Ohmura (Kobe University)
Mitsuhiro Ohta (The University of Tokushima)
Hiroshi Ooshima (Osaka City University)
Yuji Sakai (Kogakuin University)
Noriaki Sano (Kyoto University)
Masahiro Shishido (Yamagata University)
Richard Lee Smith, Jr. (Tohoku University)
Hiroshi Suzuki (Kobe University)
Shigeki Takishima (Hiroshima University)
Yoshifumi Tsuge (Kyushu University)
Tomoya Tsuji (Nihon University)
Da-Ming Wang (National Taiwan University)
Yoshiyuki Yamashita (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)
Miki Yoshimune (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST))

Editorial office:
The Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan
Kyoritsu Building, 4-6-19, Kohinata, Bunkyo-ku
Tokyo 112-0006, Japan
journal@scej.org

AIMS AND SCOPE:

Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan, an official publication of the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan, is dedicated to providing timely original research results in the broad field of chemical engineering ranging from fundamental principles to practical applications. Subject areas of this journal are listed below. Research works presented in the journal are considered to have significant and lasting value in chemical engineering.

Physical Properties and Physical Chemistry
Transport Phenomena and Fluid Engineering
Particle Engineering
Separation Engineering
Thermal Engineering
Chemical Reaction Engineering
Process Systems Engineering and Safety
Biochemical Food and Medical Engineering
Micro and Nano Systems
Materials Engineering and Interfacial Phenomena
Energy
Environment
Engineering Education

View full abstract

The safety of a chemical process plant can be achieved through plant-lifecycle engineering (Plant-LCE), which is performed from research and development to plant safety design, construction, and manufacturing (production and maintenance) stages, as well as at each engineering stage. To expressly provide a framework that can perform coherent decision making through the plant-lifecycle and at each stage, it is effective to develop a business process model that systematizes the activities related to engineering, production, etc. and represents the ideal and consistent business flow for each company. The safety division of the Society of Chemical Engineers Japan (SCEJ) has advanced the development of a business process model of Plant-LCE which consists of the business process models for process safety design, production management, plant maintenance, and process safety management (PSM). The original business flow for each company can be developed by referring to these business process models as reference models. This business flow can clarify what kind of activities should be performed at each stage, what kind of information on an activity should be collected, how it should be conveyed to other engineering activities, etc. In this paper, we review the challenges in developing business process models to realize a PSM environment logically.

View full abstract

Particle dispersion in a shear-thinning fluid in a stirred vessel with a turbine blade impeller has been investigated experimentally. An aqueous solution of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) is used as a non-Newtonian fluid having a weak shear-thinning rheological property. Initially, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) fine particles of 8–20 µm are inserted just below the surface of stationary fluid. Complete dispersion time is defined as the time when no large-scale lumps can be found. At the same time, PMMA particles adsorb on the surface of micron-sized air bubbles accompanied with the initial input of the particles. With proceeding of particle dispersion, particles desorb from the bubble surface, and the average size of bubbles with PMMA particles decreases. To find an optimized operational condition for mixing, the dispersion process is divided into macroscopic and microscopic. For macroscopic dispersion, high rotation speed is required, but it should be kept low enough so that it does not create a cylindrically rotating zone. Low rotation speed is favored to purge air bubbles with accumulated particles for microscopic dispersion.

View full abstract

The breakup processes of polymer solution droplets deposited on chemically strip-patterned surfaces are investigated experimentally. Polystyrene is used as solute while various liquids are used as solvents. Breakup of the liquid film is found to progress by iterations of self-pinning on lyophilic channels and receding of the contact line on lyophobic channels. Accordingly, formation of the polymer thin film is incomplete when the contact lines are not pinned on the lyophilic channels, or when they are pinned on the lyophobic channels. To induce a Marangoni effect on breakup, binary solvent mixtures are used. For several mixtures, thin liquid films are elongated on the lyophilic channels, enhancing breakup. Such mixtures exhibit complete wetting on homogeneous lyophilic surfaces as a result of the Marangoni effect.

View full abstract

The influence of ultrasonication and agitation on the induction of nucleation in the reaction crystallization of cerium carbonate has been investigated in a semi-batch crystallizer. When the cerium chloride and sodium carbonate reactants are constantly injected, the induction time depends significantly on ultrasonication and agitation. Due to the acoustic cavitation of ultrasonication promoting micromixing of the reactants, the induction time of cerium carbonate is markedly reduced. Simultaneously, the acoustic cavitation appears to reduce the energy barrier of nucleation, inducing nucleation at a lower supersaturation level than with the turbulent fluid motion of agitation. However, the acoustic stream of ultrasonication does not promote the induction of nucleation. Meanwhile, agitation also facilitates the induction of nucleation due to turbulent mixing of the reactants. The micromixing resulting from agitation meant the supersaturation in the solution increases rapidly when increasing the agitation speed, thereby reducing the induction time. The influence of ultrasonication and agitation on the induction of nucleation has also been compared in terms of the energy dissipation. With the same energy dissipation, ultrasonication is much more effective than agitation for induction, possibly due to its unique feature of acoustic cavitation.

View full abstract

New analysis and a definition of the new mean particle size have been discovered by rediscussing theory of the buoyancy weighing-bar method, which is a type of sedimentation methods. This paper proposes a new mean particle size based on the settling velocity in liquid. The velocity mean size of all particles [equation], which is the new mean particle size defined in this paper by the buoyancy weighing-bar method, is given as follow.
[equation]
ΔG_i is the buoyancy difference mass of particles x_i. Homogenous particles and a ternary mixture of spherical glass beads are used as the samples. Although the buoyancy weighing-bar method is also time-consuming, the maximum particle size and the mean particle size can be derived within a short time after initiating measurement.

View full abstract

In this work, our aim is to utilize a dividing wall column to improve the performance of the deethanizing and depropanizing fractionation steps in natural gas liquid processing. Starting from an initial conventional column sequence, the initial designs of the conventional dividing wall column and a top dividing wall column are obtained by maintaining the number of trays. In succession, they are optimized to reduce the energy consumption using factorial design. The results show that the conventional dividing wall column and the top dividing wall column can offer many benefits to the system, e.g., curbing the operating cost including refrigeration cost, and minimizing the reboiler and condenser duty. Furthermore, by using a dividing wall column, both the purity of ethane and its recovery rate are increased. The influence of utility prices on the operating cost saving of the conventional and the top dividing wall columns is also investigated. In addition, to further enhance the dividing wall column performance, heating is integrated on the top and an interreboiling system is installed at the bottom section of the dividing wall column.

View full abstract

The selective hydrogenation of unsaturated aldehyde in a gas–liquid–liquid–solid four-phase batch reactor was studied. Pd/C was used as the catalyst and an aqueous alkaline solution was used as the cocatalyst. The effect of the concentration of the aqueous alkaline on the selectivity for the saturated aldehyde is mainly discussed in this paper. A low concentration of the aqueous alkaline solution improved the selectivity for the saturated aldehyde. On the other hand, a high concentration of the aqueous alkaline solution acted as a catalyst for aldol condensation. This decreased the selectivity.

View full abstract

This paper pertains to the direct adaptive Proportional–Integral (PI) control of nonlinear chemical processes. A simple yet effective PI controller parameter tuning algorithm, which has different structures separated by a defined zero-level set of process output errors, is derived. This algorithm enables a PI controller to control chemical processes in an interactive and autonomous way by simply observing the process output errors. To show the stability of the resultant PI control system, a rigorous analysis involving the use of a Lyapunov approach is presented. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed direct adaptive PI control schemes are demonstrated by considering the control of a nonlinear continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) in the presence of a plant/model mismatch, an unmeasured disturbance, and parameter variations. Comparisons with several conventional PI controllers and an indirect adaptive Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) controller are performed for performance evaluation. Simulation results indicate that the proposed PI control scheme in associated with the derived parameter tuning algorithm is promising and that it offers flexibility and excellent capability for the direct adaptive control of nonlinear chemical processes.

View full abstract

In the pharmaceutical production field, it is required to produce organic fine crystalline particles having a monodispersed crystal size distribution (CSD). Anti-solvent crystallization is one method for producing crystal particles. In order to produce fine crystalline particles and/or crystals having a monodispersed CSD, several methods such as segmented flow in the tubular crystallizer, ultrasound irradiation, and modulated operation in batch cooling crystallization have been studied in previous studies. In this study, integrated operation of ultrasound irradiation and temperature modulation at a milli-sized segmented flow has been carried out to produce organic fine crystalline particles having a monodispersed CSD in the anti-solvent crystallization. Taurine (solute)–water (solvent)–EtOH (anti-solvent) system is employed. The effect of segmented flow on mixing solution has been observed with a high-speed microscope. Fine crystalline particles which have tens of microns average size are obtained with the integration of ultrasound irradiation and temperature modulation on a milli-sized segmented flow. Furthermore, crystals of 10 µm size are produced under controlled supersaturation condition. Additionally, it is suggested that the CSD could be improved by introducing temperature modulation after nucleation.

View full abstract