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The scaling economics of small unit operations
Author(s) -
Weber Robert S.,
Askander Jalal A.,
Barclay John A.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of advanced manufacturing and processing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2637-403X
DOI - 10.1002/amp2.10074
Subject(s) - modular design , scaling , unit (ring theory) , petroleum , scale (ratio) , fraction (chemistry) , biomass (ecology) , unit cost , environmental science , computer science , process engineering , environmental economics , petroleum engineering , engineering , economics , chemistry , geology , mechanical engineering , mathematics , geography , oceanography , mathematics education , geometry , organic chemistry , operating system , cartography
We present a correlation that represents the capital costs of the components of even very small modular facilities. Conversion of distributed feedstocks (eg, associated natural gas, biomass, and carbonaceous wastes) could provide a small fraction of the liquid fuels now used for transportation in the U.S. (~6%), or nearly half of the chemical products now made from petroleum. However, those resources tend to be available at small geographically distributed sites, and they are difficult or expensive to transport to a distant processing center. Modular, and likely intensified, processes that can be numbered up promise to enable utilizing such distributed resources. Early stage economics evaluation of those processes requires cost estimates for the components, which are likely smaller in scale than can be accommodated by the 0.6 power law typically used in chemical engineering.