Title: Optimisation of reactive precipitation for processing reject brine in ammonium perchlorate manufacture

Authors: A. Ramachandra Rao; P.S. Tide; Benny K. George; A.R. Ajith Prasad; Jojo Mathew

Addresses: School of Engineering, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi-682022, India ' School of Engineering, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi-682022, India ' Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Trivandrum-695022, India ' Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Trivandrum-695022, India ' Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Trivandrum-695022, India

Abstract: Ammonium perchlorate (AP) is the most widely used oxidiser for solid rocket propellant formulations. AP manufacture generates a reject brine with 7-8% perchlorates by weight. An optimisation study of reactive precipitation for transforming reject brine into an admixture of AP with ammonium chloride and sodium bicarbonate was conducted at 0.3 m³/batch capacity. The operating conditions play a crucial role in the kinetics of reactive precipitation. Taguchi design and statistical ANOVA were applied to estimate significant operating conditions and their contributions to process performances. The study reveals the potential impact of mixing, type of impeller configuration, and temperature on the process efficiency. A regression model was developed to predict process performances and Taguchi optimum conditions used for getting desirable performances. Subsequently, a multi-response optimiser was applied to find out a set of operating conditions for improving process performance. Experimental validation trials and characterisation were conducted with modified operating parameters and results show considerable improvement in process efficiency.

Keywords: Taguchi design; ammonium perchlorate; sodium bicarbonate; reactive precipitation; reject brine; optimisation; mixing; regression analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2024.139561

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2024 Vol.47 No.3, pp.382 - 403

Received: 29 Aug 2022
Accepted: 25 Dec 2022
Published online: 04 Jul 2024 *

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