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Equipment Selection,
Specification, and Design
13
KEY LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Where to find information on process equipment
How to obtain equipment information from vendors
13.1 INTRODUCTION
Part I of this book covered process design: the synthesis of the complete process as an assembly of
units, each carrying out a specific process operation. In Part II, the selection, specification, and
design of the equipment required to carry out these process operations is considered in more detail.
In practice, plant design and process design cannot be separated. The selection and specification
of one piece of equipment will often require the use of additional equipment and thus have implica-
tions on the process flow diagram. For example, if a continuous dryer is selected for drying a solid
product, it may be necessary to add a heater to preheat the drying gas, a cyclone or filter to recover
solid fines from the off-gas, a cooler and flash drum to cool the off-gas and recover solvent, a vent
scrubber to prevent solvent emissions, etc. The design team must understand all the flowsheet impli-
cations of equipment selection and design to arrive at an accurate cost estimate and process
optimization.
This chapter gives a short introduction to the selection and design of process equipment and pro-
vides a guide to the following chapters. Most process operations are carried out in closed pressure
vessels, which are addressed in Chapter 14. Chapter 15 discusses the design of chemical and bio-
chemical reactors. Separation processes are covered in Chapters 16 and 17. Chapter 18 addresses
operations that involve solids handling. Chapter 19 describes the design of equipment for heat trans-
fer and Chapter 20 covers the transport and storage of fluids.
Each chapter and section of Part II is intended to be a standalone guide to the design of a parti-
cular operation, but in some cases cross references to sections of other chapters are given to avoid
duplication. Throughout Part II the emphasis is on selection and sizing of equipment and it is
assumed that the reader is familiar with the fundamentals of kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport
processes. Further details on the scientific principles and theory that underlie the design and opera-
tion of process equipment can be found in the numerous textbooks cited in each section and in gen-
eral books on unit operations such as McCabe, Smith, and Harriott (2001) and Richardson, Harker,
and Backhurst (2002).
Capital cost correlations for each type of equipment are not given in Part II, as the determination
of capital costs for all types of equipment was discussed in Chapter 7. Similarly, materials selection
was covered in Chapter 6. Although the role of safety in design was described in Chapter 10, some
additional safety issues that are specific to certain unit operations are covered in the relevant
sections of Part II.
whenever possible, as these lead to cheaper designs and reduce the risk of needing rework during
construction.
Online Information
All equipment vendors now maintain an online presence, but there is a wide variation in the quality
of the web sites and the amount of information provided.
Several directory sites have been set up to serve the chemical and process industries. Of these,
the best at time of writing is www.chemindustry.com, which has links to many vendors. More lim-
ited information is also available at www.chemengg.com and www.cheresources.com. A good site
for finding new and used equipment for sale is www.equipnet.com.
Manufacturers web sites are usually easily located using online search engines and often pro-
vide details of equipment construction, standard sizes, available metallurgies, specification sheets,
and performance information. The Chemical Engineering Buyers Guide can also be used to identify
vendor web sites for specific equipment types. Manufacturers association web sites usually provide
the most comprehensive listings of vendors; see for example the web sites of the Valve Manufacturers
Association: www.vma.org; Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association: http://tema.org; and
Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association: www.cemanet.org. Other manufacturers associa-
tions are usually easy to find by searching the Internet.
Some equipment types are relatively easy to find using search engines (crystallizer, rotary
agglomerator, bioreactor, etc.), but locating the vendors of industrial plant can be more difficult
560 CHAPTER 13 Equipment Selection, Specification, and Design
when the equipment name is in common usage (furnace, dryer, filter, pump, etc.). In such
cases, the best approach is to begin at one of the chemical engineering directory sites listed above.
Reactors
Basic reactors 15.2, 15.5 As pressure vessels:
Bioreactors 15.9 Chapter 14
Catalytic reactors 15.8
Multiphase reactors 15.7
Nonisothermal reactors 15.6
Separation columns
Absorption 16.2.4, 17.14 Shells as pressure vessels:
Distillation 17.217.13 Chapter 14
Extraction 17.16 Internals:
Single stage flash 16.3, 17.3.3 Trays 17.1217.13
Stripping 16.2.4, 17.14 Packing 17.14
Tables 18.4.5
Centrifuges 18.4.6
Dense media 18.4.7
Flotation 18.4.8
Magnetic 18.4.9
Electrostatic 18.4.10
Evaporators 16.5.1
Precipitation 16.5.3
Membranes 16.5.4
Reverse 16.5.4
osmosis
Ion exchange 16.5.5
Adsorption 16.5.7
Numbers refer to the sections in this book. The terms major and minor component only apply where different phases are to be
separated, i.e., not to those on the diagonal. Note that separation processes include processes for separating phases as well as
for recovering one or more components from a mixture.
562 CHAPTER 13 Equipment Selection, Specification, and Design
References
Green, D. W., & Perry, R. H. (Eds.). (2007). Perrys chemical engineers handbook. (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
McCabe, W. L., Smith, J. C., & Harriott, P. (2001). Unit operations of chemical engineering (6th ed.).
McGraw-Hill.
Richardson, J. F., Harker, J. H., & Backhurst, J. (2002). Chemical engineering (5th ed., Vol. 2). Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Schweitzer, P. A. (Ed.). (1997). Handbook of separation techniques for chemical engineers. (3rd ed.).
McGraw-Hill.
Walas, S. M. (1990). Chemical process equipment: Selection and design. Butterworth-Heinemann.