Chemical Engineering Plant Design

Course Code:Ch.E-403

Prof. Dr. A.K Salariya

Chemical Engineering plant design

Total Credit Hours

3+1=4

Three Credit hour for theory:-

Mid term + Final term + Assignments + Quizzes = 75% marks

One Credit hour for lab:-

(Covered mini projects assigned to group of three student.)

=25 %Marks
chemical engineering plant design

Course outline
Introduction
Process design development
General design consideration
Optimum design
Materials of construction and fabrication.
Material transfer handling and equipment design
Heat transfer equipment design
Mass transfer equipment design
Application of computer aided design software.
chemical engineering plant design

Books Recommended
Following are recommended course books.
1-Peter Max S., Timmerhaus Klamus D. plant Design and
economics for Chemical Engineers 5th Ed. McGraw hill Inc.
2-Ludwig Ernest E. Applied Process Design for Chemical
and Petrochemical plants Voll 1,2 &3, 3rd Ed.2002 Gulf
publishing company.
3-Walas Stanley M. Chemical Process Equipment- Selection
and Design Butterworth Heinemann 1999
4-Coulson and Richardson, Chemical Engineering , Vol VI
Butterworth Heinemann1999.
5-Wells G.l Rose L.M The art of Chemical Design1986 Elsevier.
6-Smith Robin Chemical Process Design1995. McGraw Hill Inc,
7-Bakhurst & Harker,, Chemical Process Design John Willey.
8-Evans, Handbook of Chemical Equipment Design
9-E.L.Cussler and G.D Moggridge, Chemical Product Design,
2001, Cambridge University press.

chemical engineering plant design

Recommended Books
Following is the list of Reference books that are very
useful for students during study the chemical engineering
plant design and their final year Design projects.

chemical engineering plant design

Some useful links from web

Following are the useful links for students for chemical engineering plant
design projects.
o McGraw Hill Collections

http//www.digitallibarary.edu.pk/megraw.html
o McGraw Hills Access Science
http//www.accessscience.com
o McGraw Hills Digital Engineering library
http//accessengineeringlibrary.com
o Project muse
http//muse.jhu.edu
o Springer link.
http//www.springerlink.com
o Chemical engineering -Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_engineering
o Cost estimating for chemical engineering plant design
people.clarkson.edu/~wwilcox/Design/refcosts.htm

Some useful links from web

o http://www.chemsof.com/exch/exchsam1.htm
o http://processflowsheets.blogspot.com
o http://www.cheresources.com
o These are only few of thousands link, Remaining links will be

discuss during the course study.

o Except of Web help WEC library also have digital library of

about 2000 books and journals related to Engineering Sciences.

Which are also very helpful in learning the Chemical
engineering plant design.

chemical engineering plant design

Introduction
A successful chemical engineer must also have the ability

to apply knowledge and understanding of the fundamental

sciences and the related engineering subjects such as
thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, heat transfer, mass
transfer, and computer technology to practical situations for
the purpose of accomplishing something that will be
beneficial to society.
Chemical engineer must recognize the economic,
environmental, and ethical implications that are involves in
such developments and proceed accordingly
chemical engineering plant design

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT

DESIGN
Plant Design:It includes all engineering aspects involved in the development
of either a new, modified, or expanded industrial plant.
In this development, the chemical engineer will be making
economic evaluations of new processes, designing individual
pieces of equipment for the proposed new venture, or
developing a plant layout for coordination of the overall
operation.

chemical engineering plant design

Design engineer:
Because of these many design duties, the chemical engineer is
many times referred as a design engineer.
Cost engineer:
a chemical engineer specializing in the economic aspects of the
design is often referred to as a cost engineer.
In many instances, the term process engineering is
used in connection with economic evaluation and general
economic analyses of industrial processes, while process
design refers to the actual design of the equipment and
facilities necessary for carrying out the process
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Contd...
The process engineer may not be connected directly with

the final detailed design of the equipment, and the design

of the equipment may have little influence on a decision
by management as to whether a given return on
investment inadequate to justify construction of proposed
process.
the most effective teamwork and coordination of efforts
are obtained when each of the engineers in the specialized
groups is aware of the many functions in the overall
design project
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General overall Design Considerations

Various aspects of environmental protection, as well as the
safety and health needs of plant personnel and the public.
Plant location
Plant operation and control
Utility requirements
Structural design
Storage and buildings
Material handling
And patent considerations.
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A plant-design project moves to completion through a series of stages such as is shown

in the following:

1. Inception
2. Preliminary evaluation of economics and market
3. Development of data necessary for final design
4. Final economic evaluation
5. Detailed engineering design
6. Procurement
7. Erection
8. Startup and trial runs
9. Production
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Process Plant design development

Step 1 (Inception of the basic idea):
This idea may originate in the sales department, as a result of a
customer request, or to meet a competing product.
For the aims and needs of a particular company
It may be the result of an orderly research program or an offshoot of
such a program.
The operating division of the company may develop a new or
modified chemical, generally as an intermediate in the final product.
In all these possibilities, if the initial analysis
indicates that the idea may have possibilities of
developing
into
a
worthwhile
project,
a
preliminary research or investigation program is
initiated.
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Step 2 (Process Research Phase):

It includes preliminary market surveys, laboratory-scale
experiments, and production of research samples of the final
product. When the potentialities of the process are fairly
well established to meet the economic goals of the company,
the project is ready for the development phase.

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Step 3(Development Phase):

At this point, a pilot plant or a commercial development
plant may be constructed. A pilot plant is a small-scale
replica of the full-scale final plant, while a commercialdevelopment plant is usually made from odd pieces of
equipment which are already available and is not meant to
duplicate the exact setup to be used in the full-scale plant.

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Step 4 (cost-and-profit analysis):

A complete market analysis is made, and samples of the
final product are sent to prospective customers to determine
if the product is satisfactory and if there is a reasonable sales
potential.
Capital-cost estimates for the proposed plant are made.
Probable returns on the required investment are determined,
and a complete cost-and-profit analysis of the process is
developed.

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Step 5 (Availability of capital funds):

Before the final process design starts, company management normally
becomes involved to decide if significant capital funds will be
committed to the project. It is at this point that the engineers
preliminary design work along with the oral and written reports which
are presented become particularly important because they will provide
the primary basis on which management will decide if further funds
should be provided for the project. When management has made a firm
decision to proceed with provision of significant capital funds for a
project, the engineering then involved in further work on the project is
known as capitalized engineering while that which has gone on before
while the consideration of the project was in the development stage is
often referred to as expensed engineering. This distinction is used for
tax purposes to allow capitalized engineering costs to be amortized
over a period of several years.
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Step 6 (Final process design):

All the design details are worked out in this phase including
controls, services; piping layouts, firm price quotations,
specifications and designs for individual pieces of equipment,
and all the other design information necessary for the
construction of the final plant.
A complete construction design is then made with elevation
drawings, plant-layout arrangements, and other information
required for the actual construction of the plant.
The final stage consists of procurement of the equipment,
construction of the plant, startup of the plant, overall
improvements in the operation, and development of standard
operating procedures to give the best possible results.
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Typical design steps for chemical processes

table 1-1
1.

Recognize a societal or engineering need.

a. Make a market analysis if a new product will result.

2.

Create one or more potential solutions to meet this need.

a. Make a literature survey and patent search.
b. Identify the preliminary data required.

3.

Undertake preliminary process synthesis of these solutions.

a. Determine reactions, separations, and possible operating conditions,
b. Recognize environmental, safety, and health concerns.

chemical engineering
plant design
4. Assess
profitability

of preliminary process or processes (if negative, reject

20

Contd...
5.

Refine required design data.

a. Establish property data with appropriate software.
b. Verify experimentally, if necessary, key unknowns in the process.

6.

Prepare detailed engineering design.

a. Develop base case (if economic comparison is required).
b. Prepare process flow sheet.
c. Integrate and optimize process.
d. Check process controllability.
chemical engineering plant design

e. Size equipment./. Estimate capital cost.

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Contd...
8.

9.
10.

Review the process again for environmental, safety, and health effects.
Provide a written process design report.
Complete the final engineering design.
a. Determine equipment layout and specifications.
b. Develop piping and instrumentation diagrams.
c. Prepare bids for the equipment or the process plant.

11.
12.
13.
14.

Procure equipment (if work is done in-house).

Provide assistance (if requested) in the construction phase.
Assist with start-up and shakedown runs.
Initiate production.
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Contd...
Table 1-1 indicates that the design process

involves a wide variety of skills. Among these

are research, market analysis, computer
simulation, software programming, equipment
design, cost estimation profitability analysis
and technical communication.

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Flow sheet development

Establishment of separate flow sheets or road maps for
each solution ( designer creating flow sheets involving just
the reaction, separation, and temperature change and
pressure change operations and selecting process
equipment in task integration step).
A favorable gross profit providing flow sheets are
retained the others are rejected.
A base-case design development
The design engineer develops it by creating a detailed
process flow sheet with a listing of steady state material
balance and energy balances and a
designation of major
equipment items .
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Computer-Aided Design
Rapid calculations
Large storage
Logical decisions
Technical and mathematical software (study effects of
various design variables on the process or plant design)
Process simulators
Spread sheet software (especially for mass and energy
balances, approximate sizing of equipment, cost
estimation, economic analysis steps of process design)
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Cost Estimation
Direct price quotations based on detailed specifications is
obtained from various equipment venders.
Evaluation of costs in the preliminary design phases is
referred as predesign cost estimation.
The chemical engineer (or cost engineer) must be certain
to consider all possible factors when making a cost
analysis. Fixed costs, direct
production costs for raw
materials, labor, maintenance, power, and utilities must all
be included along with costs for plant and administrative
overhead, distribution of the final products, and other
miscellaneous items.
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FACTORS AFFECTING
PROFITABILITY
OF INVESTMENTS
A major function of the directors of a manufacturing firm is
to maximize the long-term profit to the owners or the
stockholders

Time value of money has been integrated into investmentevaluation systems by means of compound-interest
relationships.
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Optimum design
Optimum Economic Design
If there are two or more methods for obtaining exactly equivalent
final results, the preferred method would be the one involving the
least total cost.
A graphical representation showing the meaning of an optimum
economic pipe diameter is presented in Fig. l-l. As shown in this
figure, the pumping cost increases with decreased size of pipe
diameter because of frictional effects, while the fixed charges for
the pipeline become lower when smaller pipe diameters are used
because of the reduced capital investment. The optimum economic
diameter is located where the sum of the pumping costs and fixed
costs for the pipeline becomes a minimum, since this represents the
point of least total cost. In Fig. l-l, this point is represented by E.
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1-Optimum economic pipe diameter

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Optimum Operation Design

Many processes require definite conditions of temperature,

pressure, contact time, or other variables if the best results are

to be obtained. It is often possible to make a partial separation
of these optimum conditions from direct economic
considerations.
In cases of this type, the best design is designated as the

optimum operation design

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2-Determination Of Optimum Operation

Temperature In Sulfur Dioxide Converter

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PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
IN DESIGN
The chemical engineer must never lose sight of the
practical limitations involved in a design. It may be
possible to determine an exact pipe diameter for an
optimum economic design, but this does not mean that
this exact size must be used in the final design.
The practical engineer understands the physical problems
which are involved in the final operation and maintenance
of the designed equipment.

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THE DESIGN APPROACH

The optimization of the design as the use of high-speed
computers and accompanying software.
At no time, however, should the engineer be led to believe
that plants are designed around computers.
The general approach in any plant design involves a
carefully balanced combination of theory, practice,
originality and plain common sense
In the engineers approach to any design problem, it is
necessary to be prepared to make many assumptions.
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Contd...
The good chemical engineer recognize the need for making
certain assumptions but also knows that this type of approach
introduces some uncertainties into the final results.
Assumptions are made only when they are necessary and
reasonably correct and will not adversely effect the overall
design and its economic conclusions.
It is almost always better to sell many units of a product at a
low profit per unit than a few units at high profit per unit

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Contd...
Engineer must take into account the unit production rate

when determining costs and total profits for various types

of designs.
Another important factor in the approach to any design

problem involves economic conditions and limitations

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