NPTEL Syllabus

Process Design Decisions and Project

Economics - Video course

COURSE OUTLINE

This course brings together the concepts of engineering and economics for chemical plant
design and optimization. This course can be termed as the pinnacle of the chemical
NPTEL
engineering curriculum as it deals with applications of the individual aspects of chemical http://nptel.iitm.ac.in
engineering such as fluid mechanics, mass transfer, heat transfer, chemical reaction
engineering, chemical process calculations, thermodynamics, process equipment design
etc. for designing of a efficient and economic chemical process. The hierarchy of decisions
in synthesis and analysis of a chemical process and its alternatives is initially discussed.
Chemical
This is followed by shortcut procedures of designing of major equipment in the chemical
process and the cost estimation for the same using correlations. Various stages of the
Engineering
chemical process design are addressed step by step such as input-output structure,
material and energy balance calculations, design of separation processes and heat
integration of theprocess (or heat exchanger network in the process). Finally, an easy
procedure is described in the form of cost diagram that would give a crude yet meaningful Pre-requisites:
estimation of the economic implications of various process alternatives. The structure of the
course covers both theory and problems. The course is meant for final year Students for this course
undergraduates and also for practicing engineers (especially the management trainees in should have completed
various process industries). basic chemical
engineering
CONTENTS undergraduate courses
such as fluid mechanics,
The broad syllabus contains 9 topics as follows:
heat transfer, mass
1. Process selection, synthesis and analysis transfer, chemical
2. Engineering Economics reaction engineering,
3. Short-cut procedure for equipment design (Economics decision making) transport phenomena,
4. Input information and Batch vs Continuous chemical process
5. Input Output Structure of Flowsheet calculations etc.
6. Recycle Structure of Flowsheet
7. Separation Systems. Additional Reading:
8. Heat Exchanger Networking (Heat Integration)
9. Cost Diagrams and Quick Screening of Alternatives Browsing through
techno-commercial
In each of the topic, theory and principles will be covered first, followed various examples
magazines related to
and problems that apply these theories and principles.
chemical engineering
such as Chemical
COURSE DETAIL Weekly, Chemical
Engineering Progress,
Chemical Engineering
Sl. Topic No. of Hours World, Chemical Industry
No Digest etc. would help in
understanding of the
concepts of process
1 Process selection, synthesis and analysis (Aspects of 02 design and optimization
process design, pre-project objectives, project classification, covered in the course.
hierarchical approach to process design)
Coordinators:

2 Engineering Economics (Elements of project cost, cost 06 Dr. Vijay S. Moholkar

information, total capital investment and total capital cost, time Department of Chemical
value of money, depreciation, interest, project financing, measures EngineeringIIT Guwahati
of process profitability, simplified model for economic analysis of
process design)
3 Short-cut Procedure for Equipment Design and Economic 04
Decision Making (Basic design of absorber, distillation columns,
cost model for distillation column, sizing and costing of equipment,
Gutheries correlation, distillation column sequencing, energy
integration of distillation columns, case study for economic
decision making for an absorber)

4 Preliminary Process Design (Batch versus continuous 02

processes, comparative analysis, input information)

5 Input-Output Structure of Flowsheet (Hierarchy of decisions 04

for Input-Output structure, overall material balance, stream costs,
process alternatives)

6 Recycle Structure of Flowsheet (Hierarchy of decision for the 04

recycle structure, materials and energy balance for recycle
structure, equilibrium limitations, modifications of reactor design for
recycle, equipment costs associated with recycle, overall
economic potential of process with recycle)

7 Separation Systems (General structure of the separation 10

system, location of vapor and liquid recovery system in the
process, sequencing of non-integrated distillation columns for
minimum vapor load, sequencing of columns with more than 2
products, thermal coupling of columns, azeotropic distillation,
residue curve maps, azeotropic systems at total and minimum
reflux, distillation with entrainer)

8 Heat Exchanger Networking (Composite curves, heat recovery 08

pinch, threshold problems, problem table algorithm, process
constraints, number of exchanger units, heat exchanger area
target, capital and total cost target, pinch design method, design of
threshold problems, stream splitting, design for multiple pinches)

9 Cost Diagrams and Quick Screening of Process Alternatives 04

(Concept of cost diagram, quick assessment of cost distribution
with design heuristics, cost allocation procedures, lumped cost
diagram, cost allocate diagram for stream flows, screening of
process alternatives with cost diagrams)

Total 44 Hrs

References:

1. Douglas, James M., Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes, McGraw-Hill

International Editions (Chemical Engineering Series), New York, USA (1988).

2. Biegler, L.T., I.E. Grossmann and A.W. Westerberg, Systematic Methods of Chemical
Process Design, Prentice Hall (Pearson Education), New Jersey, USA (1997).

3. Peters, Max S., K.D. Timmerhaus and R.E. West, Plant Design and Economics for
Chemical Engineers (5th Ed), McGraw-Hill International Editions (Chemical
Engineering Series), New York, USA (2003).

4. Mahajani, V.V., Chemical Project Economics, Macmillan Indian Ltd., New Delhi, India
(2005).
 5. Smith, R., Chemical Process: Design and Integration, John Wiley and Sons, West
Sussex, UK (2005).

A joint venture by IISc and IITs, funded by MHRD, Govt of India http://nptel.iitm.ac.in