UNIT 1:

INTRODUCTION TO PLANT AND PRCOCESS DESIGN

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OUTLINE

Introduction to chemical processing plants.

Process Development-design development stages.
Stages of process plant design.
Codes, standards and recommended practices; Design factors.
Process hazards and safety measures in equipment design.
Process Flowsheets
Fundamentals of energy and mass balance.

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 INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL PROCESSING PLANTS

Inputs and Outputs Chemical Plants

In our day to day life, we use chemicals in various forms;

Pharmaceuticals, Textiles, Soaps, Detergents, Cosmetics, Fertilizer,
Fuel, Metal And Plastics.

These chemicals or products are produced in a Manufacturing or

Processing plants which convert raw materials into a value added
product that is required by consumers.

The value addition can be achieved through physical, chemical and or

biological transformation.

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Inputs and Outputs Chemical Plants

Figure: Input and output chemical plants

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CLASSIFICATION OF CHEMICAL PRODUCTS

Chemical products are classified into 3 broad classes.
1 Commodity or bulk chemical:
produced in large volumes and sold on the basis of composition or
purity, which determines their price. E.g sulphuric acid, nitric acid,
nitrogen, oxygen, ethylene chlorine etc.
2 Fine chemicals:
produced in relatively smaller volumes, but are sold on the basis of
composition or purity which determines their price. E.g
chloropropylene oxide used for manufacture of epoxy resin, ironoxy
resin, dimethylformamide.
3 Specialty or functional chemical:
produced for a particular or specific application. and it is the first
functions of these chemicals, which determine their price rather than
the chemical composition. E.g perfumes, flavorings or
pharmaceuticals products.
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 INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL PROCESSING PLANTS

CLASSIFICATION OF CHEMICAL PROJECTS

The chemical design projects are broadly classified;

1 Grassroots project:
The grassroots or green field project is a plant which is constructed
from level 0 and almost barren land. And here the project will start
from activity such as, land procurement.

2 Add-on project:
They are built within an existing complex or built around the main
project, such projects could be an addition of a new facility or, a
backward or, a forward integration or, altogether a new product line
around an existing or, expanded structure of utilities.

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QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED IN PROJECT

DESIGN??

Following important questions should be answered when undertaking

chemical design projects;
1 What to produce?
2 How much to produce?
3 How to produce?
4 How to finance/ fund the project?

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 INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL PROCESSING PLANTS

Anatomy of Chemical Plant

Figure: Anatomy of chemical plant

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 INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL PROCESSING PLANTS

DEFINITIONS

Design: A creative activity that translate generated ideas into new

products or upgrading the value of existing product.
Plant Design: includes items related directly to the complete plant,
such as plant layout, general service facilities, and plant location.
Process Design: is the selection, sequencing, sizing and specification
of equipment and facilities necessary for desired physical and/or
chemical transformation of materials so as to produce products and
services.
Process Equipment: means all equipment, devices, and auxiliary
components, including air pollution control equipment, stacks, and
other emission points, used in a process.

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 INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL PROCESSING PLANTS

Process Design

process design establishes:

1 The sequence of chemical and physical operations.
2 Operating conditions.
3 The duties, major specifications, and materials of construction (where
critical) of all process equipment (as distinguished from utilities and
building auxiliaries).
4 The general arrangement of equipment needed to ensure proper
functioning of the plant.
5 line sizes.
6 Principal instrumentation.
A flowsheet is a summary of process design.

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 INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL PROCESSING PLANTS

Process Design

Process design is intended to include the following:

1 Flowsheet development.
2 Process material and heat balances.
3 Auxiliary services material and heat balances (utilities requirements).
4 Chemical engineering performance design for specific items of
equipments required for a flowsheet.
5 Instrumentation as related to process performance.
6 Preparation of specifications (specification sheets) in proper form for
use by the project team as well as for the purchasing function.
7 Evaluation of bids and recommendation of qualified vendor.

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Process Equipment

Two main categories of process equipment that are specified by chemical

and process engineer are:
1 Proprietary Equipment: designed by the manufacturer to meet
performance specifications made by the user; these specifications may
be regarded as the process design of the equipment.
This category includes equipment with moving parts such as pumps,
compressors, and drivers as well as cooling towers, dryers, filters,
mixers, agitators, piping equipment, and valves, and even the
structural aspects of heat exchangers, furnaces.
2 Custom-Designed Equipment: Custom design is needed for many
aspects of chemical reactors, most vessels, multistage separators such
as fractionators, and other special equipment not amenable to
complete standardization

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 PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

Design Development Stages

Stages in development of a design, from the initial identification of the

objectives to final design are shown in Fig.below.

Figure: The design process

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 PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

The Design Objectives (The Need)

The first thing in design is to formulate the design problem. Formulation

of a design problem starts with a specific objective in mind or a need.

Every design has to fulfill a particular need or objective.

In the design of a chemical process the need is derived from:
1 Public need for the product(Customer requirements).
2 Commercial opportunity as foreseen by the sales and marketing
organization.
3 Counter a competing product.

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 PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

Setting The Design Basis (Data Collection)

The most important step in starting a process design is translating the
customer need into a design basis.
The design basis is a more precise statement of the problem that is to be
solved. It will normally include the production rate and purity
specifications of the main product, together with information on
constraints that will influence the design, such as:
1 Information on possible processes and the system of units to be used.
2 The national, local or company design codes that must be followed.
3 Details of raw materials that are available.
4 Information on potential sites where the plant might be located,
including climate data, seismic conditions, and infrastructure.
5 Information on the conditions, availability, and price of utility services
such as fuel (gas), steam, cooling water, process air, process water,
and electricity, that will be needed to run the process.
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 PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

Generation of Possible Design Concepts (Solutions)

It is the creative part of the design process. This part is concerned with
the generation of possible solutions for analysis, evaluation, and selection
(ways of meeting objective problems).
Source of solutions:
1 Past experiences.
2 Tried and tested methods.

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 PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

Build Performance Model and Fitness Testing

Designs must be tested to determine how well each design concept meets
the identified need.

In the field of chemical engineering, it is usually prohibitively expensive to

build several designs to find out which one works best. Hence, design
engineer builds a mathematical model of the process, usually in the form
of computer simulations of the process, reactors, and other key equipment.

In some cases, the performance model may include a pilot plant or other
facility for predicting plant performance and collecting design data.

If design data or models do not exist, research and development work is

required to collect the data and build working model.

AT this stage a few Economical designs that meet the

customer objective are identified.
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 PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

Economic Evaluation, Optimization, and Selection

Once the designer has identified a few candidate designs that meet the
customer objective, then the process of design selection can begin. The
primary criterion for design selection is usually economic performance,
although factors such as safety and environmental impact may also play a
strong role. The economic evaluation usually entails analyzing the capital
and operating costs of the process to determine the return on investment
(R.O.I).

When all of the candidate designs have been optimized, the best design
can be selected. Very often, the design engineer will find that several
designs have very close economic performance, in which case the safest
design or that which has the best commercial track record will be chosen.

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Detailed Design and Equipment Selection

Here the detailed specifications of equipment such as vessels, exchangers,

pumps, and instruments are determined. During the detailed design stage
there may still be some changes to the design, and there will certainly be
ongoing optimization as a better idea of the project cost structure is
developed.

The detailed design decisions tend to focus mainly on equipment selection

though, rather than on changes to the flowsheet. For example, the design
engineer may need to decide whether to use a U-tube or a floating-head
exchanger, or whether to use trays or packing for a distillation column.

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Procurement, Construction, and Operation

When the details of the design have been finalized, the equipment can be
purchased and the plant can be built. Procurement and construction are
usually carried out by an EPC firm (Engineering, Procurement, and
Construction) unless the project is very small. Because they work on many
different projects each year, the EPC firms are able to place bulk orders for
items such as piping, wire, valves, etc., and can use their purchasing power
to get discounts on most equipment.

The EPC companies also have a great deal of experience in field

construction, inspection, testing, and equipment installation. They can
therefore normally contract to build a plant for a client cheaper (and
usually also quicker) than the client could build it on its own. Finally, once
the plant is built and readied for startup, it can begin operation. The
design engineer will often then be called upon to help resolve any
startup issues and teething problems with the new plant.
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Design Constraints

When considering possible ways of achieving the objective the designer will
be constrained by many factors which are called the design constraints.
Design constraints are divided into two types Fig.below shows possible
constraints:
1 Internal constraints: over which the designer has some control.
2 External constraints: fixed, invariable

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 PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

Design Constraints

Figure: Design constraits

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 STAGES OF PROCESS PLANT DESIGN

STAGES OF PROCESS PLANT DESIGN

Staged design is the norm in professional practice, each stage providing

the information needed to pass on to the next stage for approval.
1 Conceptual Design:It decides on best flowsheet, plant size, location,
and broad technology.
2 Equipment design.
3 it is also very important that the health, safety and environmental
consideration are included in the design as it progresses.

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 STAGES OF PROCESS PLANT DESIGN

Conceptual Design

Figure: Conceptual design

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Equipment Design

Figure: Equipment design

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Equipment design

Figure: Equipment design 1

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Hazard analysis

Figure: Hazard analysis

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Environment

Figure: Environment

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Codes, Standards, and Recommended Practices

A large body of rules has been developed over the years to ensure the
safe and economical design, fabrication, and testing of equipment,
structures, and materials.
Codification of these rules has been done by associations organized
for just such purposes, by professional societies, trade groups,
insurance underwriting companies, and government agencies.
In engineering standardization covers:
Materials, properties and composition
Testing procedures for performance, composition and quality
Preferred sizes, for example, tubes, plates, selection, etc.
Methods for design, inspection and fabrication
Codes of practice for plant operation and safety

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 STAGES OF PROCESS PLANT DESIGN

Starndards and Specification

There are a number of international standards organizations—ISO in

Europe, DIN in Germany, ANSI, ASTM, and API in the United States, and
so on (“British Standards” in the United Kingdom are now officially a
subset of ISO).

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Advantages of standardization

1 It is economical to produce a limited range of standard sizes than to

have to treat each order as a special job.
2 It saves time and money, and ensures conformity between projects if
standard designs are used whenever practicable.
3 Easy integration of piece of equipment into the rest of the plant.
4 Increased interchangeability and reduces the stock of spares that must
be held in maintenance stores

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Disadvantages of standardization

Standards impose constraints on the designer

Nearest standard size will normally be selected on completing a design
calculation (rounding up) but this will not necessarily be the optimum
size.
Design methods given in codes and standards are by their nature
historical and do not necessarily incorporate the latest technique.

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Safety Factor (Design Margin

These factors represent the amount of overdesign that would be used to
account for the changes in equipment performance.

Experienced designers include a degree of over-design known as a design

factor, design margin, or safety factor, to ensure that the design that is
built meets product specifications and operates safely.
Design factors are applied in process design to give some tolerance in the
design.

Performance of equipment and plants is influenced by errors and

uncertainties that arise from uncertainties in:
Design data; Approximations and assumptions of design methods and
calculations.
Inadequate data or information on behavior of materials of
construction.
Changes in operating performance with time.
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Safety Factor (Design Margin

Figure: Safety factors in equipment design

Source: James R. Couper, James R. Fair, W. Roy Penney Chemical

Process Equipment selection and design, 2010
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