Basic Concepts

1. Chemical Engineering Process. Unit Process & Unit Operation

A chemical engineering process is a process that takes one material or a bit of energy (or a
combination) and makes from it another material or bit of energy (or a combination).

Inputs Outputs
Process
feeds products

Unit Operation Unit Process

Physical change Chemical change
Mixing, Blending, Filtration, Distillation, Oxidation, Reduction, Hydrolysis,
Separation, Evaporation, Heat transfer, Mass Polymerization, Alkylation, Nitration
transfer

2. Significant Achievements & Working Areas of Chemical Engineering

Significant achievements:
1. Splitting atoms, isolating isotopes
2. The plastic age
3. Synthetic fibers & Rubber
4. Liquified air
5. Environmental protection
6. Biotech, Food processing, Fertilizers
7. Petrochemicals
Broad range of working areas
1. Production & Utilization of energy
2. Environmental protection
3. Pulp & Paper
4. Chemical manufacturing
5. Food processing
6. Advanced materials (Catalysts, alloys)
7. Rubber industry
8. Consulting
9. Metallurgy
10. Biotech, pharmaceuticals
11. Cosmetics & Perfumes
12. Medical device manufacturing
13. Instrumentation & Marketing Development
14. Govt./ Patent law
3. What is Chemical Process Diagram?
What does it include? Types of it….

Chemical Process diagram:

A graphical tool used by chemical engineers to understand how different types of equipment
and chemicals work in the industrial plant.

A Chemical process diagram includes:

1. The design, construction, operation & modification of a chemical process/plant.
2. Quantities, Qualities or specifications of raw materials
3. Needs of customers on product qualities.
4. Equipment performance
5. Cost of utilities or the development of new & better catalysts.
6. Environmental laws & Regulations.
# It acts as a primary basis for understanding any change taking place in a chemical plant.

Types of chemical process diagram

1. Block flow diagram (BFD)
2. Process flow diagram (PFD)
3. Piping & Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID)

Importance of diagrams:
1. It acts as a primary basis for understanding chemical engineering processes.
2. It can be convinced as an international language for chemical engineering.
3. The most efficient way to communicate information related to chemical processes.
4. Visual information is the best way to present data.
5. It avoids misunderstandings and ambiguities.
6. When possible, it shall be adopted English terminology and symbology.

4. What does Block process diagram mean? What are the characteristics of BFD?

Block Process Diagram (BFD)

A graphical tool that indicates the conversion of a narrative form of problem to an easy-to-
understand block diagram.
Characteristics:
1. The unit operations are indicated by blocks.
2. The main streams with arrows directing the flow direction (left to right)
3. Light currents upwards and heavy currents downwards of the blocks.
4. It provides most basic & important info.
5. It provides simplified material balances and main reactions.
6. No info needed of each equipment/unit op.
7. It shows how different processes interact with each other.
5. Draw the block process diagram for each process:
i) Preparation of Benzene from Toluene.
ii) Production of Ethane from Ethanol
iii) Making liquid Ammonia from ammonia-air mixture

i)

Steps:
 Toluene and hydrogen are converted into a reactor to produce benzene & CH4.
 Non-condensable gas (CH4) is separated & discharge.
 Benzene/Toluene products are separated by distillation.
 Toluene is recycled back to reactor and benzene is obtained in a product system.

ii) Production of Ethane from Ethanol

H2SO4
CH3CH2OH CH2=CH2 + H2O

Ni
CH2=CH2 + H2-------- CH3CH3
  Ethanol is feed to continuous water reactor with presence of acid sulfuric catalyzer to
produce ethylene.
 Then distillation process is applied to separate ethylene-H2O mixture.
 Ethylene as a top product is then condensed with condenser to perform liquid
ethylene.
 Hydrogenation applies in another reactor with presence of nickel catalyzer to produce
ethane as a final product.

iii)
 Ammonia-air mixture is fed to the bottom of an absorber with a flow rate of 10L/min.
 Water is then fed to the upper stream of the same absorber with a desired flow rate of
5L/min.
 There are two outputs from the absorber where:
 Upper stream is insoluble NH3
 Bottom stream is NH3-H2O mixture.
 The NH3-water mixture is then fed up to a batch distillation column to produce liquid
ammonia gas.
 The ammonia gas is condensed in a condenser.

6. What is PFD? Discuss the info provided by PFD.

PFD (Process Flow Diagram)

A graphical tool or flow sheet that contains a bulk of chemical engg. data necessary for the
design of a chemical process.
PFD should contain following info:
 All major equipment process, each equipment with equipment number & descriptive
name.
 All process flow streams are shown.
  Each steam must be given with conditions.
 All utility streams supplied to major equipment.
 Basic control loops illustrating the control technique.
Basic info provided by PFD:
 Process topology.
 Steam information.
 Equipment information.

7. What is process topology? Draw different symbols of the equipment used in PFD.

Process topology:
The location & interaction between equipment & process streams.

Standard icons & symbols:

8. Describe the general format of identifying equipments.

The general format of identifying equipments is:

‘XX-YZZ A/B’
where,
 XX → Classifies each equipment
 Y → An area within the plant in which the equipment is located
 ZZ → Running number of equipments in the designated area
 A/B → Parallel / spare / back-up equipment

The common identification state letters for the equipment are:

 C → Compressor/turbine
 E → Heat exchanger
 F → Fired heater
 P → Pump
 R → Reactor
 T → Tower
 TK → Tank Storage
 V → Vessel

9. What does the unit op. 'P-101 A/B' means?

The unit operation 'P-101 A/B' means:
 P(xx) → It is a pump (To be specific, it is a reciprocating pump)
 1(Y) → It is located in the area 100 of the plant.
 01(ZZ) → It is pump #01
 A/B → There are two identical pumps (P-101A & P-101B) and one pump is operating,
whereas the other one is idle.

10. How can process streams & utility streams be presented in a PFD? What are the Standard
initials for utility streams?
 Process Streams are presented in PFD as a diamond shape with a number above it.
 Utility Streams are presented as Standard initials in a circle.
Standard initials:
 lps → Low pressure stream
 mps → medium
 hps → high
 htm → Heat transfer medium
 rb → Refrigerated brine
 ng → Natural gas
 fg → Fuel gas
 cw → Cooling water
 rw → River water
 rw → Refrigerated water
 fw → fire water
  cs → Chemical wastewater
 ss → Sanitary wastewater
 el → Electric energy
 fo → Fuel oil

The info of each stream presented in the flow summary table includes:

Required/Essential info Optional info.

o Stream number o Component mole fractions

o Temperature (°C) o Component mass fractions
o Pressure (bar) o Individual mass flow rates (kg/h)
o Vapor fraction o Volumetric flow rates (m³/h)
o Total mass flow rate (kg/h) o Significant physical properties (density,
o Total mole flow rate (kmol/h) viscosity)
o Individual component flow rates o Thermodynamic data (heat capacity,
(kmol/h) enthalpy, K-values)
o Stream name

11. Discuss the equipment info in PFD.

Equipment type Description of the equipment

Height & Diameter, Temp. & pressure, Number & type of trays, Height &
Towers
type of packing (gg, gl, ll, Condenser, vaporizer)
Heat exchangers Process (Duty, area, pressure & temp.), Number of Shells & tubes passes

Height, diameter, Orientation, pressure &

Tanks/Vessels
temp., MOC
Flow, Discharge, P, T, ΔP, MOC, Driver type,
Pumps
shaft power.
Actual inlet flowrate, Shaft power, MOC, P, T,
Compressors
Driver type
Type, Tube pressure, Tubes temp, Duty, fuel,
Heaters (fired)
MOC

12. What is P&ID? What is the info contained by it?

P&ID (Piping & Instrumentation Diagram) is also called MFD (Mechanical Flow Diagram) which is
a graphical tool that contains the data needed to start planning the construction of the plant.
The following info about the plant is contained in P&ID.
i) Mechanical & functional data
ii) Operating conditions: T&P
iii) Stream values.
iv) Equipment positioning.
v) Piping: lengths & fillings.
vi) Supports, foundations & Structures.
PFD P&ID
General process flow presented in a simplified convoluted due to many
manner sheets o abundance of
into.

Values, controls & minor omits Includes

pipelines

Provides into on operating condition for piping safety features.

flows, compositiory

At the bottom of each stream leveled with info. Sate operating ranges of
sheet. equipm

13. Difference between PFD & P&ID.