Lecture 1 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN

3rd year Fall 2024

Introduction to design engineering (Chapter 1 textbook)

Objectives:
By the end of this lecture, the student will be able to understand:
1. The stages of chemical project design.
2. The documents used in chemical engineering project.
3. Codes and standards design used in industry.
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If there is a problem statement such as a customer need, the creation of plans and
specifications and the prediction of the financial outcome if the plans were implemented
is the activity of chemical engineering design.
Project Design Stages
Below figure shows design as an iterative procedure. As the design develops, the
designer will become aware of more possibilities and more constraints, and will be
constantly seeking new data and evaluating possible design solutions.

1. The Design Objective (The Need)

In the design of a chemical product or process, the need is the public need for the
product. The designer should always question the design requirements (the project and
equipment specifications) and keep them under review as the design progresses.
2. Setting the 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.

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Lecture 1 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN
3rd year Fall 2024

Most companies use standard forms or questionnaires to capture design basis

information.
3. Generation of Possible Design Concepts
The generation of possible solutions to the problem for analysis, evaluation, and
selection. In this activity most designers largely rely on previous experience, their own
and that of others. The majority of process designs are based on designs that previously
existed.
Chemical engineering projects can be divided into three types, depending on the novelty
involved:
1. Modifications, and additions, to existing plant; usually carried out by the plant design
group. Projects of this type represent about half of all the design activity in industry.
2. New production capacity to meet growing sales demand, and the sale of established
processes by contractors. Repetition of existing designs, with only minor design
changes, including designs of vendor’s or competitor’s processes carried out to
understand whether they have a compellingly better cost of production. Projects of this
type account for about 45% of industrial design activity.
3. New processes, developed from laboratory research, through pilot plant, to a
commercial process. Even here, most of the unit operations and process equipment will
use established designs. This type of project accounts for less than 5% of design activity
in industry.

4. Fitness Testing
When design alternatives are suggested, they must be tested for fitness for purpose.
In other words, the design engineer must determine how well each design concept meets
the identified need.
To do that the design engineer builds a mathematical model of the process, usually
in the form of computer simulations of the process, reactors, and other key equipment
to avoid expensive cost of building several designs.
For process design, this will include information on possible processes, equipment
performance, and physical property data. Most organizations will have design manuals
covering preferred methods and data for the more frequently-used design procedures.
If the necessary design data or models do not exist then research and development
work is needed to collect the data and build new models.
Once the required data is collected and the model is established, the design engineer
can begin to determine equipment sizes and costs.

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Lecture 1 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN
3rd year Fall 2024

5. Economic Evaluation, Optimization, and Selection

Once the designer has identified a few candidate designs that meet the customer
objective, the process of design selection can begin based on economic performance by
analyzing the capitol and operating cost. This economic performance can be used to
optimize the process design.
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.
6. Detailed Design and Equipment Selection
Here the detailed specifications of equipment such as vessels, exchangers, pumps,
and instruments are determined. The design engineer may work with other engineering
disciplines, such as civil engineers for site preparation, mechanical engineers for design
of vessels and structures, and electrical engineers for instrumentation and control.
7. 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
Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Companies (EPC) firm. 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.

THE ORGANIZATION OF A CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROJECT

The design work required in the engineering of a chemical manufacturing
process can be divided into two broad phases.
Process design phase: covers the steps from the initial selection of the process to be
used, through to the issuing of the process flowsheets; and includes the selection,
specification, and chemical engineering design of equipment. The process design group
(mainly chemical engineers) are responsible of this phase.
Plant design phase: Plant design, including the detailed mechanical design of
equipment, the structural, civil, and electrical design, and the specification and design
of the ancillary services. specialist design groups who have expertise in the whole range
of engineering disciplines.

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3rd year Fall 2024

Project documentation
1. Design Documents
Calculation Sheets
The design engineer should develop the habit of setting out calculations so that they
can be easily understood and checked by others. It is good practice to include on
calculation sheets the basis of the calculations, and any assumptions and
approximations made, in sufficient detail for the methods as well as the arithmetic, to
be checked. Design calculations are normally set out on standard sheets The heading at
the top of each sheet should include the project title and identification number, the
revision number and date and, most importantly, the signature (or initials) of the person
who checked the calculation. Please check appendix G for an example of data and
calculation sheets.
Drawings
All project drawings are normally drawn on specially printed sheets, with the
company name, project title and number, drawing title and identification number, and
drafter’s name and person checking the drawing clearly set out in a box in the bottom
right-hand corner. Computer Aided Design (CAD) methods are used to produce the
drawings required for all the aspects of a project: flowsheets, piping and
instrumentation, mechanical and civil work. While the released versions of drawings
are usually drafted by a professional, the design engineer will often need to mark-up
changes to drawings or make minor modifications to flowsheets, so it is useful to have
some proficiency with the drafting software.
Specification Sheets
Standard specification sheets are normally used to transmit the information required
for the detailed design, or purchase, of equipment items, such as heat exchangers,
pumps, columns, pressure vessels, etc.
Standard specification sheets serve as checklists to ensure that all the information
required is included. Standard worksheets are also often used for calculations that are
commonly repeated in design.
Process Manuals
Process manuals are usually prepared by the process design group to describe the
process and the basis of the design. Together with the flowsheets, they provide a
complete technical description of the process.
Operating Manuals
Operating manuals give the detailed, step-by-step, instructions for operation of the
process and equipment. They would normally be prepared by the operating company
personnel, but may also be issued by a contractor or technology licensor as part of the
technology transfer package for a less experienced client. The operating manuals are
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used for operator instruction and training, and for the preparation of the formal plant
operating instructions.
2. Design Reports
Design reports are used as a means of organizing, recording, and communicating
the information developed during a design project. When writing a design report, the
design engineer should begin by thinking about the needs of the audience that will be
using the report. Information is usually conveyed in the form of tables and charts as
much as possible, with brief descriptions in the text when necessary. Most design
reports are compiled from flow diagrams, specification sheets, and standard templates
for economic analysis, so that the technical information that users require is easily
accessible.
Note: The examples (1.1, 1.2, and 1.3) illustrate some of the different report formats
that are commonly used in industry, while the final example (ex. 1.4) discusses a
suitable format for university design projects.

CODES AND STANDARDS

In engineering practice, engineering standards cover:
1. Materials, properties, and compositions.
2. Testing procedures for performance, compositions, and quality.
3. Preferred sizes; for example, tubes, plates, sections, etc.
4. Methods for design, inspection, and fabrication.
5. Codes of practice for plant operation and safety.
Many countries have developed their own standards. The preparation of the
standards is largely the responsibility of committees of persons from the appropriate
industry, the professional engineering institutions, and other interested organizations.
Code should be reserved for a code of practice covering for example, a recommended
design or operating procedure, and standard for preferred sizes, compositions, etc. The
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) coordinates the publication of
international standards.
DESIGN FACTORS (DESIGN MARGINS)
Experienced designers include a degree of overdesign 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 also applied in process design to give some tolerance in the
design. For example, the process stream average flows calculated from material
balances are usually increased by a factor, typically 10%, to give some flexibility in
process operation. This factor will set the maximum flows for equipment,
instrumentation, and piping design.

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3rd year Fall 2024

SYSTEMS OF UNITS
Chemical engineering has always used a diversity of units, embracing the scientific
CGS and MKS systems, and both the American and British engineering systems.
Quality Function Deployment
It is a structured methodology used to transform customer needs and requirements
into specific technical features and actions throughout the product development
process. is set out as a table or matrix, and is usually carried out using a spreadsheet.
Prototype Testing
Engineers build prototypes to address several different aspects of new product
development:

• If new features are introduced in the design, then it may be necessary to build a
prototype to test these features,
• When a product is assembled from many components, it may be necessary to
build a prototype to ensure that all the components work together properly when
integrated as a system.
• The assembly of a prototype helps the designers understand the manufacturing
process for the final product and can highlight features of the design that will
make manufacturing easy or difficult.
• In the design of formulated products, the manufacturer will often want to
evaluate whether a component can be substituted with a cheaper material that
has similar properties.
• A prototype can be used as a communication device to demonstrate features of
a design.
Safety and Efficacy Testing
It is one of the most rigorous new product testing processes is the procedure
used for obtaining approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for
new medicines. The evaluation process is designed to ensure both the safety and
efficacy of new drugs.

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