Chemical Engineering Plant Design

Introduction to Design

Engr. Dr. Farhan Javed

Lecturer
Chemical Engineering Department
UET FSD Campus

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What do you understand about

OBE
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
• CLOs are the skills learnt by the students at
the end of each course in the program.
• The three (3) learning domains characterize by
Bloom’s Taxonomy and their respective levels
of learning are
1. Cognitive (Knowledge) (6 levels)
2. Psychomotor (Skill) (7 levels)
3. Affective (Attitude) (5 levels)
Program learning outcomes (Total=12)

1) Engineering Knowledge
2) Problem Analysis 
3) Design/Development of Solutions
4) Investigation 
5) Modern Tool Usage 
6) The Engineer and Society 
7) Environment and Sustainability 
8) Ethics
9) Individual and Team Work 
10) Communication
11) Project Management 
12) Lifelong Learning
MEASURABLE STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
Domain
CLOs Description PLOs Domain
Level
Create, design and evaluate alternate processes
and equipment for a chemical process and
CLO-1 PLO-4 Cognitive 6. Create
assess various societal, environmental, and
safety issues associated with such design

Apply knowledge acquired in core Chemical

Engineering courses (e.g., Stoichiometry,
Reaction Engineering, Thermodynamics, and
CLO-2 PLO-3 Cognitive 3. Apply
Unit Operations) for selection and design of
materials handling, heat transfer, and
separation process equipment.

Understand the concept of heat integration for

CLO-3 minimization of overall energy footprint of a PLO-5 Cognitive 3. Apply
chemical process
 Course description
(1) Introduction to process design and development
(2) General design considerations
(3) Optimal design
(4) Materials of fabrication and their selection
(5) Material transfer handling and equipment design
(6) Heat transfer equipment design
(7) Mass transfer equipment design
(8) Application of computer aided design software
WEEK-WISE LECTURE PLAN
Week Topics CLO’s
Introduction: General overall design considerations: Process design and flowsheet development, optimum design; practical consideration
Week 1 CLO-1
and engineering ethics in design

General design considerations: Health and safety hazards, importance and objectives of safety, safety measures in equipment design:
Week 2 Fire and explosion hazards and prevention, Chemical, toxic, electrical hazards, control, precautions and prevention, personnel safety, loss CLO-1
prevention and safety audit.

Environmental protection and development of pollution control systems. Thermal pollution control, toxicological studies, industrial
Week 3 CLO-1
hygiene, radiation hazards.

Week 4 Plant site location and layout of chemical plant, piping layout, plant operation and control, plant considerations and exercise problems. CLO-1

Process design development: Process selection/creation, synthesis and design: equipment design and specifications. Preliminary process
Week 5 CLO-1
design: screening of process alternatives; economic decision making.
Flow sheet synthesis and development: Process information, input-output structure; function and operation diagrams; analysis and
Week 6 CLO-2
development of process flow sheet.
Optimum design and design strategy: defining the optimum problems, programming optimization problems; optimization solution
Week 7 CLO-2
methodologies; optimization applications and cost analysis.

Pinch technology an overview, key steps of pinch technology: Targeting of heat exchanger network: Designing of HEN: Pinch design
Week 8 CLO-3
methods, Heuristic rules, stream splitting, design of maximum energy recovery (MER)

MID TERM EXAMINATION

Materials selection and fabrication: Corrosion and factors contributing to corrosion; corrosion prevention; material properties;
Week 10 CLO-2
economics involved in materials selection.
Materials handling equipment design and cost: Basic concept of fluid transport, frictional losses, selection of piping material, design of
Week 11 CLO-2
piping system.

Computer aided design, cost estimation and profitability analysis of investments, Transport of fluids: selection, design and cost analysis
Week 12 CLO-4
for pumping, compression, expansion, agitation and mixing of fluids, flow measurement and storage of fluids.

Week 13 Heat transfer equipment design and cost: Basic theory of heat transfer in exchanger, heat exchanger selection criterion. CLO-2

Week 14 General methods for the design of heat exchangers: Design of key heat exchangers CLO-1

Week 15 Separation equipment design and costs: Introduction, selection, general design and cost of equipment for separation process. CLO-1

Design and cost for multi-component distillation: Absorption, adsorption membrane separation. Selection and design of filtration
Week 16 CLO-1
equipment.
FINAL TERM EXAMINATION
 Text Books:

1- “Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers” by M. S. Peters, K. D. Timmerhaus, and R. E. West
2- Coulson and Richardson’s Chemical Engineering — Volume 6: Chemical Engineering
 Reference Books:

1- An Applied Guide to process and Plant Design by Sean Moran

2- Process Equipment and Plant Design by Subhabrata Ray
3- Ullmann’s Chemical Engineering and Plant Design
Reference Books:

1. “Ludwig’s Applied Process Design for Chemical and Petrochemical Plants” by A. K. Coker
2. “Chemical Engineering Desgin-Volume 6” by R. Sinnott & Cavin Towler
3. “Chemical Process Equipment: Selection and Design” by J. R. Couper, W. R. Penney, J. R.
Fair, and S. M. Walas
4. “Equipment Design Handbook: For Refineries and Chemical Engineers” by F. L. Evans
5. “Chemical Process: Design and Integration” by R. Smith
6. “The Art of Chemical Process Design” by G. L. Wells, and L. M. Rose
Chemical Engineering Plant Design

The general term plant design 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, or developing a
plant layout. Because of these many design
duties, the chemical engineer is many times
referred to as a design engineer.
Chemical Engineering Plant Design Cont’d

On the other hand, a chemical engineer

specializing in the economic aspects of the
design is often referred to as a cost engineer.
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.
Similarly, the meaning of plant design is limited
by some engineers to items related directly to
the complete plant, such as plant layout,
general service facilities, and plant location.
Design Constraints
The Design process:
Possible Designs and selection:
Continuous vs Batch processes:
Batch process:
A plant-design project moves to completion through a series
of stages
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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The chemical engineer is many times referred to
here as a design engineer.

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 PROCESS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

• Inception of the basic idea.

• Originate new process or
modify an existing process.
• The process-research phase.
• Pilot plant or a commercial
development plant.
• Complete market analysis.
• Complete cost-and-profit
analysis.
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 GENERAL OVERALL DESIGN
CONSIDERATIONS
• Plant location
• Plant layout
• Materials of construction
• Structural design
• Utilities
• Buildings
• Storage

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 Cont’d
• Materials handling
• Safety
• Waste disposal
• Federal, state, and local laws or codes

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 COST ESTIMATION
• Fixed costs
• Raw materials costs
• Labor charges
• Maintenance
• Power
• Utilities
• Costs for plant and administrative overhead
• Distribution of the final products
• Other miscellaneous items
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 Special Techniques for Cost
Estimation
1. Order of magnitude estimate:(ratio estimate) accuracy typically +30%,
usually based on the costs of similar processes and requiring no design
information.
2. Preliminary estimates (budget authorization/scope estimate): accuracy
typically +20%, They are based on limited cost data and design detail.
3. Study estimates (factored estimate): based on knowledge of major
items of equipment, accuracy of estimate upto +30%
4. Detailed estimates (contractor’s estimate): accuracy +5%, Complete
specifications, drawings, and site surveys for the plant construction are
required
5. Definitive estimates (project control estimate): accuracy +10%, Based
on complete data but before completion of drawings & specifications.
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 FACTORS AFFECTING PROFITABILITY
OF INVESTMENTS
• Interest
• Insurance
• Taxes
• Depreciation
• Manufacturing costs
• Time value of money
• Rate of return
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 OPTIMUM DESIGN
There are several alternative methods which
can be used for any given process or operation,
optimization is to choose the best process and to
incorporate into designing the equipment and
methods which will give the best results.
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.
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2011-ch-303 31
 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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2011-ch-303 33
 THE DESIGN APPROACH
• Profitable plant design
• Generally overdesign and safety factors
• Optimization of the design by using high-
speed computers
• Make necessary assumptions
• Economic conditions and limitations

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Project structure and organization:
Plant documentation:
Codes and Standards:
Standards Organizations:

• BSI
• ANSI
• API
• ASTM
• ASME
• NFPA
• TEMA
• ISA
• ISO
 Skills needed for Plant design project

• Research
• Market analysis
• Design of individual pieces of equipment
• Cost estimation
• Computer programming
• Plant-location surveys
 Organizations involved in providing standards
and guidelines for plant layout and piping design
• American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME): Publishes and updates codes for piping
design. The code relevant to the design of piping systems is ASME B31.3 – 2016 Process Piping.
(www.asme.org)
• Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS): Publishes documents and guidelines related to
process safety. The focus is on preventing or mitigating catastrophic releases of chemicals,
hydrocarbons, and other hazardous materials. CCPS has published guidelines for “Facility Siting
and Layout”. (www.aiche.org/ccps)
• Construction Industry Institute (CII): Provides guidelines for cost effective and safe construction
methods and has several publications on constructability. (www.construction-institute.org)
• Society of Piping Engineers and Designers (SPED): Promotes excellence and quality in the
practice of piping engineering and design. SPED emphasizes education and training and has
certification programs for piping designers. (www.spedweb.org)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): Provides regulations and safety
standards for the operation of process plants. (www.osha.gov)
• National Fire Protection Association (NFPA): Provides fire protection standards for process
plants and for gas storage and handling. (www.nfpa.org)