Design Aspects

DESIGN BASIS
Before a chemical process design can be properly embarked
on, a certain body of information must be agreed upon by
all concerned persons, in addition to the obvious what is to
be made and what it is to be made from.

Distinctions may be drawn between plant expansions and

wholly independent ones, so-called grassroots types.

The needed data can be classified into specific design data

and basic design data, for which separate check lists will be
described. Specific design data include:
1. Required products: their compositions, amounts, purities,

toxicities, temperatures, pressures, and monetary values.

2. Available raw materials: their compositions, amounts,

toxicities, temperatures, pressures, monetary values, and all

pertinent physical properties unless they are standard and

can be established from correlations. This information about

properties applies also to products of item 1.

3. Daily and seasonal variations of any data of items 1 and 2 and

subsequent items of these lists.

4. All available laboratory and pilot plant data on
reaction and phase equilibrium behaviors,
catalyst degradation, and life and corrosion of
equipment.
5. Any available existing plant data of similar
processes.
6. Local restrictions on means of disposal of
wastes.
Basic engineering data include:

7. Characteristics and values of gaseous and liquid fuels that are to

be used.

8. Characteristics of raw makeup and cooling tower waters,

temperatures, maximum allowable temperature, flow rates

available, and unit costs.

9. Steam and condensate: mean pressures and temperatures and

their fluctuations at each level, amount available, extent of

recovery of condensate, and unit costs.

10. Electrical power: Voltages allowed for
instruments, lighting and various driver sizes,
transformer capacities, need for emergency
generator, unit costs.

11. Compressed air: capacities and pressures of

plant and instrument air, instrument air dryer.

12. Plant site elevation.

l3. Soil bearing value, frost depth, ground water depth, piling

requirements, available soil test data.

14. Climatic data. Winter and summer temperature extreme,

cooling tower dry-bulb temperature, air cooler design

temperature, strength and direction of prevailing winds, rain and

snowfall maxima in 1 hr and in 12 hr, earthquake provision.

15. Blow-down and flare: What may or may not be vented to the
atmosphere or to ponds or to natural waters, nature of required
liquid, and vapor relief systems.
16. Drainage and sewers: rainwater, oil, sanitary.

17. Buildings: process, pump, control instruments,

special

18. Paving types required in different areas.

19. Pipe racks: elevations, grouping, coding.

20. Battery limit pressures and temperatures of

individual feed stocks and products.
21. Codes: those governing pressure vessels, other
equipment, buildings, electrical, safety, sanitation, and
others.

22. Miscellaneous: includes heater stacks, winterizing,

insulation, steam or electrical tracing of lines, heat
exchanger tubing size standardization, instrument
locations.