Chemical Process

Industries [1]
LESSON 2B:
CHEMICAL PROCESSING AND THE WORK OF THE CHEMICAL ENGINEER
Contents

1. Introduction 7. Chemical Process Economics

2. Basic Chemical Data 8. Market Evaluation
3. Batch vs Continuous Processing 9. Plant Locations
4. Flowcharts 10. Safety: Hazards such as Fire or
5. Chemical Process Selection, Toxic Materials
Design, and Operation 11. Construction of Plant
6. Chemical Process Control and 12. Management for Productivity
Instrumentation
13. Research and Development
14. Patents
15. Process System Engineering
7. Chemical Process Economics

 Engineers are distinguished from scientists by their consciousness of costs and profits.

 Competing Processes
 Potential alteration of any process is of importance not only when the plant is first
designed, but continuously
 Functions of R&D Division – to keep abreast of progress and to make available knowledge
of improvements or even fundamental changes leading to the making of any given
product in which the organization is interested.
 Material Balances
 Yields and conversions of the chemical process form the basis for the material balances,
which in turn are the foundation for cost consideration.
7. Chemical Process Economics

 Energy
 Engineers are concerned with the direction and control of energy
 Energy is frequently a major cost in chemical plants, but it is often possible to reduce energy
use by altering processing procedures

 Labor
 Skilled operators contribute as much to a plant’s success as excellence in design

 Overall Cost
 The cost of processing cannot be finally obtained until the plant is in operation, but an
experienced chemical engineer can closely estimate it.
 The single largest cost is usually raw material, with energy, labor, overhead, and depreciation
all being significant
7. Chemical Process Economics

 Overhead expenses are all costs on the income statement except

for direct labor, direct materials, and direct expenses. Overhead
expenses include accounting fees, advertising, insurance, interest,
legal fees, labor burden, rent, repairs, supplies, taxes, telephone bills,
travel expenditures, and utilities.
8. Market Evaluation

 During the development of a chemical industry, experts have been

trained, and it is necessary to call upon them for market evaluation
when a new product is under appraisal.

 Purity and Uniformity of Product

 The physical condition of the products has a great influence on
marketability

 Packaging
 Packaging and storing are expensive and should be avoided whenever
possible
 Container appearance is of importance only for those chemicals sold
directly to the consumer
8. Market Evaluation

 Sales and Customer Service

 The salesperson is the eyes, ears, and nose of a company, bringing in
information to aid in economic forecasting.
 Sales and customer service form the major contact between buyer and
seller.
9. Plant Locations

 Availability of raw materials, energy, transportation, and markets

 Environmental constraints, water supply, availability of efficient
labor, cost of land, and waste disposal facilities
 Legal restrictions
10. Safety: Hazards such as fire or
toxic materials
 Precautions to prevent fire and to fight fire must be taken into
consideration in the design of any chemical plant.
 Employees must be protected against toxic chemicals, both real
and imagined
 It is essential that where hazards exist, they be made known to those
exposed.
 Safety devices and continuing programs for alerting those working
with a given process to its hazards.
 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) RA 11058
 AN ACT STRENGTHENING COMPLIANCE WITH OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
AND HEALTH STANDARDS AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS
11. Construction of Plant

 Construction engineering organizations are available that will build

a plant and also participate in its design.
 Some large chemical companies have their own construction
departments and erect their own plants
 3-D scale models
 Computer graphics
 Registered engineers
12. Management for Productivity
and Creativity
 Many plants are developing their plant superintendents and plant
managers from among their chemical engineers
 Certain companies arrange for promising young engineers to spend
time studying management
 The plant manager’s first responsibility is to run a plant so that it will
safely turn out market-acceptable goods at a profit
12. Management for Productivity
and Creativity
 Training for Plant Procedures
 A good place to do this is in the pilot plant
 Modern electronic simulators are also proving very valuable
 Supervisors and operators can work out procedures, simplifications, and
alterations with such tools
 Emergency procedures under hazardous conditions can be worked out without
danger

 Labor
 Chemical plants use mainly skilled labor with a very limited requirement for
unskilled manual workers.
 No plant operates properly without operator desire and approval, so it is
vital that labor’s opinions and attitudes be understood.
12. Research and Development

 Adequate and skilled research with patent protection is necessary

for future profits.
 Outstanding characteristics in chemical process industries:
 Rapidly changing procedures
 New raw materials
 New markets
 Development is the adaptation of research ideas to the realities of
production and industry
12. Research and Development

 The results and benefits of research may be tabulated as follows:

 New and improved products
 Lower costs and lower prices of products
 Services and products never before known
 Change of rarities to common commercial supplies of practical
usefulness
 Adequate supply of materials previously obtained only as by-products
 Freedom from domination from foreign control
 Stabilization of business and industrial employment
 Products of improved quality
13. Patents

 Patents are provided to encourage new discoveries.

 These are limited monopolies given in exchange for the detailed
public disclosure of new products and methods

 Invention – the act of finding something that is new

 Patent – grant of exclusive right to the inventor to his inventionfor a
limited period of time

 An invention is not a product and the patent by itself does not

produce the product
13. Patents

 To produce a marketable product a new idea in the form of an

invention must be developed and embodied in a form suitable for
manufacture, and appropriate tools must be available so that the
product can be manufactured at a cost acceptable to the public.
 The patent serves to protect the inventor and those who develop,
manufacture, and sell the product from the uncontrolled
competition of parties who have not shared the burden of invention
and its commercialization
14. Process System Engineering

 More and more engineers are realizing that they can no longer think of
a process plant as a collection of individually designed operations and
processes
 It is becoming increasingly evident that each separate unit of a plant
influences all others in subtle ways
 The general availability of the computer has made it possible to study
the dynamic behavior of plants as well as their static or “steady state”
behavior.
 Instead of measuring and attempting to maintain rigid temperature,
pressure, and general conditions (feedback control), chemical
engineers are trying to adjust system variables so that the output is
satisfactory even though the inputs vary widely and are not fixed
(feedforward control)
 Attempts at optimizing control are also being made
References

[1] Austin, G. T. (1984). Shreve’s Chemical Process Industries, 5th ed.,

McGraw-Hill: Singapore
[2] https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/chemical-engineer/job-
market/
[3] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/chemists-
and-materials-scientists.htm
[4] https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes172041.htm
[5] https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/the-haber-bosch-
process-what-is-it-why-is-the-process-so-important.html
[6] en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Overhead_(business)
end