2.

1 Basic process design elements

A process plant is a classification of factory which transforms materials
in bulk. The feedstock and products may be transported by pipeline or
conveyor, or in discrete quantities such as truckloads or bags, but they
are recognized by their bulk properties. Examples of process plants are
oil refineries, sugar mills, metallurgical extraction plants, coal washing
plants, and fertilizer factories. The products are commodities rather
than articles.
The plant consists of a number of the following.
� �Process equipment� items, in which material is transformed physically or
chemically, for example crushers, reactors, screens, heaters,
and heat exchangers. The process equipment is required to effect the
physical and chemical changes and separations necessary to produce
the desired products, and also to deal with any unwanted by-products,
including waste, spillage, dust, and smoke.
� Materials transport and handling devices, by which the processed
materials and effluents are transferred between the process equipment
items, and in and out of the plant and any intermediate storage, and
by which solid products and wastes are handled.
� Materials storage facilities, which may be required to provide
balancing capacity for feedstock, products, or between process
stages.
� �Process utilities� (or simply �utilities�), which are systems to provide
and reticulate fluids such as compressed air, steam, water, and
nitrogen, which may be required at various parts of the plant
for purposes such as powering pneumatic actuators, heating,14 Handbook for Process
Plant Project Engineers
cooling, and providing inert blanketing. Systems to provide process
reagents and catalysts may be included as utilities, or as part of the
process.
(Note: All of the above four categories include items of mechanical
equipment, namely machinery, tanks, pumps, conveyors, etc.)
� Electric power reticulation, for driving process machinery, for
performing process functions such as electrolysis, for lighting,
for powering of instrumentation and controls, and as a general
utility.
� Instrumentation, to provide information on the state of the process
and the plant, and, usually closely integrated to the instrumentation,
control systems.
� Structures (made of various materials, including steel and concrete),
which support the plant and equipment in the required configuration,
enclose the plant if needed, and provide access for operation and
maintenance.
� Foundations, which support the structures and some plant items
directly, and various civil works for plant access, enclosure, product
storage, and drainage.
� Plant buildings such as control rooms, substations, laboratories,
operation and maintenance facilities, and administration offices.
In addition there are inevitably �offsite� facilities such as access roads,
bulk power and water supplies, security installations, offices not directly
associated with the plant, and employee housing; these are not considered
to be part of the process plant.
A process plant is fundamentally represented by a process flowsheet.
This sets out all the process stages (essentially discrete pieces of process
equipment) and material storage points, and the material flows between
them, and gives corresponding information on the flowrates and material
conditions (chemical and physical). This information is usually provided
for:
� the mass balance case, in which the mass flows will balance
algebraically;
� a maximum case, corresponding to individual equipment or material
transport maxima for design purposes (these flows are unlikely to
balance); and
� sometimes, by cases for other plant operating conditions.
For thermal processes, the mass balance may be supplemented by a
heat and/or energy balance.A Process Plant 15
The process flowsheets represent the process rather than the details of
the plant. The latter are shown in �P&I�1 diagrams, which depict all
1 Pipeline and instrumentation, although sometimes described as process and
instrumentation; but P&I has become an accepted international multilingual
expression. Some
engineers use �mechanical flow diagrams�, which do not show much instrumentation,
and �control and instrumentation diagrams�, which focus as the name implies, and no
doubt such presentation is appropriate for certain applications; but P&IDs usually
suffice.