Plant Design (CH3042)

Reference : Chemical Engineering Design

by Gavin Towler, Ray Sinnott
 Evaluation

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Assignments (I,II) : 30 Marks
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Project : 40 Marks
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Exam : 30 Marks
 Introduction
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For designing new/improved processes, knowledge of
the fundamental science alone is not sufficient (e.g.
thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, heat/mass transfer
etc.).
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Economic, environmental, and ethical implications
– e.g. reaction rate may be high at elevated temperatures,
however, the cost of utilities may be high, the stresses on the
material increase, safety considerations may limit.
Design Process
 Design Process
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Set Design Basis :
– Precise statement of the problem, e.g. production rate and purity specifications
– Location of the plant site
– Conditions, Availability of raw materials, utilities etc
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Design Concepts
– Rarely these are completely new. Mostly based on previous (established)
designs using well-understood equipment.
– Develop a process flowsheet containing the unit operations and type of
equipment
 Fitness Testing
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Multiple designs may exist. It is too costly to build
several designs.
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Instead build mathematical models of the process
and use computer simulations to predict the
performance.
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Data for the kinetics, thermodynamics is required.
 Economic Evaluation
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Many different designs may exist
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Primary criterion for design selection is economic
performance, safety and environmental impact
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Economic evaluation involves analyzing capital and operating
costs to determine return of investment (process economics),
e.g. heat exchangers
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Several designs may have very close economic performance,
the safest or a standard design may be chosen.
 Equipment Selection
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After the flow sheet is made, detailed design is done
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Detailed specifications of vessels, heat exchangers,
pumps and instruments are made
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Mostly the focus is on equipment selection rather than
flowsheet modifications, e.g.
– choosing between different types of heat exchangers
– Using trays or packed columns in a distillation column etc
Design Constraints
Chemical Manufacturing Process
 Continuous and Batch Processes
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Batch Process :-
– Designed to operate intermittently
– Frequently shut down or in start up mode
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Continuous Processes :-
– Operates 24/7, throughout the year
 Continuous and Batch Processes
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Batch processing
– allows production of multiple different products or different product grades in the
same equipment
– low capital for small production volumes
– scale of production is limited
– Usually used for small volume high value products
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Food products
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Pharma
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Continuous processing
– Large production volumes
 Optimization

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Economic objective functions are sensitive to uncertainties in
prices for feeds, raw materials, energy etc.
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Optimization under uncertainty
 Optimization
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External constrains : Often give rise to
inequality constraints
–
 Optimization
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Techniques
– Search Based methods, Newton method
– Linear Programming
– Convex Programming
– Non-linear programming
 Optimization in Practice
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Optimization of process operations : Planning,
scheduling, supply chain management
(LP,MILP)
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Optimization of batch processes
 Optimization in Practice
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For many batch processes, the production rate
decreases during the production period. Hence, there
exists an optimum batch size for minimum production
cost.
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For continuous processes, operation is limited by
gradual changes in process conditions, e.g. deactivation
of catalysts or fouling of heat exchangers. Simlilar to
above, there is an optimum cycle time.