CHEMICAL PLANT DESIGN

Chapter 1

Dr. Muhammad Rizwan

Assistant Professor
NFC-IET
PLANT DESIGN PROJECT: STAGES OF COMPLETION:
 Development of a new plant or process from concept evaluation to profitable
reality is often an enormously complex problem.
 A plant design project moves to completion through a series of stages as listed
below:
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. Plant Erection
8. Startup and trial runs
9. production
BASIC ANATOMY OF A CHEMICAL PROCESS:
Unreacted By-
reactants Products

Raw Feed Products

material preparatio Reactor separation Main
storage n unit Products

Product
Sales Purification
storage

Chemical process design is about selection and arrangement of various stages in

process, and selection, specification and design of equipment in that stage.
PROCESS INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR PROCESS DESIGN:

 Special safety precautions/notes

 Knowledge of all raw materials, products and intermediate process quantities in

convenient units

 Knowledge of physical and chemical characteristics

 Compositions and also properties of raw materials under operating conditions

 Material and energy balances on all significant operations or equipments.

 A complete diagrammatic process flow sheet, which shows the flow of the process
streams at suitable points on the process streamlines and equipment sketches where
convenient.
PROCESS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT:
Inception:
 Idea may generate from sales department

 As a result of customer request

 To meet competing product

 An off-shoot of a research program

 Operating department result

 Engg. Dept may originate a new process

Preliminary Research:
 General survey of success possibilities

 Physical and chemical operations involved considered

PROCESS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT:
Process Research phase:
 Preliminary market surveys

 Laboratory scale requirements

 Production of research samples

Development Phase:
 Pilot plant constructed
 Design data obtained (used as basis)
 Complete market analysis made
 Final product sent to customers
 Cost-Profit analysis are made
HIERARCHY OF A CHEMICAL PROCESS DESIGN:
 The hierarchy is the systematic gradation of the
process.

 It is an attempt to develop a methodology which

shows the clear picture of the structure and
problems in the process.

 Hierarchy can be represented symbolically by the

layers of onion diagram (Onion model)

 The onion diagram stresses the sequential

hierarchical nature of process design.

 Some processes like oil refinery processes do not

require a reactor, there the design starts from 2nd
layer and so on.
HIERARCHY OF A CHEMICAL PROCESS DESIGN:
HIERARCHY OF A CHEMICAL PROCESS DESIGN:
HIERARCHY OF A CHEMICAL PROCESS DESIGN:
HIERARCHY OF A CHEMICAL PROCESS DESIGN:
SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT/PROCESSES:

 Minimum wastage

 Minimum energy consumption

 Safety and health

 Start up and shut down

 Availability (No. of operating hrs/yr)

 Flexibility
SIMULATION:
 “Attempt which predicts the behavior of process”

 It is carried out by math models/methods

 It gives all the parameters i.e., temp, pressure etc

 Simulation also predicts, how much raw material is being used, how much energy is
being consumed in the process.

Importance:
It is a powerful tool to:

 Develop capacity planning

 Optimize product scheduling

 Evaluate design facility layout

 Improve product quality

SIMULATION:
 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT DESIGN:
The Key Terms

Plant Design
It includes all engineering aspects involved in the development of either a new, modified or
expanded industrial plant.

Design Engineer
In the development, the chemical engineering will be making economic evaluation of new
processes, designing individual pieces of equipment for the proposed new venture, or developing
a plant layout for coordination of the overall operation. Because of these many duties, the
chemical engineer is many times referred to as a Design Engineer.

Cost Engineer
Chemical engineer specializing in the economic aspects of the design is often referred to as Cost
Engineer.
 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT DESIGN:
The Key Terms

Process Engineering
The term is used in connection with economic evaluation and general economic analysis of
industrial processes.

Capitalized Engineering
When management has made a firm decision to proceed with provision of significant capital funds
for a project, the engineering then involved in further work on the project is known a Capitalized
Engineering.

Expensed Engineering
Engineering which has gone on before while the consideration of project was in the development
stage is referred as Expensed Engineering.