Chemical Process

Diagram & design

1
Compiled from
1) Turton. R. 2013. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of
Chemical Processes. Fourth Edition. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education International.
2) .Seider, et.al. Product and Process Design Principles:
Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation, Third Edition, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., Singapore, 2010.
 Chemical Process Diagrams
2

3 Main Levels of Diagrams

Block Flow Diagram (BFD)

Process Flow Diagram (PFD)

Piping and Instrumentation Diagram

(P&ID) – often referred to as
Mechanical Flow Diagram
 Comparison
3

BFD Level of
Conceptual
Level of Understanding
Complexity Increases
Increases
PFD

P&ID
Block Flow Diagram(BFD)
4

 input and output streams, T, P, flow rate, little detail

inside blocks.
Block Flow Diagram(BFD)
5
6
Block Flow Diagram(BFD)

Table 1.1 Conventions and Formats

 Operations shown by blocks

 Major flow lines shown with arrows

 Flow goes from left to right whenever possible

 Light streams toward top with heavy stream toward

bottom

 Critical information unique to process supplied

 If lines cross, then horizontal line is continuous

Process Flow Diagram(PFD)
7  major equipment and description, all process
streams, compositions, utility streams, main control
loops.
The Process Flow Diagrams (PFD)
8
 A typical commercial PFD will contain the
following information:
All major pieces of equipment in the
process will be represented along with a
descriptive name and number.
All process flow streams will be shown and
identified with a number. A description of
the process conditions and chemical
composition of each stream will be
included.
All utility streams supplied to major
equipment that provides a process
function will be shown.
Basic control loops will be shown.
 The Process Flow Diagrams (PFD)
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 The Process Flow Diagrams (PFD)
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 The Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
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 The Process Flow Diagrams (PFD)
12
 The Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
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 The Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
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 The Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
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 The Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
16
 Process and Instrumentation Diagram
17 (P&ID)
 all info needed for construction. Pipe size,
insulation, instrument lines.
 Process and Instrumentation Diagram
18 (P&ID)
all info needed for construction. Pipe
size, insulation, instrument lines.
 Process and Instrumentation Diagram
19 (P&ID)
 Process and Instrumentation Diagram
20 (P&ID)
 Involvement for Chemical
21 Process Design
Chemical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Civil Engineering
 Involvement for Chemical
22 Process Design

Chemical Engineering
• Select equipment
• Arrange the sequence of
equipment
• Define control condition
• Process & Instrumentation
Diagram [P&ID]
• Not deep in detail
 Involvement for Chemical
23 Process Design

Chemical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
•Machine
•Piping & Instrumentation
Diagram [P&ID]
•Plant layout
 Involvement for Chemical
24 Process Design

Chemical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
• Electricity
• Wiring
• Instrument & Controlling
 Involvement for Chemical
25 Process Design
Chemical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Civil Engineering
• Construction & foundation
• Building layout
• Legal requirement
 Chemical Process Design
26

Process
Input Output
• R/M • Product
• Energy • By product
• etc, • Fuel / Energy
• Waste
 Concept design / process
27

The onion Model for process design

28
Example for Process Design
Consider, the need to manufacture vinyl chloride (VC)
H Cl
C=C
H H

Design for production of VC monomer (VCM) at 800

million pounds per year,
 Survey Literature Sources
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 SRI Design Reports
 Encyclopedias
– Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology
(1991)
– Ullman’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (1988)
 Handbooks and Reference Books
– Perry’s Chemical Engineers Handbook (1997)
– CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
 Indexes
– See Library
 Patents
 Internet
 Reaction pathway for VCM production
30
Thermal cracking of C2H4Cl2 from chlorination of C2H4:

C2H4 + Cl2 → C2H4Cl2 (2.3)

C2H4Cl2 → C2H3Cl + HCl (2.4)
C2H4 + Cl2 → C2H3Cl + HCl (2.1)
Advantages:
– Conversion of ethylene to 1,2-dichloroethane in exothermic
reaction (2.3) is 98% at 90 oC and 1 atm with a Friedel-Crafts
catalyst such as FeCl3. This intermediate is converted to vinyl
chloride by thermal cracking according to the endothermic
reaction (2.4), which occurs spontaneously at 500 oC with
conversions as high as 65%
Disadvantage:
– Half of the expensive chlorine is consumed to produce HCl
by-product, which may not be sold easily.
 Preliminary Flowsheet
31

Cl2 HCl
113,400 lb/hrRaw Materials Products 58,300 lb/hr
Process
C2HFlowsheet?
4Cl2
C2H4, Cl2 C2H3Cl,HCl
HCl
Direct
Pyrolysis
Chlorination
C2H3Cl
C2H4Cl2
C2H4 + Cl2 C2H4Cl2 C2H3Cl
C2H4 C2H4Cl2 C2H3Cl + HCl
100,000 lb/hr
44,900 lb/hr

 800 MM lb/year @ 330 days/y  100,000 lb/hr VC

 Preliminary Flowsheet
32  A conversion of 100% of the C2H4 is assumed in the
chlorination reaction.
 Separation & Recycle System
33

 Only 60% of the C2H4Cl2 is converted to C2H3Cl with a

byproduct of HCl, according to Eqn. (2.4).
 To satisfy the overall material balance, 158,300 lb/h of
C2H4Cl must produce 100,000 lb/h of C2H3Cl and 58,300
lb/h of HCl.
 But a 60% conversion only produces 60,000 lb/h of VC.
 The additional C2H4Cl2 needed is computed by mass
balance to equal:
[(1 - 0.6)/0.6] x 158,300 or 105,500 lb/h.
 Its source is a recycle stream from the separation of
C2H3Cl from unreacted C2H4Cl2, from a mixing
operation, inserted to combine the two sources, to give
a total 263,800 lb/h.
 Separation & Recycle System
34  The effluent stream from the pyrolysis
operation is the source for the C2H3Cl product,
the HCl by-product, and the C2H4Cl2 recycle.
 Separation & Recycle System
35

 Reactor pressure levels:

 Chlorination reaction: 1.5 atm is recommended, to
eliminate the possibility of an air leak into the reactor
containing ethylene.
 Pyrolysis reaction: 26 atm is recommended by the B.F.
Goodrich patent (1963) without any justification. Since
the reaction is irreversible, the elevated pressure does
not adversely affect the conversion. Most likely, the
patent recommends this pressure to reduce the size of
the pyrolysis furnace, although the tube walls must be
considerably thicker and many precautions are
necessary for operation at elevated pressures.
 The pressure level is also an important consideration in
selecting the separation operations,
 Separation & Recycle System
36
 The product of the chlorination reaction is nearly pure
C2H4Cl2, and requires no purification.
 In contrast, the pyrolysis reactor conversion is only 60%,
and one or more separation operations are required
to match the required purities in the C2H3Cl and HCl
sinks.
 One possible arrangement is given in the next slide.
The data below explains the design decisions made.
Boiling point (oC) Critical constants

Chemical 1 atm 4.8 atm 12 atm 26 atm Tc,C Pc, atm

HCl -84.8 -51.7 -26.2 0 51.4 82.1

C2H3Cl -13.8 33.1 70.5 110 159 56

C2H4Cl2 83.7 146 193 242 250 50

 Separation & Recycle System
37 Boiling point (oC) Critical constants

Chemical 1 atm 4.8 atm 12 atm 26 atm Tc,C Pc, atm

HCl -84.8 -51.7 -26.2 0 51.4 82.1

C2H3Cl -13.8 33.1 70.5 110 159 56

C2H4Cl2 83.7 146 193 242 250 50

There may be other, possibly better alternative configurations,

 Eliminate differences in T, P and
38 phase
 Integrate tasks
39
 Process Flow Diagram
40