Chemical Process Design and

Economics (CPDE)
6th Semester,
B.Sc. Chemical Engineering

Delivered by:
Dr Usman Ali

Department of Chemical Engineering

University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore
 Design Literature, Stimulating Innovation,
Energy, Environment, Sustainability, Safety,
Engineering Ethics
 DESIGN LITERATURE

❑ Thermophysical property and transport data, possible flowsheets, equipment

descriptions, and process models.

Information Resources:
✓ Encyclopedias
✓ Handbooks and Reference Books
✓ Indexes
✓ Patents
✓ Searching for Chemicals by Structure and Reaction
✓ Hazards, Safety, and Regulatory Information
✓ SRI Design Reports
General Search Engines and Information Resources:
✓Google
✓Google Scholar
✓Wikipedia
✓General Patent Searches
 STIMULATING INVENTION AND INNOVATION

❑ Fifteen Percent Rule, Tech Forums, Stretch Goals, Process

Innovation Tech Centers—3M Company
❑ Process Innovation Technology Centers
✓ Open Innovation Concept—P&G
✓ Cross-Functional Collaboration—GE
✓ Internet Surfing—Samsung
✓ Learning Journeys—Starbucks and 3M
✓ Keystone Innovation—Corning
 ENERGY SOURCES
• Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas
• Shale Oil & Gas
• Hydrogen
• Fuel Cell Energy Source
• Biofuels
• Solar Collectors
• Wind Farms
• Hydraulic Power
• Nuclear Power
 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Environmental Issues:
➢Burning of Fossil Fuels for Power Generation
➢and Transportation
➢Handling of Toxic Wastes
➢Bioaccumulated Chemicals
➢Toxic Metals and Minerals
 Environmental Factors in Product
and Process Design
▪ Reaction Pathways to Reduce Byproduct Toxicity
▪ Reducing and Reusing Wastes
▪ Avoiding Nonroutine Events
▪ Materials Characterization
▪ Design Objectives, Constraints, and Optimization
▪ Regulations
▪ Intangible Costs
▪ Properties of Dilute Streams
▪ Properties of Electrolytes
 Sustainability
❑These are intended to help identify aspects of
potential process designs that should be
revised to achieve more sustainable chemical
processes.
❑GREENSCOPE (Gauging Reaction Effectiveness
for the ENvironmental Sustainability of
Chemistries with a multi-Objective Process
Evaluator) methodology to evaluate processes
with 140 different indicators at five levels.
❑The first four are of most concern in process
design.
❑At the lowest level 1, are facility
compliance/conformance indicators (involving
costs associated with environmental, health,
and safety compliance).
❑At level 2, the indicators measure material use
and performance (i.e., materials use, energy
use, and rates of customer complaints and
returns.)
❑Level 3 involves indicators that measure
facility effects (e.g., acidification potential,
percent of workers who report complete job
satisfaction.)
❑Level 4 includes supply-chain and product life
cycle indicators (e.g., the percent of products
designed for disassembly, reuse, or recycling).
❑Level 5 indicators measure system effects
(e.g., ecological cumulative exergy
consumption).
 SUSTAINABILITY
When defining a GREENSCOPE indicator in one of
four areas (environmental, efficiency, economic,
and energy; that is, the 4 E’s), two reference
states are needed: the best-target and worst-case
states.

An overall sustainability index, SI, can be defined:

In the environmental area, some indicators involve process input
materials. For example, the Mass of Hazardous Materials Input
indicator has a Best target of zero and a Worst target equal to
the total mass of all inputs. When the Actual mass = 0, the
percent Score is 100% sustainability; when the Actual mass =
Worst, the Perfect Score is 0% sustainability. Similarly, the
Specific Hazardous Raw Materials Input indicator can be
defined:
Another would be the Safety Hazard, Acute
Toxicity indicator:

Again, Best = 0 and Worst = 105 m3/kg, the latter

being determined experimentally or based upon
experience.
A typical efficiency indicator would be the
Reaction Yield:

Carbon Efficiency:
Economic indicators include the Water Cost Fraction
(fraction of production costs), the Rate of Return on
Investment, and the Payback Period.
Finally, energy indicators include the Solvent Recovery
Energy (SRE):

Specific Energy Intensity (SEI):

 Life-Cycle Analysis
❑ A related approach to assessing the sustainability of potential
product and/or process designs is to implement a life cycle analysis
(LCA).
❑ For chemical products, the analysis begins with the selection of raw
materials and their harvesting techniques.
❑ Then, it moves to manufacturing processes that produce the
product, which is used by the customer, and then disposed of or
recycled.
❑ Throughout the life cycle, energy is consumed, and wastes and
emissions are generated.
❑ For each product and/or process design, various sustainability
indicators for raw materials utilization, energy consumption, and
the like are evaluated to assess its sustainability throughout its life
cycle.
 SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS

❑ A principal objective in the design and operation of chemical

processes is to maintain safe conditions for operating
personnel and inhabitants who live in the vicinity of the plants.
❑ Unfortunately, the importance of meeting this objective is
driven home periodically by accidents, especially accidents in
which lives are lost and extensive damage occurs.
❑ To avoid this, all companies have extensive safety policies and
procedures to administer them
 Bhopal, India, on December 3, 1984
In this accident, which took place in a plant partially owned by Union Carbide
and partially owned locally, water containing traces of rust (accumulated in
pipe flow) was accidentally introduced into one of the methyl isocyanate (MIC)
storage vessels (MIC was stored as an intermediate chemical in the plant) as
workers carried out a routine flushing operation to clean the pipes. But the
pipes were connected to the MIC storage vessels by mistake because the
isolation disc, or “spectacle blind,” was missing. The water reacted with the
highly reactive MIC, leading to a rapid increase in temperature accompanied
by boiling, which caused toxic MIC vapours to escape from the tank. The
vapours passed through a pressure-relief system and into a scrubber and flare
system that had been installed to consume the MIC in the event of an
accidental release. Unfortunately, these systems were not operating, and
approximately 25 tons of toxic MIC vapor were released, causing a dense
vapor cloud that escaped and drifted over the surrounding community, killing
more than 3,800 civilians and seriously injuring an estimated 30,000 more.
 Safety Issues
Fires and Explosions
 Design Approaches Toward Safe Chemical Plants

Techniques to Prevent Fires and Explosions

Relief Devices
Hazards Identification
HAZOP Studies
Safety Risk Analysis
 ENGINEERING ETHICS
Engineers’ Creed
In 1954, the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) adopted the
following statement, known as the Engineers’ Creed:
As a Professional Engineer, I dedicate my professional knowledge and skill to
the advancement and betterment of human welfare.
I pledge:
▪ To give the utmost of performance;
▪ To participate in none but honest enterprise;
▪ To live and work according to the laws of man and the highest standards of
professional conduct;
▪ To place service before profit, the honor and standing of the profession
before personal advantage, and the public welfare above all other
considerations.
▪ In humility and with need for Divine Guidance, I make this pledge.
ABET Ethics Statement
In 1977, a similar statement was approved by the Accreditation Board for
Engineering and Technology (ABET), as follows:
Engineers uphold and advance the integrity, honor, and dignity of the
engineering profession by:
I. Using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of human welfare;
II. Being honest and impartial, and serving with fidelity the publics, their
employees;
III. Striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering
profession; and
IV. Supporting the professional and technical societies of their disciplines.
• These two statements have to do with ethics, also called
moral philosophy, which is derived from the Greek ethika,
meaning character.
• Thus, ethics deals with standards of conduct or morals.
• Unfortunately, there are no universal standards; only the
ethics
• Engineering ethics is concerned with the personal conduct of
engineers as they uphold and advance the integrity, honor,
and dignity of engineering while practicing their profession.
• This conduct of behavior has obligations to (1) self, (2)
employer and/or client, (3) colleagues and co-workers, (4)
public, and (5) environment.
 References
➢ Seider, W. D.; Seader, J. D.; Lewin, D. R.; Widagdo, S.,
Product and Process Design Principles: Synthesis,
Analysis, and Evaluation. 4th Edition; John Wiley &
Sons, 2009.
✓ Chapter 3