CONCEPTUAL

DESIGN OF
CHEMICAL
PROCESSES

James M. Douglas
University of Massachusetts

McGraw-Hill Book Company

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 CONTENTS

Preface XV

Part I A Strategy for Process Synthesis and

Analysis 1

1 The Nature of Process Synthesis and Analysis 1

1-1 Creative Aspects of Process Design 3
1-2 A Hierarchical Approach to Conceptual Design 8
1-3 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 18

2 Engineering Economics 23
2-1 Cost Information Required 23
2-2 Estimating Capital and Operating Costs 32
2-3 Total Capital Investment and Total Product Costs 37
2-4 Time Value of Money 48
2-5 Measures of Process Profitability 55
2-6 Simplifying the Economic Analysis for Conceptual Designs 64
2-7 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 68

3 Economic Decision Making: Design of a

Solvent Recovery System 72
3-1 Problem Definition and General Considerations 72
3-2 Design of a Gas Absorber: Flowsheet, Material and Energy
Balances, and Stream Costs 74
3-3 Equipment Design Considerations 82
3-4 Rules of Thumb 85
3-5 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 90

xi
 Xii CONTENTS

Part II Developing a Conceptual Design and 9 Cost Diagrams a

Finding the Best Flowsheet 97 Process Alternat:
9-1 Cost Diagrams
4 Input Information and Batch versus Continuous 99 9-2 Cost Diagrams for Co
9-3 Quick Screening of Pr
4-1 Input Information 99 9-4 HDA Process
4-2 Level-1 Decision: Batch versus Continuous 107 9-5 Summary, Exercise, ar
:;Ui 4-3 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 111

5 Input-Output Structure of the Flowsheet 116 Part III Other Design '
5-1 Decisions for the Input-Output Structure 116
5-2 Design Variables, Overall Material Balances, and Stream Costs 123 10 Preliminary Proc
5-3 Process Alternatives 132 10-1 Design Variables and!
5-4 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 132 10-2 Cost Models for Proc«
10-3 A Cost Model for a Si
10-4 Approximate Optimiz;
6 Recycle Structure of the Flowsheet 137 10-5 Summary, Exercises, a
6-1 Decisions that Determine the Recycle Structure 137
6-2 Recycle Material Balances 142
11 Process Retrofits
6-3 Reactor Heat Effects 146
6-4 Equilibrium Limitations 149 11-1 A Systematic Procedu.
6-5 Compressor Design and Costs 153 11-2 HDA Process
6-6 Reactor Design 156 11-3 Summary and Exercisi
6-7 Recycle Economic Evaluation 158
6-8 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 159 12 Computer-Aided
(FLOWTRAN)
12-1 General Structure of C
7 Separation System 163
12-2 Material Balance Calc
7-1 General Structure of the Separation System 163 12-3 Complete Plant Simul
7-2 Vapor Recovery System 168 12-4 Summary and Exercisi
7-3 Liquid Separation System 172
7-4 Azeotropic Systems 189
13 Summary of the
7-5 Rigorous Material Balances 204
and Extensions c
7-6 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 211
13-1 A Review of the Hiera
Petrochemical Process
8 Heat-Exchanger Networks 216 13-2 Design of Solids Procs
8-1 Minimum Heating and Cooling Requirements 216 13-3 Other Significant Aspe
8-2 Minimum Number of Exchangers 230
8-3 Area Estimates 233
8-4 Design of Minimum-Energy Heat-Exchanger Networks 236 Part IV Appendixes
8-5 Loops and Paths 248
8-6 Reducing the Number of Exchangers 251
8-7 A More Complete Design Algorithm—Stream Splitting 257 A Shortcut Procedi
8-8 Heat and Power Integration 261 A-l Number of Trays for s
8-9 Heat and Distillation 264 A-2 Distillation Columns:
8-10 HDA Process 273 A-3 Design of Gas Absorb
8-11 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 284 A-4 Distillation Column Si
 CONTENTS XIII

Design and 9 Cost Diagrams and the Quick Screening of

:t 97 Process Alternatives - 289
9-1 Cost Diagrams 289
9-2 Cost Diagrams for Complex Processes 297
-ersus Continuous 99
9-3 Quick Screening of Process Alternatives 303
99 9-4 HDA Process 308
US 107 9-5 Summary, Exercise, and Nomenclature 315
111

Flowsheet 116 Part III Other Design Tools and Applications 317
116
ices, and Stream Costs 123 10 Preliminary Process Optimization 319
132 10-1 Design Variables and Economic Trade-offs 320
132 10-2 Cost Models for Process Units 327
10-3 A Cost Model for a Simple Process 332
10-4 Approximate Optimization Analysis 340
heet 137
10-5 Summary, Exercises, and Nomenclature 349
ructure 137
142 11 Process Retrofits 353
146
11-1 A Systematic Procedure for Process Retrofits 354
149
11-2 HDA Process 358
153
11-3 Summary and Exercises 368
156
158
159 12 Computer-Aided Design Programs
(FLOWTRAN) ' 369
12-1 General Structure of Computer-Aided Design Programs 370
163 375
12-2 Material Balance Calculations
tem 163 12-3 Complete Plant Simulation '397
168 12-4 Summary and Exercises 404
172
189 13 Summary of the Conceptual Design Procedure
204 and Extensions of the Method 405
211
13-1 A Review of the Hierarchical Decision Procedure for
Petrochemical Processes 406
216 13-2 Design of Solids Processes and Batch Processes 408
ments 216 13-3 Other Significant Aspects of the Design Problem 412
230
233
inger Networks 236 Part IV Appendixes 423
248
251
257 A Shortcut Procedures for Equipment Design 425
it ream Splitting
261 A-l Number of Trays for a Gas Absorber 425
264 A-2 Distillation Columns: Number of Trays 436
273 A-3 Design of Gas Absorbers and Distillation Columns 453
284 A-4 Distillation Column Sequencing 461
XIV CONTENTS

A-5 Complex Distillation Columns 466

A-6 Energy Integration of Distillation Columns 478
A-7 Heat-Exchanger Design 486
A-8 Gas Compressors 490
A-9 Design of Refrigeration Systems 490
A-10 Reactors 507
A-ll Summary of Shortcut Equipment Design Guidelines and
Nomenclature for Appendix A 507

B HDA Case Study 518

C Design Data 543

C-l Hydrocarbon Vapor-Liquid Equilibria 543
C-2 Temperature Ranges for some Materials 547

D FLOWTRAN Input forms 548 This book describes a systematic ]

D-l Component List 548 class of chemical processes. The ;
D-2 IFLSH 550 process flowsheet (i.e., to select th<
D-3 AFLSH 551 these units) and estimate the op
D-4 SEPR 553 ficult because very many process
D-5 ADD 554
D-6 SPLIT experience indicates that less th;
555
D-7 PUMP commercialized. Thus, there are r
556
D-8 GCOMP 557 chance of success.
D-9 SCVW 559 . . . In many cases the process
D-10 DSTWU 562 alternatives differ by an order of i
D-li REACT 564 calculations to screen the alternati
the neighborhood of the optimum
E Cost Data 568 discarding an alternative because
E-l Operating Costs 568 use cost studies as an initial scr
E-2 Summary of Cost Correlations 569 Unprofitable. If a process appears
factors, including safety, environn
F Conversion Factors 578 We approach the synthesis a
Indexes of design decisions. With this app
581
problem into a number of smallei
Author Index 583 focusing on the decisions that mus
Subject Index 589 we want to add a solvent rec
technologies that could be used to
condensation) without precluding
membrane process) might provi<
alternative solutions we can pro
generate a list of process alternati
In some cases it is possibl
heuristics) to make some decision
set the values of some of the