Heuristics for Process

Equipment Design

CHE 141
Heuristics for Process Equipment Design

 Design for Material Recovery

 design strategy that considers the life cycle of an
equipment
 Design for Disassembly
 design strategy that considers the future need to
disassemble an equipment for repair, refurbish or recycle.
 Design for Simplicity
 reduction of components to be used
 Design for Waste Minimization
 understand the ecological impact by minimizing the
generated waste or lessening its adverse effects in the
environment..
 Heuristics for Process Equipment Design

“Rules of Thumb”, also known as heuristics, are

statements of known facts.

Heuristics  “to discover or to invent”

The rules are known or discovered through use and
practice but may not be able to be theoretically proven…

Example:
“Optimum L/D for vessels is 3 but a range of 2.5 to 5.0 is
common.”
See other Chemical Engineering Rules of Thumb
(handouts).