Process Equipment Design

Islamic Azad Univesity, Branch of Lamerd,

Chemical engineering group
Process engineering
By: Auob Safari
Fall 1393

A. Safari , Lamerd IAU

Text Books
1-Chemical Process Equipment, Selection and Design
James R. Couper, W. Roy Penney, James R. Fair ,
Stanley M. Walas
Second edition

2- Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers,

A
manual of quick,accurate solutions to everyday process engineering
problems

Carl R. Branan
Third Edition

Pdf available: www.libgen.org

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Evaluation
item

score

Final exam

40%

Project A

20%

At classroom representation

Project B

20%

One Page industrial PFD equipment

design

Homework

15%

Presence
Status

5%

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Description

At least 5 section presence

Contents
Basic design (sizing)
Aspen plus and Aspen-Hysys software
Most applicable equipment:
1- piping
2- pump
3- compressor
4- vessels
5- heat exchangers
6- fractionators (distillation column)
7- reactors
8-
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Equipment design
Shortcut methods
Rules of thumps
Design by analogy
Reverse engineering

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Shortcut methods
Shortcut methods of design provide solutions to problems in a
short time and at small expense:
1. an order of magnitude check of the reasonableness of a result
found by another lengthier and presumably accurate computation
or computer run,
2. a quick check to find if existing equipment possibly can be
adapted to a new situation,
3. a comparison of alternate processes,
4. a basis for a rough cost estimate of a process.
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RULES OF THUMB: SUMMARY

Rules of thumb, also known as heuristics, are statements of
known facts:
See on book pdf.

Compressors and vacuum pumps

Distillation and gas absorption
Heat exchangers
Piping
Pump
Reactors
Utilities: common specifications
Vessels (drums)
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categories of process equipment

categories of process equipment:
Proprietary and custom-designed
Proprietary equipment:
Is designed by the manufacturer to meet performance
specifications made by the user;
This category includes equipment with moving parts such as
pumps, compressors, and drivers as well as cooling towers,
dryers, filters, mixers, agitators, piping equipment, and
valves, and even the structural aspects of heat exchangers,
furnaces, and other equipment.

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Custom design:
is needed for many aspects of chemical reactors, most
vessels, multistage separators such as fractionators, and
other special equipment not amenable to complete
standardization.
Even largely custom-designed equipment, such as vessels, is
subject to standardization such as discrete ranges of head
diameters, pressure ratings of nozzles, sizes of manways, and
kinds of trays and packings

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 Proprietary equipment is provided off the shelf in limited

sizes and capacities.
Special sizes that would fit particular applications more
closely often are more expensive than a larger standard size
that incidentally may provide a worthwhile safety factor.
Many codes and standards are established by government
agencies, insurance companies, and organizations sponsored
by engineering societies

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QUESTIONNAIRES OF EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS

Appendix C.

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EQUIPMENT SPECIFICATION FORMS

Appendix B.

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CATEGORIES OF ENGINEERING PRACTICE

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SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR PROCESS DESIGN

chemical manufacturing processes:
Kirk-Othmer (19781984) (1999),
McKetta (1992),
McKetta and Cunningham (1976),
and Ullman (1994)

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SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR PROCESS DESIGN

physical property and thermodynamic data:
DECHEMA publications (1977) (11 volumes)
Design Institute for Physical Property Research (DIPPR)
(1985) published by AIChE
API Data Book

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CODES, STANDARDS, AND RECOMMENDED

PRACTICES
limitations on the sizes and wall
thicknesses of piping,
specifications of the compositions of alloys,
stipulation of the safety factors applied to strengths of
construction materials,
testing procedures for many kinds of material

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CODES, STANDARDS, AND RECOMMENDED

PRACTICES

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MATERIAL AND ENERGY BALANCES

Flowsheeting
Software

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ECONOMIC BALANCE
Capital costs (direct, Indirect)
Operating costs

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DESIGN SAFETY FACTORS

A number of factors influence the performance of equipment
and plant:
uncertainty and the possibility of error, including
inaccuracy of physical data,
basic correlations of behavior such as
pipe friction
column tray efficiency
gasliquid distribution.

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DESIGN SAFETY FACTORS

approximations of design methods and calculations,

unknown behavior of materials of construction,
uncertainty of future market demands,
changes in operating performance with time.

Just how much of a factor should be applied in a particular case cannot be

stated in general terms because circumstances vary widely.

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DESIGN SAFETY FACTORS

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SAFETY OF PLANT AND ENVIRONMENT

pressure relief valves,
vent systems,
flare stacks,
snuffing steam and fire water,
Escape hatches in explosive areas,
dikes around tanks storing hazardous materials,
turbine drives as spares for electrical motors in case
of power failure, and others

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SAFETY OF PLANT AND ENVIRONMENT

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LABORATORY AND PILOT PLANT WORK

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A. Safari , Lamerd IAU