Flow-sheeting Also known as the process flow diagram (PFD)

The flowsheet is drawn up from material balances made over the complete process and each individual unit operation. Energy balances are also made to determine the energy flows and the utility requirements. FLOWSHEET PRESENTATION As the process flowsheet is the definitive document on the process, the presentation must be clear, comprehensive, accurate, and complete. The various types of flowsheets are discussed in the following sections. Block Diagrams A block diagram is the simplest form of presentation. Each block can represent a single piece of equipment or a complete stage in the process. They are useful for showing simple processes. With complex processes, their use is limited to showing the overall process, broken down into its principal stages. Pictorial Representation On the detailed flowsheets used for design and operation, the equipment is normally drawn in a stylized pictorial form. Presentation of Stream Flow Rates The data on the flow rate of each individual component, on the total stream flow rate, and the percentage composition can be shown on the flowsheet in various ways.

Flowsheet: polymer production

Essential Information 1. Stream composition, either i. the flow rate of each individual component, kg/h, which is preferred; or ii. the stream composition as a weight fraction. 2. Total stream flow rate, kg/h; 3. Stream temperature, degrees Celsius preferred; 4. Nominal operating pressure (the required operating pressure); 5. Stream enthalpy, kJ/h.

Flowsheet: simplified nitric acid process. Optional Information 1. Molar percentage composition and/or molar flow rates; 2. Physical property data, mean values for the stream, such as i. density, kg/m3 ii. viscosity, mN s/m2. 3. Stream name, a brief, one- or two-word description of the nature of the stream, for example, ACETONE COLUMN BOTTOMS.

LAYOUT The sequence of the main equipment items shown symbolically on the flowsheet follows that of the proposed plant layout. Some license must be exercised in the placing of ancillary items, such as heat exchangers and pumps, or the layout will be too congested. The aim should be to show the flow of material from stage to stage as it will occur, and to give a general impression of the layout of the actual process plant. FLOWSHEET PRESENTATION The equipment should be drawn approximately to scale. Again, some license is allowed for the sake of clarity, but the principal equipment items should be drawn roughly in the correct proportion. Ancillary items can be drawn out of proportion. For a complex process, with many process units, several sheets may be needed, and the continuation of the process streams from one sheet to another must be clearly shown. One method of indicating a line continuation is shown in Figure 1; those lines that are continued over to another drawing are indicated by a double concentric circle around the line number, and the continuation sheet number is written below. An alternative method is to extend lines to the side of the page and then indicate the drawing sheet on which the line is continued. The table of stream flows and other data can be placed above or below the equipment layout. Normal practice is to place it below. The components should be listed down the left side of the table, as in Figure 1. For a long table, it is good practice to repeat the list at the right side, so the components can be traced across from either side. The stream line numbers should follow consecutively from left to right of the layout, as far as is practicable, so that when reading the flowsheet, it is easy to locate a particular line and the associated column containing the data. All the process stream lines shown on the flowsheet should be numbered and the data for the stream given. There is always a temptation to leave out the data on a process stream if it is clearly just formed by the addition of two other streams, as at a junction, or if the composition is unchanged when flowing through a process unit, such as a heat exchanger; this should be avoided. What may be clear to the process designer is not necessarily clear to the others who will use the flowsheet. Complete, unambiguous information on all streams should be given, even if this involves some repetition. The purpose of the flowsheet is to show the function of each process unit, even when the function has no discernible impact on the mass and energy balance. Precision of Data The total stream and individual component flows do not normally need to be shown to a high precision on the process flowsheet; three or four significant figures are all that is usually justified by the accuracy of the flowsheet calculations and will typically be sufficient. The flows should, however, balance to within the precision shown. If a stream or component flow is so small that it is less than the precision used for the larger flows, it can be shown to a greater number of places, if its accuracy justifies this and the information is required. Imprecise small flows are best shown as TRACE. If the composition of a trace component is specified as a process constraint, as, say, for an effluent stream or product quality specification, it can be shown in parts per million (ppm). A trace quantity should not be shown as zero, or the space in the tabulation left blank, unless the process designer is sure that it has no significance. Trace quantities can be important. Only a trace of an impurity is needed to poison a catalyst, and trace quantities can determine the selection of the materials of construction. If the space in the data table is left blank opposite a particular component, the quantity may be assumed to be zero by the specialist design groups who take their information from the flowsheet.

Basis of the Calculation It is good practice to show on the flowsheet the basis used for the flowsheet calculations. This includes the operating hours per year, the reaction and physical yields, and the datum temperature used for energy balances. It is also helpful to include a list of the principal assumptions used in the calculations. This alerts the user to any limitations that may have to be placed on the flowsheet information. If the amount of information that needs to be presented is excessive, then it can be summarized in a separate document that is referenced on the flowsheet. In some cases, mass and energy balances are prepared for multiple scenarios. These might include winter and summer operating conditions, start of catalyst life and end of catalyst life, manufacture of different products or product grades, etc. Usually these different scenarios are shown as several tables on the same flowsheet, but occasionally different flowsheets are drawn for each case. Batch Processes Flowsheets drawn up for batch processes normally show the quantities required to produce one batch. If a batch process forms part of an otherwise continuous process, it can be shown on the same flowsheet, providing a clear break ismadewhen tabulating the data between the continuous and batch sections, i.e., the change from kg/h to kg/batch. A continuous process may include batch make-up of minor reagents, such as the catalyst for a polymerization process. Batch flows into a continuous process are usually labeled Normally no flow and show the flow rates that will be obtained when the stream is flowing. It is these instantaneous flow rates that govern the equipment design, rather than the much lower time-averaged flow rates. Utilities To avoid cluttering up the flowsheet, it is not normal practice to show the utility (service) headers and lines on the process flowsheet. The utility connections required on each piece of equipment should be shown and labeled, for example, CTW for cooling tower water. The utility requirements for each piece of equipment should be tabulated on the flowsheet. Equipment Identification Each piece of equipment shown on the flowsheet must be identified with a code number and name. The identification number (usually a letter and some digits) is normally that assigned to a particular piece of equipment as part of the general project control procedures and is used to identify it in all the project documents. If the flowsheet is not part of the documentation for a project, then a simple, but consistent, identification code should be devised. The easiest code is to use an initial letter to identify the type of equipment, followed by digits to identify the particular piece; for example, Hheat exchangers, Ccolumns, Rreactors. Most companies have a standard convention that should be followed, but if there is no agreed standard, then the key to the code should be shown on the flowsheet. Computer-Aided Drafting Most design offices use drafting software for the preparation of flowsheets and other process drawings. With drafting software, standard symbols representing the process equipment,

instruments, and control systems are held in files, and these symbols are called up as required when drawing flowsheets and piping and instrumentation diagrams . Final flowsheet drawings are usually produced by professional drafters, who are experienced with the drafting software and conventions, rather than by the design engineer. The design engineer has to provide the required numbers, sketch the flowsheet, and review the final result. To illustrate the use of a commercial computer-aided design program, Figure 1 has been redrawn using the program FLOSHEETand is shown as Figure 1a. FLOSHEET is part of a suite of programs called PROCEDE, described by Preece et al. (1991). Although most process simulation programs feature a graphical user interface (GUI) that creates a drawing that resembles a PFD, printouts of these drawings are very seldom used as actual process flow diagrams. The unit operations shown in the process simulation usually do not exactly match the unit operations of the process. The simulation may include dummy items that do not physically exist and may omit some equipment that is needed in the plant but is not part of the simulation. PROCESS SIMULATION PROGRAMS

Basic symbols

Glucose Production from Corn Starch

PIPING AND INSTRUMENTATION The Piping and Instrument diagram (P and I diagram or PID) shows the engineering details of the equipment, instruments, piping, valves, and fittings and their arrangement. It is often called the Engineering Flowsheet or Engineering Line Diagram. THE P AND I DIAGRAM 1. All process equipment, identified by an equipment number. The equipment should be drawn roughly in proportion and the location of nozzles shown. 2. All pipes, identified by a line number. The pipe size and material of construction should be shown. The material may be included as part of the line identification number. 3. All valves, control and block valves, with an identification number. The type and size should be shown. The type may be shown by the symbol used for the valve or included in the code used for the valve number. 4. Ancillary fittings that are part of the piping system, such as inline sight-glasses, strainers, and steam traps, with an identification number. 5. Pumps, identified by a suitable code number. 6. All control loops and instruments, with an identification number. Symbols and Layout

Cascade Control

(c) Composition control. Top product take-off and boil-up controlled by feed. (d) Packed column, differential pressure control. Eckert (1964) discusses the control of packed columns. (e) Batch distillation, reflux flow controlled based on temperature to infer composition.