Chemical Engineering Plant Design (TK7544)

Overview of Plant Design

#1st Topic

Chemical Engineering Department

Universitas Sebelas Maret
2020
 Design ?
 a creative activity, started with a specific objective
in mind, by developing and evaluating possible
designs, putting together of ideas to achieve a
desired purpose

 It is important to keep in mind that design problems

are open ended and may have many solutions that
are attractive and near optimal.
 Design ?
 For example as chemical engineers:
Developing a new chemical product
Developing a stage in the design of a
production process.
 does not exist at the commencement of the project.
Where is a Design used in
Industry?
 New Plant
 Known Plants but different location
 Plant Improvement
 Debottlenecking Plant
 Increase Plant Capacity
 Increase Plant Efficiency
 Decrease Costs
 Pollution Minimization
Constraint
 Factors which will narrow down the number of
possible designs.
 Some constraints will be fixed and invariable, such as
those that arise from physical laws, government
regulations, and standards.
 Others will be less rigid and can be relaxed by the
designer as part of the general strategy for seeking the
best design.
 Designers have to think that several alternative ways of
meeting the objective will normally be possible
Design Constraint
Internal/External Constraint
 The designer has some control, such as choice of process,
choice of process conditions, materials, and equipment 
Internal Constraint
 setting the outer boundary of possible designs External
Constraint
1-Economic considerations are obviously a major constraint on any
engineering design: plants must make a profit.
2-The time available for completion of a design will usually limit the
number of alternative designs that can be
3-Physical law
4- Resources
5-Safety Regulations
6- Standard and codes
Chemical
Process Design?
General Structure of Plant

Raw Material Product

Process
Storage Storage

Utilities

RAW MATERIALs PRODUCTS

What is a process design?
Process design establishes the sequence of chemical and
physical operations; operating conditions; the duties;
major specifications and materials of construction of all
process equipment; line sizes; the general arrangement
of equipment needed to ensure proper functioning of
plant and principal instrument.
Where is the process design role?

• To produce desired product

• To convert a raw material
• To convert a waste or by-product to a
valuable product
• To find a new way of producing an
existing product
• To exploit a new technology
 Design Basis
 More precise statement of the problem that is to be
solved
 Should be clear before starting the design:
1. The system of units to be used.
2. The national, local or company design codes that must be followed.
3. Details of raw materials that are available, i.e. purity, etc
4. Information on potential sites where the plant might be located, including
climate data, seismic conditions, and infrastructure availability.
5. Information on the conditions, availability, and price of utility services
such as fuel (gas), steam, cooling water, process air, process water, and
electricity, that will be needed to run the process.
Generation of Design Concepts
Chemical engineering projects can be divided into three types,
depending on the novelty involved:
1. Modifications, and additions, to existing plant; usually carried
out by the plant design group.
2. New production capacity to meet growing sales demand, and
the sale of established processes by contractors. Repetition of
existing designs, with only minor design changes.
3. New processes, developed from laboratory research, through
pilot plant, to a commercial process. Even here, most of the
unit operations and process equipment will use established
designs.
SEQUENCE OF A CHEMICAL
MANUFACTURING PROCESS

PROCESS
 Stage
 Stage 1. Raw material storage
Unless the raw materials (also called essential materials, or feed
stocks) are supplied as intermediate products (intermediates)
from a neighboring plant, some provision will have to be made
to hold several days, or weeks, storage to smooth out
fluctuations and interruptions in supply.

 Stage 2. Feed preparation

Some purification, and preparation, of the raw materials will
usually be necessary before they are sufficiently pure, or in the
right form, to be fed to the reaction stage.
 Stage 3, Reactor
The reaction stage is the heart of a chemical manufacturing process. In the
reactor the raw materials are brought together under conditions that promote
the production of the desired product; invariably, by-products and unwanted
compounds (impurities) will also be formed.

 Stage 4. Product separation

In this first stage after the reactor the products and by-products are separated
from any unreacted material. If in sufficient quantity, the unreacted material
will be recycled to the reactor. They may be returned directly to the reactor,
or to the feed purification and preparation stage. The by-products may also
be separated from the products at this stage.
 Stage 5. Purification
Before sale, the main product will usually need purification to meet
specification. If produced in economic quantities, the by-products may
also be purified for sale.

 Stage 6. Product storage

Some inventory of finished product must be held to match production
with sales. Provision for product packaging and transport will also be
needed, depending on the nature of the product. Liquids will normally be
dispatched in drams and in bulk tankers (road, rail and sea), solids in
sacks, cartons or bales.
The stock held will depend on the nature of the product and the market.
 Importance of Process Design
 Include the information on possible processes, equipment
performance, and physical property data
 The design engineer must assemble all of the information
needed to model the process  to predict its performance
against the identified objectives.
 Design data can be generated from :
(1) a mathematical model of the process, usually in the form of
computer simulations of the process, reactors, and other key
equipment  Hysis, Aspen, etc
(2) An existing full scale facility or pilot plant
(3) Chemical Engineering literature
 for predicting plant performance
The selection process can be considered to go
through the following stages:

1. Possible designs (credible) - within the external

constraints.
2. Plausible designs (feasible) - within the internal
constraints.
3. Probable designs - likely candidates.
4. Best design (optimum) -judged the best solution to
the problem
 Process Creation
 Chemical Reaction Routes
 Preliminary Database
 MSDS – (Health and safety info.)
 Raw Materials
 Reaction Products and Intermediates
 Thermo/physical properties (Experiments and
Predictions)
 Heats of Formation
 VLE data, solubilities, etc.
 Chemical Prices (Chemical Market Reporter)
Case Study
1. Vinyl Chloride Manufacture (part of PVC plant)
2. Octane Manufacture (part of refinery)
 CASE 1

Process Economics-I
 Possible Reactions for vinyl chloride
1) C2H4 (ethylene) + Cl2  C2H3Cl (vinyl Chloride) + HCl

2) C2H2 (acetylene) + HCl  C2H3Cl

3) C2H4 + Cl2  C2H4Cl2  C2H3Cl + HCl

4) C2H4 + HCl + ½ O2 C2H4Cl2+H2O

5) C2H4 + Cl2  C2H4Cl2

C2H2 + 2HCl + ½ O2 C2H4Cl2+ H2O
2 C2H4Cl2 2C2H3Cl + 2HCl
2C2H4 + Cl2 + ½ O2 2C2H3Cl + H2O (overall)
Gross Profitability Analysis-1
 Start With Raw Material Costs and
Product Prices
Gross Profitability Analysis-1
 For Each Reaction Determine the Profit
to be made
 Gross Profit is
 22¢/lb(1) +18¢/lb (0.583)-18¢/lb(0.449)-
11¢/lb(1.134)=11.94 ¢/lb
Gross Profitability Analysis-2
 Overview of Various Reactions

 Reaction 3 is most profitable!

 How much do we make? Market Volume?
Market Information
 Reaction 3 :Direct Chlorination, Pyrolysis
Consider Separations
 VLE data
 Boiling Points

 Flash HCl from Reaction Products

 Separation System
 Task Integration: Reactor & Condenser
 Separations
Onion Model of Process Design
Overall Process
 CASE 2

Octane Reaction
 2C2H4 + C4H10  C8H18
 P= 5 psi, T=93 oC, X=98% Conversion
Preliminary
Flow Sheet

Flash
ΔP= 2 psi

Distillation

Purge Stream
With Heat
Integration

Without Heat Integration

What else can be done?
 Where is the heat duty for the Flash
vessel coming from?
 Heat Exchanger coupling reactor feed to
reactor product.
 Do we really need the flash vessel?
 Let distillation column do all the
separation.
 Reactor heat duty
 Exo or Endo reaction?
 Where does it come from?
Summary--How is Design Practiced?
 Process Conception: capacity of product
 Preliminary Design
 Process Concepts
 Process Economics
 Management decision to go forward
 Intermediate Design
 P&ID’s
 Ask vendors for prices major pieces of equipment
 Reactor, Separators, HX, Utilities, tank farms
 Process Economics
 Management decision to go forward
 Detailed Design
 Mechanical Engineering
 Equipment + Supports
 Piping elevation
 Electrical/Power Engineering
 Utilities
 Location and plant layout
 Process Economics
 Management decision to go forward