Process Flow Diagram (PFD) - How To & Examples

CREATE YOUR PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM NOW

Contents

What is a Process Flow Diagram?

Symbol Library for Process Flow Diagram

How to Plan and Create a Process Flow Diagram

Free Process Flow Diagram Templates

Summary & Suggestion

A process flow diagram is a graphical tool most commonly used by business process management
professionals (BPM) and chemical engineers. PFD helps to understand the process, provide quality control,
and increase efficiency. It is used to get a top-down understanding of how different types of equipment
and chemicals work in the industrial plant. It maps various tasks and shows what repeatable tasks you may
need to perform to achieve a specific goal.

Now, let’s discuss the brief definition of the process flow diagram and how it differs from P&ID.
What is a Process Flow Diagram?
Brief Description of PFD

This diagram dates back to the 1920s, and in 1921 Frank Gilbreth initiated the “flow process chart.” Since
then, many industrial engineers, businesses, and manufacturers use this chart.

It is a type of flow chart that is utilized in chemical engineering and process engineering. A process flow
diagram illustrates the equipment and the flow of chemicals included in the process. The PFD only shows
major equipment such as pumps, vessels, columns, heaters, turbines, etc. at an industrial plant.

However, it does not show minor details or components like designations, flow instruments, pipe
properties, and piping details (drain lines, control loops, bypass lines).

Image Source: pipingengineer.org

Differences between PFD and P&ID

A PFD is a simplified version of Piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID). In contrast, P&IDs provide
more details, which includes instrumentation details (flow instruments, temperature, pressure, pressure
safety valves, meters and control valves), pipe routing conditions (minimum distance, slope, free flow, etc.),
and piping details (size, specifications, service, insulation, rating).
Furthermore, to understand P&IDs, you will need a legend sheet which is usually given by a P&ID
developer. The legend sheet has all the information like symbols, terminology, etc., which is also called
“flowsheets.”

Image Source: researchgate.net

Symbol Library for Process Flow Diagram

Here is a list of elements that a typical process flow diagram includes for process and chemical engineering.

• Main equipment - Includes ID numbers and names.

Examples: compressors, agitators, centrifuges, apparatus elements, drivers, feeders, engines,

mixers, pumps, separators, valves, coolers, mixers, and boilers.

• Process-critical valves
• Control valves
• Recirculation system
• Major bypass system
• Process of piping
• Flow direction process
• Fluids composition
• Process steam names
• Operational data - It includes temperature, pressure, density, mass-energy balance, and mass flow
rate.
• Connections with various systems
How to Plan and Create a Process Flow Diagram

To plan and create a PFD, you have to follow these steps mentioned below.

● First, you need to define your process’s scope. Mention what you want to study and what you will obtain
from it.

● Next, decide what kind of details you will need for your purpose. Various editions of PFDs are available
for intricate processes that you can use or draw to communicate with people.

● It is essential to study relationships, activities, and equipment with the help of interviews and
observations. If you are making a new process model, try to learn and understand the available data.
Furthermore, it is crucial to study the standards of whatever you are trying to produce in the process.

● Now draw a rough sketch and confirm it with your team members. It is vital to make a draft and seek
approval from the people involved in this process because it will help you to make necessary changes, you
can add stuff, or delete any errors.

● Finally, your diagram is ready to be used for its intended purpose. Your goal might be to provide quality
assurance, documentation, or improvement.

Use EdrawMax Online to Create a PFD

● To create a PFD online, open EdrawMax Online(https://www.edrawmax.com/online/) on your laptop or

PC.

● Select Electrical Engineering > Process Flow Diagram and click the + to enable a blank page. Or, you
can click on one of template thumbnails to open a pre-made template.
● On your left is the symbol library. All the equipment, valves, pipes are present here. Drag and drop the
symbols that you need to create your PFD. Style the diagrams with formatting tools. Here is an example:
● Once you are finished and happy with your work, save, export or share your work.

Free Process Flow Diagram Templates

A free template can entice anyone to make a process flow diagram swiftly. You can take help from these
templates by either modifying a little, starting from scratch or using it as it is. Here are some templates of
process flow diagrams:

Cooling Process Flow Diagram - Create a simple cooling process flow diagram to show how the whole
cooling process works. The template uses a variety of symbols, and it is perfectly colored.
Click here if you want to download and use cooling PFD right now.

Petroleum Refinery Process Flow Diagram - Create by using the petroleum refinery process flow diagram
template from SmartDraw. This template is ideal for engineers. It is detailed and contains shapes that are
appropriately labeled.
Click here if you want to download and use this template for describing the petroleum refining process.

De-oxidization Process Flow Design - Do you want to describe the de-oxidation process in an effortless
manner? Then, use this template as it contains symbols, and it is also correctly labeled and colored.

Click here if you want to download this template to create a de-oxidization process flow diagram.

Solar Heating Process Flow Diagram - Make use of a solar heating process flow diagram from the
SmartDraw. This template is labeled and contains instrument and valve symbols with piping and connecting
shapes.
Click here if you want to download and use this template straight away.

Active Lime Production Process Flow Diagram - It is another easy-to-use template by EdrawMax for
engineers to understand the process of active lime production. The drawing is perfectly colored and
aligned.
Click here to download and use this template right away!

Summary & Suggestion

The PFD is a fundamental and noncomplex version of P&ID. It is a chemical and process engineering
drawings that are useful because they convey accurate information required during the different stages of
engineering design, procurement, bidding, operating, commissioning, and constructing phase of the
process.

The process flow design uses major equipment, whereas the P&ID shows both major and minor details,
which is more sophisticated.

Moreover, creating a PFD is easy; you just have to use the right software, utilize the desired free template,
and edit according to your needs.

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Data Flow Diagram Symbols. DFD Library

Data Flow Diagrams show information transfers and process steps of
a system. The general concept is an approach of a depicting how
occurs input in a system, further processes and what runs out. The
aim of DFD is in accomplishing of understanding between developers
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structured systems analysis.
Process Flow Chart Symbol
Process Flow Charts are very popular and widely used in chemical
and process engineering for representation a general flow of plant
processes and equipment. If you need often draw them, the
ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing software
extended with tools of Flowcharts Solution will be useful for you.
The mostly used set of process flow chart symbols includes the
following: Rectangle (box) process flow chart symbol, Rounded
rectangle, Circle, Diamond.
Process Flowchart
ConceptDraw is Professional business process mapping software for
making process flow diagram, workflow diagram, general flowcharts
and technical illustrations for business documents. It is includes rich
examples, templates, process flowchart symbols. ConceptDraw
flowchart maker allows you to easier create a process flowchart. Use
a variety of drawing tools, smart connectors, flowchart symbols and
shape libraries to create flowcharts of complex processes, process
flow diagrams, procedures and information exchange.
Lean Six Sigma Diagram Software

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a well-known in all over the world

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ConceptDraw Solution Park.
DFD Library System

Use the Data Flow Diagrams solution from the Software Development
area of ConceptDraw Solution Park to draw your own context-level
DFDs using the ConceptDraw PRO diagramming and vector drawing
software.
Interaction Overview Diagram

UML Interaction Overview Diagram schematically shows a control flow

with nodes and a sequence of activities that can contain interaction or
sequence d
Example of DFD for Online Store (Data Flow Diagram) DFD
Example

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the various components in a program or system. DFDs are an
important technique for modeling a system’s high-level detail by
showing how input data is transformed to output results through a
sequence of functional transformations.
Example of DFD for Online Store shows the Data Flow Diagram for
online store and interactions between the Visitors, Customers and
Sellers, as well as Website Information and User databases.
Business Process Flow Diagram
Business Process Flow Diagram is a graphical presentation of
business processes and process flows. It is one of the main tool of
business analysis and business process re-engineering that lets
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Cross-Functional Flowchart
Cross-Functional Flowchart - to draw cross functional process maps is
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responsible for that process. To create it use the best flowchart maker
of ConceptDraw PRO.
Data Flow Diagram

Data flow diagram (DFD) is the part of the SSADM method

(Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology), intended for
analysis and information systems projection. Data flow diagrams are
intended for graphical representation of data flows in the information
system and for analysis of data processing during the structural
projection. Data flow diagram often used in connection with human
process and can be displayed as workflow diagram. The critical
Process Flow Diagram is another flowchart technique for designing
data flow in connection with organizational processes. The critical
Process flow diagram may use different range of symbols than a
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Subject 59. NGL Recovery

Natural gas is containing hydrocarbons from C1 to let’s say C12+ and the main reason for NGL
recovery is to meet Sales Gas specification or high economic value of C2+: as feed for Fuels (LPG –
C3/C4 fraction), as raw material for Steam Cracker (C2-C5) and C5+ to be used in refinery. It is well
known the fact that C2 is increasing HHV of gas & it is very attractive feed for Petrochemical sector,
but in the same time due to – 88°C boiling point it is very energy consuming process.
The main NGL recovery process from history point of view are:

- ’60 Oil Absorbtion & Cryogenic Processses

- ’70 introducing of Turbo Expander

- ’80 Refrigerated Lean Oil.

To proper select the recovery technology it is important to consider gas composition (lean or rich),
sales gas specifications/NGL market availability plant capacity, pipeline pressure, local special
requirements & ambient T.

- LTS (J-T separation): recommended for high pressure of natural gas, it’s a simple process, very easy
to be operated, suitable for dew point control, but is highly dependent of feed gas pressure due to
high pressure drop requirements & is not possible to condense just heavier components without
condensing some lighter components, must fractionate condensed liquids by adding reboiler heat to
revaporize lighter components & power needed depends on the process design

- Mechanical Refrigeration: very simple and flexible process, applicable for feed pressure between
20-30 barg, offers deep NGL reocvery but with higher CAPEX & OPEX, the addition of expander
greatly improved recovery, isentropic expansion versus isenthalpic, cooled gas more, the power
removed from expanded stream is use to compress residue gas stream and lower column pressure
possible with same recompressor

- Turbo Expander proces: very high NGL recovery but the gas feed pressure shall be higher than 30
barg, suitable specially for lean feed gas, but if it is combined with mechanical refrigeration is
suitable for rich gases, cryogenic operating temperature & some energy is recover in turbo
expander.

Players:

- ISS uses expander to reach cold T with 3 pressure levels & side heater, liquids feed heater, reboiler,
achieve 80% C2 & 90% C3 recovery, higher power consumption & low CO2 freezing tolerance

GSP by Ortloff simple, flexible process, single column, work in recovery or rejection, NGL recovery up
to 94-95%, provide a reflux stream using a portion of expander separator vapor, subcooled,
condense & feed to top, power 10% less than ISS, high CO2 tolerance than ISS

Ortloff SCORE high propane recovery 98% with high propane rejection (<1% in NGL), could be
designed to also operate as a GSP plant for an ethane recovery mode <83%. If we compare SCORE
with GSP, then 10% less residue power requirement at full ethane rejection.

More info about RSV, RSVE, OHC, SRC, SRP, IPSI in:

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Subject 58. Upstream, Midstream, Downstream Process
simulation and Design
Divided Wall Column, the concept is not new, in fact was mentioned in ‘40 by Wright and the
technology /principle it is very well explain in literature. The DWC technology is versatile and there
are not 2 applications which are exactly the same. DWCs have been implemented in a variety of
applications, such as gas plants, naphtha splitters & reformate splitters, benzene-toluene
fractionation, isomerization unit...

In the following section please find quick guidelines to evaluate if DWC shall be a good option:

Operating pressure should be more or less the same or close

The volatility of 3 components shall assure that the split of them to be at least as difficult

One component should be in excess & the others in approximative equal quantities

If ID of 2 fractionators are equal or slightly lower than ID of DWC, then DWC it is a good fit

If tangent to tangent of DWC is 5-15% lower & ID is higher than 2 fractionators, then DWC is
optimum solution

Compare reboiler & condenser duty of DWC with 2 column system: if the difference shall be around
20-25%, then use DWC

The DWC number of equipment is lower which minimize CAPEX & OPEX.

A drawback of the DWC is the wall itself, due to mechanical design particularities like heat stress on
shell, welds strength, the wall leakages from one side to another & most important the heat transfer
through wall. The last one could create issues for some applications and the temperature profile
along the wall should be examined during design phase to identify significant differences and to
apply mitigation measures.

If you need step by step DWC simulation procedure & optimization technique using any available
flowsheet simulator, please see:

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Subject 56. Emergency depressurization during pool fire. Depressurization under fire conditions is a
known subject, each design Company having their own procedures, some conservative, others less
conservative and on top of this are API/ISO/otherStd. Recommendations. But, what if the designer
need to provide answers at the following questions:

- The metal wall of equipment will collapse before PRV pop-up?

- How many minutes the wall expose to fire would keep the mechanical integrity?

- If the wall thickness shall be increase after how many minutes the wall will be damage?

Considering the above the fire depressurization becomes interesting! To highlight the main technical
issues of the subject, a real example is the best way: the equipment is full of gas (without liquid who
can take some heat from fire by latent heat of vaporization) with operating temperature of 100F
(38C) and operating pressure 882 psig (60 barg) is expose to fire – see below figure: the red straight
line is the CS tensile strength in psig, the green curve represents the tensile stress of vessel during
emergency depressurization and the magenta curve is the metal wall temperature during
depressurization. As results from the figure, at approximatively 8.5 minute, the tensile stress of wall
achieves the collapse value meaning that the vessel wall will not resist at applied temperature and
pressure stress. What are the possible mitigation measures:

- faster depressurization

- increase the thickness of equipment wall to extend the life under fire exposure

- upgrade the MOC of equipment

- provide special fire isolation as per API

- a mix of above measures

- increase equipment elevation to be out of fire case.

I kindly recommend that All the possible mittigation measures to be discussed and agreed with
Client before implementation and to be presented considering also the economical aspect besides
technical/safety.

If it’s necessary to refine the calculation here you can find info about pool & jet fire coefficients to be
set in simulation, flame temperature & emissivities, API methods for latent heat, detailed step by
step depressurization procedure and much more:

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Subject 57. Saturated Gas Plant

Main goal is to recover the LPG, to provide the stabilization & splitting of naphtha from crude unit.
Also it is foreseen H2S removal by Amine Treatment of the Sour Fuel Gas & LPG to be routed to the
refinery fuel gas. The amine solution used is MDEA. Since sour LPG is not de-ethanized, a deC2
column was implemented to produce LPG as per specification-see below BFD. I kindly desire to
touch the LPG LL extractor because the other separation processes are more common:

1. Amine losses: are due to physical solubility and/or mechanical entrainment. For unsaturated
system the amine viscosity shall be kept near 3 cP, but for saturated system (our case), the viscosity
could be increase above. Also if downstream extractor there is an coalescing system then the
strenght of MDEA could be kept at 45-50wt% without increasing losses. Another knob to minimize
solvent losses is to increase the disengagemet of 2 phases time to min 5 minutes, changing the
interface level in extractor. Keep the proper liquid velocities in the extractor to min hydrocarbon
carryover (LPG superficial velocity minor than 22 m/h, solvent max 6 m/h & no lower than 2.5 m/h-
random packing extractors).

Another important issue is to look at solvent losses considering generic MDEA vs formulated MDEA,
because if some formulated MDEA is used then regardless presence of downstream coalescer the
strenght of solvent could be kept at 50wt% keeping the losses acceptable.

2. COS removal: also here is important to split discussion generic MDEA vs formulted MDEA: it is well
known that generic MDEA haven’t afinity for COS but instead if some formulated MDEA is present
then COS could be removed up to 80-85%.

3. LPG extractor amine change: if you want to change the amine type to generic or formulated
MDEA please consider the implication on OVERALL amine system - all the absorbers & regenerators
present in your facility and ask for an overall technical & economical assestment keeping the desired
specifications of products.
Remember that the max wt% of MEA/DEA is coming from corrosion concerns, but for MDEA the
viscosity is the main factor (higher viscosity affect the mass transfer / absorbtion).

The molar reflux ratio MEA 2.4-2.55; DEA 1.9-2.1; MDEA 1.9-2.1 and max reboiler T: MEA/MDEA
132C / DEA 127C, but the most important parameter when the subject is reboiler design, is to
control heat flux in reboiler which should NOT be higher than 32500 kcal/hr-m2 and not focus on
temperature - why? because heat flux spikes could affect the solvent! Anyway I kindly recommend
to stay in T max limits in an absence of proper analysis program regarding quality of amine solution
(chromatography analysis to reveal thermal decomposition products).

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Subject 55. Sulfur Recovery Unit

Without SRU no one can work! Considering the H2S concentration in the feed, the SRU type shall be:

- Higher than 50%: straight through

- 35-50%: straight through but with air preheat system

- 20-35%: Split flow with feed and/or air preheat or co-firing

- Lower than 20%: Direct Catalytic oxidation process.

The combustion temperature shall be 1350°C – 1400°C in order to distroy NH3 and to avoid salt
deposit, the residence time greater than 1 (one) second and with two zone thermal reactor. The
optimum air control is mandatory to be kept due to higher impact on sulfur recovery- see below
table.

To increase sulfur conversion set 1st converter temperature at 315°C for COS / CS2 hydrolysis, keep
dew point margin at outlet of converters 10-25°C and minimize final condenser temperature 130-
135°C by a low low pressure steam condenser.

Hydrogenation reactor: Due to the exothermic hydrogenation reaction, the gas temperature
increases over the reactor approximately with 35°C. The reactor inlet temperature should be held
reasonably steady to provide stable conditions in the Hydrogenation Reactor, typically ±5°C. The
normal SRU tail gas stoichiometry is 4 to 1, H2S to SO2. To avoid excessive outlet temperatures
higher than 343°C, the inlet gas may be controlled at a somewhat lower temperature to compensate
for more SO2 and/or S in the SRU tail gas feed during upsets. However, excessively low
Hydrogenation Reactor inlet temperatures will result in poor conversion and high sulfur emissions at
the Incinerator. As just stated, for a given Hydrogenation Reactor inlet temperature, the outlet
temperature will increase with increasing SO2/S content of the SRU tail gas. This temperature
increase shall be monitored both at the outlet and by thermocouples installed within the catalyst
bed at 30%, 60%, and 90% bed depth. The H2 analyzer at the Quench Column overhead shall be
used to maintain a 2.5-3.5% excess of H2.
Sulfur recovery efficiency considering different configuratios:

- 2 stages: 95 - 96%

- 3 stages: 96 - 97%

- Cold bed absorption: 99%

- Superclaus process: 99.5%

- Tail Gas Treating: 99.5 - 99.9%.

Sulfur Recovery Unit capacity could be increase using the oxygen enrichment, keeping the same
pressure balance by replacing some of the necessary combustion air with oxygen:

- Low level enrichment: up to 28 vol% oxygen and blend oxygen into air feed

- Medium level enrichment: 28 to 35 vol% oxygen and burner shall be designed for oxygen feed

- High level enrichment: 35 to 65 vol% oxygen BUT we pass to licensed processes.

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Subject 54. HIPS/HIPPS:

Widely accepted as an alternative to traditional mechanical relief device as per API521 to reduce
flare load & to provide overpressure protection when it is not practical to increase design pressure
from economical reasons-must be designed to achieve SIL-3 of availability. Below please find 2
examples: one from Upstream & one from Downstream-which allow to have the big picture of HIPS
applicability:

1. Overpressure protection of top side HP separator. To protect for overpressure the designer has
the next options:

- Design HP vessel for max possible pressure

- Design protection system with a 1st barrier to isolate the source & 2nd barrier to relieve pressure,
through a PRV

- Implement HIPPS.

The 1st option is not CAPEX wise considering very high upstream pressure of 400 barg & for the 2nd
option the PRV need to be size for depacking case-huge relief & flare stack structure beyond
acceptable limits. The answer is HIPS, but what cases to be considered for safe design/dynamic
simulation? I recommend as a minimum:

A) 1 flowline depacking by reopen relevant riser choke valve, from max riser top shut-in p & HP sep
blocked outlet

B) depacking of several / all flowlines by reopen relevant risers choke valves from the normal settle
out p of risers, considering the HP sep blocked outlet

C) misrouting dead oil from the service manifold to the HP Sep during preservation operation

D) failure open subsea valves during dead oil preservation of riser, after its shutdown

E) blocked outlet of the HP Separator.

An important aspect to look, is lower T of metal due JT effect, when the well is started-up after shut-
in (during shut-in gas&liquid are trapped in flowline, arrive at sea T & segregates). The trapped fluid
will feed production system through choke valve, meaning that rigorous analysis shall be done to
establish the start-up parameters.

2. Benzene/toluene separation: toluene tower reflux failure-per conventional method the relief flow
rate is huge which increase CAPEX of flare system (toluene column has a fired heater as reboiler).
For dynamic simulation the followings shall be considered:

- Feed to Toluene Column from the bottom of Benzene Column continues at the normal operating
flow rate

- Toluene Column Reflux Pumps stops due to its motor trip

- Reflux to Toluene Column & the overhead product from Toluene Reflux Drum stop

- Toluene Column Bottom pumps are continue to operate normally

- HIPS on overhead line of toluene column which for high high pressure shall cut the fuel gas to
reboiler.

An important aspect if the type of fired heater refractory, because even if the fuel gas/oil is cut,
always shall remain some residual heat which will continue to heat the system. Depends by the type
of refractory, run sensitivity cases considering between 40-65% residual heat. To refine calculation
see:

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brief write-up with equations for calculating sonic velocity at choked flow conditions for
compressible fluids. A choked flow situation for an orifice or a De Laval Nozzle occurs when the
mass flow will not increase irrespective of the change (decrease) in the downstream pressure of the
orifice or De Laval nozzle. In mathematical terms choked flow is defined as follows:

(P2/P1)critical ≤ (2 / (k +1))^(k / (k-1))

where:

(P2/P1)critical = critical pressure ratio

P1 = upstream pressure

P2 = downstream pressure

k = Cp / Cv for the gas at upstream conditions

The maximum theoretical possible velocity is thus the sonic velocity in the throat or divergent
section of the orifice or nozzle also defined as Mach 1.

In most real life chemical process industry applications the velocity through orifices and nozzles
maybe close to sonic velocity (sub-sonic) but not sonic.

Sonic velocity is strongly dependent on the composition (molecular weight) and temperature of the
gas and since for a given gas the composition is fixed, it becomes strongly dependent on the gas
temperature.

Refer the attachment for sonic speed and maximum flow through a De Laval nozzle.