CHAPTER 5

TRACING CHEMICALS THROUGH THE PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM

In a continuous chemical process, there are reactants,
products & inerts.
These components enter, leave, are formed, or are consumed
in the process.
Each component can be followed through the process.

5.1 Guidelines & Tactics for Tracing Chemicals

Two important operations for tracing chemical pathways
in PFDs:

1. The Adiabatic Mixer: Two or more input streams are combined

to form a single stream. This single stream has a well-defined
composition, phase(s), pressure, and temperature.
2. The Adiabatic Splitter: A single input stream is split into two
or more output streams with the same composition, pressure,
and temperature as the input stream. All streams involved
differ only in flowrate.
They are tees in pipelines in the plant and involve little design &
not included in estimating the cost of a plant.
On PFDs they carry an m and s designation, respectively.

On PFDs they carry an m and s designation, respectively.

5.2 Tracing Primary Paths Taken by Chemicals in a Chemical Process

Chemical species associated with chemical reactions in

the overall block flow process diagram are termed
primary chemicals.
The paths followed by primary chemicals between the
reactor and the boundaries of the process are termed
primary flow paths .
Two general guidelines should be followed when tracing
these primary chemicals:
1. Reactants: Start with the Feed (left-hand side of the
PFD) and trace chemicals forward towards the reactor.
2. Products: Start with the product (right-hand side of
the PFD) and trace chemicals backward towards the

The following tactics for tracing chemicals apply to all

Unit Operations EXCEPT for chemical reactors:
1. Any Unit Operation, or group of Operations, that has a
single or multiple input streams and a single output
stream is traced in a forward direction. If chemical
A is present in any input stream, it must appear in the
single output stream.
2. Any Unit Operation, or group of operations, that has a
single input stream and a single or multiple output
streams is traced in a backward direction. If
chemical A is present in any output stream, it must
appear in the single input stream.
3. Systems such as distillation columns are composed of
multiple Unit Operations with a single input or output

Only in reactors are feed chemicals transformed into

product chemicals.
Sometimes both reactions and physical separations take
place in a single piece of equipment. In such a situation, it
will be necessary to divide the unit into two imaginary or
phantom units. The chemical reactions take place in one
phantom unit, and the separation takes place in the
second phantom unit.
These phantom units are never shown on the PFD, but
such units are useful when building a flowsheet for a
chemical process simulator.

Example 5.1: For the toluene hydrodealkylation process,

establish the primary flow pathway for:
a) Toluene between the Feed (stream 1) and the Reactor.
b) Benzene between the reactor and the product (stream 15).

a) Toluene Feed: Tactic 1 [Trace forward, single output (SO)] is

applied to each unit operation in succession.
i.

Toluene Feed Stream 1 mixes with

Stream 11 in V-101. A single
unidentified stream (SO) leaves tank V101 and goes to pump P-101. All the
toluene feed is in this stream.

ii. Stream 2 leaves pump P-101 (SO) and

goes to mixer m-102. All the feed
toluene is in this stream.
iii. A single unidentified stream (SO) leaves
mixer m-102 and goes to exchanger E101. All the feed toluene is in this
stream.
iv. Stream 4 (SO) leaves exchanger E-101
and goes to heater H-101. All the feed
toluene is in this stream.
v. Stream 6 (SO) leaves heater H-101 and
goes to reactor R-101. All the feed
toluene is in this stream.

b) Benzene Product: Tactic 2 [Trace backward, single input (SI)] is

applied to each unit operation in succession.
i.

Product Stream 15 leaves exchanger E-105

ii. Entering exchanger E-105 is an undesignated

stream (SI) from s-103 of the distillation system.
It contains all of the benzene product.
iii. Apply tactic 3 and treat the tower T-101, pump P102, exchangers E-104 and E-106, vessel V-104,
and splitter s-103 as ONE system.
iv. Entering this distillation unit system is stream 10
(SI) from exchanger E-103. It contains all the
benzene product.
v. Entering exchanger E-103 is stream 18 (SI) from
vessel V-103. It contains all the benzene product.
vi. Entering vessel V-103 is an undesignated stream
(SI) from vessel V-102. It contains all the benzene
product.
vii. Entering vessel V-102 is an undesignated stream
(SI) from exchanger E-102. It contains all the
benzene product.
viii. Entering exchanger E-102 is Stream 9 (SI) from
reactor R-101. It contains all the benzene
product.

The path of toluene was identified as an enhanced solid line in Figure E-5.1. For this
case, it was not necessary to apply any additional info about the unit operations to
establish this path. The two streams that joined the toluene path did not change the fact
that all the feed toluene remained as part of the stream. All the toluene fed to the process
in Stream 1 entered the reactor, and this path represents the primary path for toluene.

The path for benzene was identified as

an enhanced dotted line in Figure E5.1. The equipment that makes up the
distillation system was considered as an
operating system and treated as a single
unit operation. The fact that, within this
group of process units, some streams
were split with some of the flow
returning upstream did not change the
fact that the product benzene always
remained in the part of the stream that
continued to flow towards the product
discharge. All the benzene product
followed this path, and it represents the
primary path for the benzene.

To trace the path of benzene through the distillation column,

we draw an envelope around the group of equipment similar
to the case for carrying out material and energy balances.
The only info needed about unit
operations used in this analysis
was the identification of the
multiple units that made up the
distillation system.

Figure 5.2: Envelope around

Tower T-101 showing
Alternative Method for tracing
Benzene Stream

MORE ON THE ENVELOPE METHOD: Example 5.2: Establish the primary

flow pathway for
(i) Hydrogen between its introduction as a feed, and the reactor
(ii) Methane between its generation in reactor and discharge from the
process as a product
In order to determine the primary flow
paths, systems are developed (by drawing
envelopes around equipment) that
progressively include additional unit
operations:

(i) Hydrogen feed: Tactic 1 is applied to

each system in a forward progression. Each
system includes the Hydrogen feed Stream
3, and the next equipment to the right.
(a)System a-: This system illustrates the
first step in our analysis. The system
includes the first unit into which the
hydrogen feed stream flows. The
unidentified stream leaving mixer m-103
(SO) contains the feed hydrogen.

(Continued): Establish the primary flow pathway for

(i) Hydrogen between its introduction as a feed and the reactor
(a)(covered before)
(b)System b-: Includes mixers m-103
and m-102. The exit stream (SO) for
this system includes feed hydrogen.
(c) System c-: Includes mixers m-103,
m-102, and exchanger E-101. The
exit stream for this system, Stream
4 (SO), includes the feed hydrogen.
(d)System d-: Includes mixers m-103,
m-102, exchanger E-101, and
Heater H-101. The exit stream for
this system, Stream 6 (SO),
includes the feed hydrogen. Stream
6 goes to the reactor.

(Continued): Establish the primary flow pathway for

(ii) Methane between its generation in reactor and discharge from the process as a product

The methane produced in the process

leaves in the fuel gas, Stream 16. Tactic
2 is applied to each system containing the
fuel gas product, in backward progression.
(a)System m-: Consists of m-105, m-104,
E-105, T-101, V-104, P-102, s-103, E104, E-106, E-103, V-102, V-103, and
s-102. This is the smallest system that
can be found that contains the fuel gas
product stream and has a single input
(SI).
(b)System n-: Includes the system
identified above, plus exchanger E-102
and compressor C-101. The Inlet to E102 contains all the methane in the
fuel system. This is Stream 9 (SI),
which leaves the reactor.