Lecture two

PROCESS DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

 Process/Plant Design
 Process/Plant Design is a job of making
decisions.
Where the data at hand are integrated with
basic sciences, mathematics and engineering
knowledge in the most suitable manner so
that the market need is economically
achieved.
• Development of a new plant or process from concept evaluation
to profitable reality is often an enormously complex problem.

• A plant-design project moves to completion through a series of

stages such as is shown in the following:
 Inception
 Preliminary evaluation of economics and market
 Development of data necessary for final design
 Final economic evaluation
 Detailed engineering design
 Procurement
 Erection
 Startup and trial runs (commissioning)
 Production
 Sequence of plant design project steps

Time sequence
Process identification
Laboratory scale process research
Bench scale investigations
Preliminary economic evaluation
Process development
Mass and energy balance
Detailed process design

Project Steps Site selection

Refined economic evaluation
Engineering Design Fixed and approved
Detailed economic evaluation
Plant design project budget approved for implementation
Detailed construction plan
Detail design
Procurement
Construction
Startup
 Stages of Process /Plant Design
1. Determination of aim(s) and needs
2. Collection of data and bring up them together
(synthesis)
3. Detailed investigation of the data and the subject matter
(analysis)
4. Regulation and application of the analyzed data for the
Design of the Process /Plant (Execution)
5. Examination of the Design (evaluation)
• This brief outline suggests that the plant-design
project involves a wide variety of skills.
• Among these are
Research

market analysis

 design of individual pieces of equipment

 cost estimation

computer programming, and

 plant-location surveys.
• In fact, the services of a chemical engineer are needed in each step
of the outline, either in a central creative role, or as a key advisor.

• Inception of the basic idea

 The development of a design project always starts with an
initial idea or plan.
This initial idea must be stated as clearly and concisely as
possible in order to define the scope of the project.
This idea may originate in the sales department, as a result of a
customer request, or to meet a competing product.

• Plant design includes all engineering aspects involved in the

development of either a new, modified, or expanded industrial
plant.
• In this development, the chemical engineer will
be
making economic evaluations of new processes
designing individual pieces of equipment for the proposed
new venture or
 developing a plant layout for coordination of the overall
operation.
• Because of these many design duties, the
chemical engineer is many times referred to here
as a design engineer.
• On the other hand, a chemical engineer
specializing in the economic aspects of the design
is often referred to as a cost engineer.
•
 COST ESTIMATION
• As soon as the final process-design stage is
completed, it becomes possible to make accurate cost
estimations because detailed equipment
specifications and definite plant-facility information
are available.
• Direct price quotations based- on detailed
specifications can then be obtained from various
manufacturers.
• However, as mentioned earlier, no design project
should proceed to the final stages before costs are
considered, and cost estimates should be made
throughout all the early stages of the design when
complete specifications are not available.
• The chemical engineer (or cost engineer) must be
certain to consider all possible factors when making
a cost analysis. Such as
Fixed costs
 direct production costs for raw materials
 labor
Maintenance
 power, and utilities must
costs for plant and administrative overhead
distribution of the final products and other
miscellaneous items.
• Evaluation of costs in the preliminary design
phases is sometimes called “guesstimation” but
the appropriate designation is pre - design cost
estimation.

• Such estimates should be capable of providing a

basis for company management to decide if
further capital should be invested in the project.
 Optimum Economic Design
• If there are two or more methods for obtaining exactly equivalent
final results, the preferred method would be the one involving the
least total cost.
• This is the basis of an optimum economic design.
• One typical example of an optimum economic design is
determining the pipe diameter to use when pumping a given
amount of fluid from one point to another.

• Here the same final result (i.e., a set amount of fluid pumped
between two given points) can be accomplished by using an
infinite number of different pipe diameters.
• .
• The pumping cost increases with decreased
size of pipe diameter because of frictional
effects, while the fixed charges for the pipeline
become lower when smaller pipe diameters are
used because of the reduced capital
investment.
• The optimum economic diameter is located
where the sum of the pumping costs and fixed
costs for the pipeline becomes a minimum,
since this represents the point of least total
cost.
• On figure below, this point is represented by E
• The chemical engineer often selects a final design
on the basis of conditions giving the least total
cost.
• In many cases, however, alternative designs do
not give final products or results that are exactly
equivalent.
• It then becomes necessary to consider the quality
of the product or the operation as well as the total
cost.
• When the engineer speaks of an optimum
economic design, it ordinarily means the cheapest
one selected from a number of equivalent designs.