Cpde 5

Chemical Process Design and
Economics (CPDE)
6th Semester,
B.Sc. Chemical Engineering
Delivered by:
Dr Usman Ali
Department of Chemical Engineering

University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore
Heuristics for Process Synthesis
• When used properly, heuristics permit the
rapid creation of a promising base-case
flowsheet(s)—one that can be refined and
optimized through careful material and energy
balance analysis, equipment sizing, and cost
estimation using process simulators.
• When using heuristics, process simulators are
often used for supporting calculations (e.g., to
estimate physical properties)
Heuristics
❑1-Select raw materials and chemical reactions
to avoid or reduce the handling and storage of
hazardous and toxic chemicals.
❑2-Use an excess of one chemical reactant in a
reaction to consume completely a valuable,
toxic or hazardous chemical reactant. (see
MSDS for chemical hazards)
Heuristics
❑3-For pure products, eliminate inert species
before reaction when separations are easy
and when the catalyst is adversely affected by
the inert, but not when a large exothermic
heat of reaction must be removed.
Reactor Heat Balance

Q - Ws - FAoΣθiCp_i(T-To) – FAoX [ΔHºR(TR) + ΔCp(T-TR)=0
T=(X [- ΔHºR(TR)+ ΔCpTR] + ΣθiCp_iTo)/(ΣθiCp_i + X ΔCp)

Heuristic
• 4- Introduce purge streams to provide exists
for impurities when the impurities are in trace
quantities or difficult to separate. Light
species leave via vapor purge and heavier
species leave via liquid purge streams.
Heuristic
• 5- Do not purge species that are valuable or
toxic or hazardous even in small
concentrations. Add separators to capture
valuable species. Add reactors to eliminate
toxic or hazardous species.
Heuristic
• 6- Byproducts that are produced in reversible
reactions, in small quantities, are usually not
recovered in separators or purged. Instead
they are recycled to extinction
A+B→C
A  →D
Heuristic
• 7-For competing reactions, both in series and
parallel adjust T and P and catalyst to obtain
high yields of the desired products. Check
that there are no kinetic limits to this
assumption.
Heuristic
• 8-For reversible reactions, consider
conducting them in a separation device
capable of removing the products driving the
reaction to more products. This gives a very
different distribution of products.
Reactive Distillation
Reactor with selective membrane wall
Separation Heuristics
• 9- Separate liquid mixtures with distillation,
stripping, enhanced distillation, LL extraction,
crystallization and/or adsorption.
• 10-Condense vapor mixtures then separate via
Heuristic 9
• 11-Separate vapor mixtures using partial
condensation, cryo D, absorption, adsorption,
membrane sep. and/or desublimation.
• 12-20 Separations involving particles Heuristics
Reaction Heat Heuristics
• 21-High exothermic heat of reaction: Consider using
excess reactant, an inert diluents or cold shots.
Consider them early on in the design
• 22-Lower exothermic heat of reaction: Use heat
exchanger on/in reactor. Or use intercoolers
between adiabatic reaction stages.
• 23-High endothermic heat of reaction: Consider use
of excess reactant, inert diluents or hot shots.
Consider them early on in the design.
• 24-Lower endothermic heat of reaction: Use heat
exchanger on/in reactor. Or use interheaters
between adiabatic reaction stages.
Six possibilities of heat exchange
✓ Heat exchange between two process fluids using a doublepipe, shell-and-
tube, or compact heat exchanger.
✓ Heat exchange between a process fluid and a utility, such as cooling water
or steam, using a double-pipe, shell-and-tube, air-cooled, or compact heat
exchanger.
✓ High-temperature heating of a process fluid using heat from the products
of combustion in a furnace (also called a fired heater).
✓ Heat exchange within a reactor or separator, rather than in an external
heat-exchange device such as a shell-and-tube
✓ heat exchanger or furnace.
✓ Direct heat exchange by mixing the two streams that are exchanging heat.
✓ Heat exchange involving solid particles.
Heat Exchanger Heuristics
• 25-Use shell and tube HX in counter current for process streams. For T>750F use
furnace.
• 26-Near optimal approach ΔT’s
– Below ambient 10F
– Ambient to 300F 20F
– Higher Temps 50F
– 250 to 350 for furnace
• 27-CW temperature range used is 90 to 120 F
• 28-Boiling a liquid use 45 F approach ΔT
• 29-30 Other Heuristics
• 31- ΔP in HX
– 1.5 psi for boiling or condensation
– 3 psi for gas
– 5 psi for low viscosity liquid
– 7-9 psi for high viscosity liquid
– 20 psi for process fluid in furnace
• 32-33 Other Heuristics
Pressure Operation Heuristics
• 40-42- pressure decrease
• 43-pump a liquid rather than compress a gas,
unless refrigeration is needed.
• 44- Air leak rate into vacuum
• 45-47 Vacuum pumps
Solid Particle Processing Heuristics
• 48-53 Covering
– Conveying
• Pneumatic
• Conveyor belt
– Reaction
– Separations
• Cyclone
• Crystallization
• Agglomeration
– Heat transfer
Considerations that apply to the entire flowsheet
❑To increase second-law efficiency and reduce

energy consumption, avoid, if possible, the
mixing of streams of different temperatures,
pressures, or compositions.
❑For a new process, determine how it differs
from a similar conventional process and
pinpoint the advantages and disadvantages of
the new process, making changes where is
advantages are uncovered.
❑For a new process, determine the maximum
production rate and yield, and look for
opportunities to increase the production rate
and yield. Then, calculate theoretical
efficiencies by applying lost-work analysis.
Look for ways to increase the efficiency.
❑Carefully examine the process flowsheet,
looking for ways to eliminate equipment by
combining, rearranging, or replacing process
steps.
❑Perform preliminary economic evaluations at
different production rates and corresponding
plant sizes using simple scaling methods,
noting that what is not economical at a small
size may be economical at a large size and vice
versa.
References
➢ Seider, W. D.; Seader, J. D.; Lewin, D. R.;
Widagdo, S., Product and Process Design
Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation.
4th Edition; John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
✓ Chapter 6

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Chemical Process Design and

Department of Chemical Engineering

Reactor Heat Balance

T=(X [- ΔHºR(TR)+ ΔCpTR] + ΣθiCp_iTo)/(ΣθiCp_i + X ΔCp)

❑To increase second-law efficiency and reduce

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