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INTRODUCTION TO PROCESS AND PLANT

DESIGN

(WEEK 1)

1
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Contact Hours

Total Student
Lecture Tutorial Self – Study Library Search Assignment Exam Learning Time
(hours)

2 2 4 4 2 NIL 14

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Learning Outcomes

• Able to describe on the steps involved in plant

design
• Understand different stages of plant design project

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wHAT IS PROCESS PLANT ?

• Process plants or chemical plants carry out physio-
economic transformation of lower value raw material
into higher value products.

Capital
Raw materials Products
Utility Process Plant By-Products
Technology Effluents (Waste)

• Example: Petrochemical, refinery, fertilizer, food,

pharmaceutical, fine chemicals, oil and gas, FLNG, FPSO

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Engineering and Economics

• Engineering  application of scientific knowledge

in an effective manner
• Measurement of effectiveness  profit or money
generated by activities that are ethically acceptable
• Economics  perfect blend of art and science of
production and distribution of wealth
• Engineering and Economics are not separable –
two sides of a coin.

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Design Project Engineering

•Successful implementation of an idea into reality

•Success is measured as :

- profits or money generated

- non monetary returns (reputation)
- social gains before and after project implementation
(create job opportunities, improve agriculture yield,
improve life quality)
- Health, safety and environment aspects are protected

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Role of chemical engineer

• Knowledge and full understanding of the fundamental science and
related engineering concepts of material and energy balance,
thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, heat transfer, mass transfer and
computer technology.
• Able to use a blend of hand calculations, spreadsheets, computer
software and process simulators for process and plant design.
• Have the ability to apply this knowledge to practical situations to
initiate and develop new or improved processes and products that will
be beneficial to society.
• Recognize the economic, environmental and ethical
implications involved in the developments and proceed
accordingly.

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Chemical ENGINEER AND PLANT DESIGN

• Plant Design includes all engineering aspects involved in the
development of new, modified, or expanded commercial
processes in a chemical or biochemical plant.

• Chemical Engineer will make economic evaluation of new

processes, design individual equipment for the new venture
or develop plant layout for coordination of the overall
operation.

• Chemical Engineer is also referred to as Design Engineer and

if he specializes in the economic aspects of the design he is
also referred to as a Cost Engineer. In the Oil & Gas Industry,
the Chemical Engineer is referred to as a Process Engineer.
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• The term process engineering is used in connection with economic

evaluation and general economic analysis of commercial
processes while process design refers to the actual design of
equipment and facilities necessary for providing the desired
products and services.

• One individual cannot be an expert in all the phases involved in

plant design.

• Other disciplines like

- mechanical for equipment specifications,
- piping for pipe sizes, electrical for electrical equipment,
- instruments for sizing the instruments,
- safety engineers to study the safety aspects and
- project manager to oversee the different disciplines
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Overview of Process and Plant Design

Design project broadly classified as
- Grassroot project (green field)
Chemical plant constructed from scratch or barren land
- Add-on project (brown field)
Built at exisitng facility or complex
eg: - expansion to increase capacity of existing plant
- debottlenecking  replacement of equipment or
systems to increase production capacity using same raw
materials and producing same products.
- diversification  expansion of existing plant for
completely new products (petrochemical plant
using waste heat for power generation)

http://www.chemicalprocessing.com/articles/2013/generate-power-using-waste-heat/
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• Process design starts at Conceptual level and finally ends in

the form of fabrication and construction plans.
• Processes includes many unit operations such as reactions,
separation, dehydration,, compression, metering, produced
water, closed drains, open drains, flares etc.
• Process design is carried out on offshore platforms, onshore
facilities like refineries, gas processing facilities,
petrochemical plants, food industries, mining etc

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Design Project Procedure

•Design

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•Design

•Construction

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•Design

•Construction

•Operation

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•Preliminary •Detailed
•Detailed Design
•Design • (quick estimate) •Estimate

•Feasibility survey
•-raw material -facility and equipment

•-material of construction (MOC)

•-safety consideration

•-market -competition

•-estimation of production cost and total investment

•-profits

•-properties of products (stability, impurities)

•-sales service

•-shipping restrictions

•-plant locations

•-patent situation and legal limitation

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•Preliminary •Detailed
•Design •Detailed Design
• (quick estimate) •Estimate

Conceptual Study
•- consider alternatives

•- determine basis of design

•- identify available utilities

•- develop mass and energy balance

-- identify unit operations required (reactors, heaters,

• separators, pumps, columns, etc)

-- design using computer aided software (HYSYS,

• ProMax, Aspen Plus, etc)

-- firm up equipment need to determine utility and labor

• requirement
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•Preliminary •Detailed
•Design •Detailed Design
• (quick estimate) •Estimate/ FEED

•Required information
-Manufacturing process

-Material and energy balances

•Accurate estimation of
-Temperature and pressure ranges
-Capital investment
-Raw material and product specifications
-Manufacturing costs
-Yield, reaction rates and time cycles
-Potential profits
-Material of construction

-Utilities requirement

-Plant site

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•Preliminary •Detailed
•Design •Detailed Design
• (quick estimate) •Estimate

•Finalfirm plant design must be developed with

•assistance from other engineering discipline

•Required documents for equipment purchasing

• and instruction for construction

-Detailed calculation

-Detailed drawings (PFD, P&ID, Piping layout)

-Data sheet and specifications

•Safety condition and environment impact factors

•taken into consideration
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•Preliminary •Detailed
•Design •Detailed Design
• (quick estimate) •Estimate

• Usually started before completion of detailed design

• Time management & proper planning
•Construction • Proper design sequence
• Prevent delay of fabrication of long lead item
• More challenging in brown field project, need to
• meet the shutdown window period

•Commissioning
•Operation •Plantstartup
•Transition and hand over to operation

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Typical documents

• Process Flow Diagram

• P&ID
• Line List
• Cause and Effect Matrix

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