Lecture 3

Lecture-3
Process Design & Development
Dr. Mahendra Chinthala

Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
NIT Rourkela
Content of the course
 Introduction
Origin of chemical project, Need for design and development of the design
project
 Process Design & Development
Selection of process, chemical process considerations, process development,
Feasibility studies, Process flow diagram, Material and energy balance, scale-
up, Techno-economic report, plant layout and location, methods of layout
planning
 Cost Estimation Project cost estimation, Cost indexes, Net earning,
Interest, Depreciation
 Economic Analysis
Profitability analysis, sensitivity analysis, cost benefit analysis
 Optimization
Optimum design conditions, Break-even chart, Optimum production for cyclic,
batch and semi-continuous cyclic operations
Where is Design used in Industry?
Plant Improvement
Increase Plant Capacity
Increase Plant Efficiency
Debottlenecking Plant
Decrease Costs
Pollution Minimization
General Design considerations
 The development of a complete plant design involves
consideration of many different topics.
 The role of costs and profits is very important.
 The application of engineering principles in the design
of individual pieces of equipment is equally
important.
 However, before proceeding with the development of
a process design and its associated economics, it is
useful to provide an overall view of other key aspects
that are involved in a complete process or plant
design.
.
General Design considerations
Emphasis will be on
Health and safety Hazards
Loss prevention
Environmental Protection
Plant location
Plant layout
Plant operation and control
Utility use
Structural design
Materials handling
Storage, and
Patent considerations
Health and safety Hazards
 Inherent toxicity of a material and the frequency and duration of
exposure decides the health hazards
 Short-term and long-term effects of a material need to be
identified.
 Safety hazard: A highly toxic material that causes immediate
injury is classified as Safety hazard
 Health & Hygiene hazard: A material whose effect is apparent
only after long exposure at low.
 Both the permissible limits and the precautions are quite different
for these two classes of toxic materials.
 Information on the effects of many chemicals and physical agents
is accessible through a number of computer databases, such as
TOXLINE and TOXNET.
 Lethal dose (LD50), the estimated dose at which 50 percent of

the test animals do not survive.
 Threshold limit value (TLV): is defined as the upper

permissible concentration limit of the material believed to be
safe for humans even with an exposure of 8 h/day, 5 days/week
over a period of many years.
 Permissible exposure limits (PEL): The permissible exposure

limit (PEL or OSHA PEL) is a legal limit for exposure of an
employee to a chemical substance.
 PEL is usually given as a time-weighted average (TWA)

 Sources of Exposure
 Mechanical abrasions of solid materials by cutting, grinding, or drilling can

produce small particles that can form an airborne dust cloud or solid aerosol.
 Liquid aerosols may be produced by any process that supplies sufficient

energy to overcome the surface tension of the liquid.
 Contaminant vapors are normally formed by allowing the liquid to evaporate

into the air.
 Fugitive emissions or Gas leakage from closed systems rom (leaks).
Air contamination that may exist in a typical chemical process plant can be
minimized to acceptable contamination levels by the use of appropriate design
measures.
Exposure Evaluation
If health hazards are to be controlled, they must be recognized and
evaluated.
Total inventory of all materials present in the various stages of the
process are to be evaluated.
Even trace amounts produce a potentially hazardous situation
above its acceptable concentration in a localized work area.
Intermediates, by-products, and waste materials may be less
conspicuous and may not even have been identified.
Other materials such as catalysts, additives, cleaning agents, and
maintenance materials need to be identified to complete the
inventory.
Exposure Evaluation
An estimate of the toxicity or intrinsic hazard is required by the
OSHA Hazard Communication Standard in the form of a Material
Supply Data Sheet (MSDS)
Exposure Evaluation
 While evaluating the exposure affects, the average

exposure time should be no longer than the biological
half-life of a substance acting in the body.
 Only a few discrete averaging times are commonly
used.
 For fast-acting substances 15 and 30 min are used
 For high half life substances, 8 h is most often used
Control of Exposure Hazards
When it is concluded that an exposure problem exists, hazard
control measures need to be implemented for the purpose of reducing
exposure and correspondingly reducing the risks.
The three general control principles utilized in reducing the

exposure of workers to occupational health hazards are
 Source controls,
 Transmission barriers, and
 Personal protection.
Fire and explosion Hazards
 For a fire to occur, there must be
 a fuel,
 an oxidizer, and
 an ignition source
 Flammability Limits: The minimum concentration of fuel in
air required for ignition at ambient temperature is known as
the lower flammable limit (LFL)
 Conversely, the concentration above which ignition will not occur
is labeled the upper flammable limit (UFL)
 Minimum Oxygen concentration: Concentration of oxidizer
that must be present for ignition, called the limiting oxygen index
(LOI), with a meaning analogous to the LFL.
 Flammable liquids are more dangerous than flammable gas
Autoignition temperature (AIT): The temperature at which

ignition will occur without the presence of a spark or flame is
designated the autoignition temperature.
Flash point: The liquid temperature at which the concentration of

the fuel in the air becomes large enough to ignite is labeled as
the flash point.
Classification of fires
Fire protection systems can be divided into two large categories:

Passive fire protection systems
Active fire protection systems
Active fire protection systems include such agents as water

sprays, foam, and dry chemicals;
Action will be taken either by plant personnel as a response by an
automatic fire protection system.
Passive fire protection systems: do not require any action at the
time of the fire.
They are designed and installed at the time the plant is built and
remain passively in place until needed.
Passive fire protection system
Explosion Hazard
An explosion is a sudden and generally catastrophic release of energy, causing a

pressure wave.
 An explosion can occur without a fire, such as the failure through overpressure
of a steam boiler.
Detonation: the chemical reaction propagates at supersonic velocity, and the
principal heating mechanism is shock compression
Deflagration is the normal burning of a flammable mixture with the reaction
propagating at subsonic velocity and experiencing a slow pressure buildup.
The detonation or deflagration depends on the mixture concentration and the
source of ignition.
Unless confined or ignited by a high-intensity source, most materials will not
detonate.
Deflagration
Detonation
Explosion Hazard
 An explosion can result from a purely physical reaction, from a chemical
reaction, or from a nuclear reaction.
 A physical explosion is one in which a container fails, releasing its contents
to the surroundings.
 The damage to the surroundings from the sudden expansion of the confined
gas can be approximated by determining the maximum energy released from
an isentropic expansion of the gas and converting this energy quantity to a
TNT (Trinitrotoulene) equivalent. (The energy released by an explosion of
TNT is 4.52 MJ/kg.)
 A useful relation for this estimation is given by
where E is the maximum energy release, VG the volume of the gas in the
container, pb, the burst pressure of the container, pa the pressure of the
surrounding air, and k the ratio of the specific heats
Explosion Hazard
 The amount of energy that is released from a chemical
reaction involving a flmmable fuel and oxidizer can be
estimated from the heat of combustion of the fuel.
 There are two special kinds of explosions of particular
importance to the chemical industry, namely,
 Boiling-liquid expanding-vapor explosion (BLEVE)
 Unconfined vapor cloud explosion (UVCE).
 BLEVE: heat leakage into a container filled with a boiling
liquid results in an excessive vaporization accompanied by a
steady pressure buildup that ruptures the tank.
 UVCE: An unconfined vapor cloud explosion, on the other
hand, can result when a large cloud of gas or vapor forms
following release of a flammable material.
Personnel Safety
 Every attempt should be made to incorporate facilities for health

and safety protection of plant personnel in the original design.
 This is not limited to protected walkways, platforms, stairs, and
work areas.
 Physical hazards, if unavoidable, must be clearly defined.
 All machinery must be guarded with protective devices.

 In all cases, medical services and first aid must be readily
available for all workers.
Safety Regulations
 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) originally

enacted in 1970 is "to assure so far as possible every working
man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working
conditions and to preserve our human resources.
 The act presently affects approximately 6 million workplaces
and 70 million employees.
 Over 500 amendments to the act have been introduced since
the original legislation.
Thank
you

Lecture 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lecture 3

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lecture 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lecture-3

Process Design & Development

Dr. Mahendra Chinthala

 Lethal dose (LD50), the estimated dose at which 50 percent of

 Threshold limit value (TLV): is defined as the upper

 Permissible exposure limits (PEL): The permissible exposure

 PEL is usually given as a time-weighted average (TWA)

 Mechanical abrasions of solid materials by cutting, grinding, or drilling can

 Liquid aerosols may be produced by any process that supplies sufficient

 Contaminant vapors are normally formed by allowing the liquid to evaporate

 Fugitive emissions or Gas leakage from closed systems rom (leaks).

 While evaluating the exposure affects, the average

The three general control principles utilized in reducing the

Autoignition temperature (AIT): The temperature at which

Flash point: The liquid temperature at which the concentration of

Fire protection systems can be divided into two large categories:

Active fire protection systems include such agents as water

An explosion is a sudden and generally catastrophic release of energy, causing a

 A useful relation for this estimation is given by

 Every attempt should be made to incorporate facilities for health

 All machinery must be guarded with protective devices.

 Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) originally

You might also like