Design Projects Information

The standard requires the supplier to have a process to deploy information gained from previous design projects, competitor analysis, or other sources as appropriate for current and future projects of a similar nature. 

As shown in Figure 1.5 and described in Section 1.4, the design and engineering of a chemical process requires the co-operation of many specialist groups. Effective cooperation depends on effective communications, and all design organisations have formal procedures for handling project information and documentation. The project documentation will include ... 

The chemical process industries are competitive, and the information that is published on commercial processes is restricted. The articles on particular processes published in the technical literature and in textbooks invariably give only a superficial account of the chemistry and unit operations used. They lack the detailed information needed on reaction kinetics, process conditions, equipment parameters, and physical properties needed for process design. The information that can be found in the general literature is, however, useful in the early stages of a project, when searching for possible process routes. It is often sufficient for a flow-sheet of the process to be drawn up and a rough estimate of the capital and production costs made. 

The database provides project profiles that include site background information (e.g., site type, climate, and precipitation), project information (e.g., purpose, scale, and status), cover information (e.g., design, vegetation, and installation), performance and cost information, points of contact, and references. Table 25.5 provides a summary of key information from the database for 34 recent projects with monolithic ET or capillary barrier ET covers.15... 

While many of these methods are still utilized in situations where project information is scarce, new tools for the analysis and design of compound sets have allowed... 

The design project is a great learning experience that should be taken by the students as the capstone to the course, where they can synthesize the information and analytical... 

The first step in a design project is to identify all the relevant information that is available. The second step is to identify the information required, decided after initial consideration of the problem. Two possibilities exist ... 

Some or all of this information may be expected to be obtained by the student as part of the design project. Industrial process designs are usually (although not always) clearly defined this is what we want, this is what we know, now decide how to achieve it (and make a profit). ... 

The tabular format for mass and energy balances should be familiar to students when they undertake a design project, otherwise refer to Himmelblau, 1982, p. 100 (reference at the end of this section) or Austin and Jeffreys, 1979 (see Appendix L here). The convention is to include information for streams entering the unit on the left side of the page, and... 

Following the detailed equipment design, a few amendments need to be made to the information presented in Part I of the Design Project Report (Case Study). The two main areas needing amendment are detailed as follows. 

The following list contains a summary of the design projects set by the I. Chem. E. since 1959, more details are included in the actual papers, e.g. process description, design data, references, etc. It should be possible to design these plants using information that is freely available in the technical literature. 

Information, assistance and advice should be provided by the project supervisor. Do not stand in awe of this person, ask what you wanl/need to know, ask for guidance, and persist until you know what is expected. However, understand that a supervisor only provides guidance, and will not (and should not) perform major parts of the design project for you. This is the time for you to show initiative, and to impress the lecturers with your knowledge of chemical engineering and your own ability to solve problems. 

My main advice to the student undertaking a chemical engineering design project is don t work in a vacuum . By this I mean obtain information and help from as many sources as you can find. Do not assume that you alone can, or should, complete this project unaided. Talk to the project supervisor, other lecturers in your department, lecturers in other departments and at other universities and colleges, other students, technicians, librarians, professional engineers, research students, officers of the professional institutions, etc. Some of these people may not be able to help, or may not want to however, it is usually possible to find some helpful and sympathetic persons who can offer... 

The case study included is just one particular example of the way in which the project can be performed and presented. Each department (and supervisor) will define their own requirements, but our approach and presentation should not be too different. The emphasis in our course at Curtin University is for effective communications. In the design project report this means presenting only essential information for immediate attention and confining all additional information and numerical calculations to appendices. Summaries are required at the beginning of each sub-section and as an introduction to each of the two major parts of the report. 

In some chemical engineering departments, the length of student design projects tends to increase each year or to have stabilized at a rather voluminous norm . Students refer to previous projects and usually assume that their length is acceptable and required. Quite often student projects are unnecessarily lengthy and much of the extra information is attributable to other sources, e.g. Perry (1984), Kirk-Othmer (1978-84) etc., and could be replaced by an appropriate reference. 

The selection of whose software program to use depends entirely on which membrane manufacturer is specified by the customer. Each RO system designer may have a favorite program that they use to provide projection information should the membranes of choice not be specified. In most cases, it makes sense to run several programs and compare/contrast the differences among them to find which membrane performance meets the requirements of the specific application. 

The Project Information screen is accessed by the menu under "Tools—Input," or the "INF" button at the top of the main screen. Project name, designer name, and the number of passes (along with recycle and booster pump, if required) are entered into this screen. 

Design data and other process information are obtained during the development stage. This information is used as the basis for carrying out the additional phases of the design project. A complete market analysis is made, and samples of the final product are sent to prospective customers to determine if the product is satisfactory and if there is a reasonable sales potential. Capital-cost estimates for the proposed plant are made. Probable returns on the required investment are determined, and a complete cost-and-profit analysis of the process is developed. 

A survey of the literature will often reveal general information and specific data pertinent to the development of a design project. One good method for starting a literature survey is to obtain a recent publication dealing with the subject under investigation. This publication will give additional references, and each of these references will, in turn, indicate other sources of information. This approach permits a rapid survey of the important literature. 

Preliminary flow diagrams are made during the early stages of a design project. As the design proceeds toward completion, detailed information on flow quantities and equipment specifications becomes available, and combined-detail flow diagrams can be prepared. This type of diagram shows the... 

The summary is probably the most important part of a report, since it is referred to most frequently and is often the only part of the report that is read. Its purpose is to give the reader the entire contents of the report in one or two pages. It covers all phases of the design project, but it does not go into detail on any particular phase. All statements must be concise and give a minimum of general qualitative information. The aim of the summary is to present precise quantitative information and final conclusions with no unnecessary details. 

The first section in the body of the report is the introduction. It states the purpose and scope of the report and indicates why the design project originally appeared to be feasible or necessary. The relationship of the information presented in the report to other phases of the company s operations can be covered, and the effects of future developments may be worthy of mention. References to previous work can be discussed in the introduction, or a separate section can be presented dealing with literature-survey results and other previous work. 

The project scope and exeeution responsibility can also be split into several contracts to be aw arded gradually as the project information and design develop, i.e., engineering, civil work, mechanical work, etc. This approach imposes a heavy load on the Owner s Project Manager and is suitable for small projects only. 

---