Plant and process design

When new processes are proposed, the safety adviser should be involved at the earliest stage and should ensure that adequate chemical data, environmental, fire and safety information are available. Discussions on the plant may involve the enforcing authorities and waste disposal agencies but their early involvement could save delays at a later date. 

This section relates to the safe design of process plant which starts with the chemist developing a chemical reaction or series of reactions that produce the required end product. Initially the proposed process will be tried out in the laboratory in gram quantities. The chemist will be looking not only for product purity and quality but also at the physical and thermal chemistry aspects within the process, such as heats of reaction, temperature rises, rates of pressure rise, temperature of exotherms, on-set temperatures, etc. 

The preferred option to make a safe process is to eliminate the hazard completely or reduce its magnitude sufficiently to avoid the need for elaborate safety systems and procedures. In order to design an inherently safer process there is need to  

At an early stage in designing a safe process the chemist should consider  

The information gathered from the pilot plant study is compiled into a process dossier which provides the data for the chemical engineer to use in the design of the full-scale production plant. It is at this stage that the safety adviser should become involved. 

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Liaison with Control Engineering Department on Plant and Process Design... 

Plant and process design, where the materials of construction, equipment design, process conditions and recommended operating practice can all be influenced to minimise the risk of corrosion. This is the most important phase. 

Note General references to plant and process design are included in Appendix L. References specific to a particular topic or chapter in Part I are included at the end of the section or chapter, and in Sections 2.4 and 2.5 for the case study. References for Part II are included at the end of each chapter. The case study references are prefixed by a letter designating a particular topic category (see Sections 2.4 and 2.5, and Chapters 9-12). 

The student would benefit by reading the introductory chapters in one of the popular texts on plant and process design, (e g. Peters and Timmerhaus, 1980 Ulrich, 1984 Baasel, 1976). 

This book is intended to provide guidance specifically to those students who are enrolled in IChemE accredited courses, and are about to commence the design project. Those same students will also find this book useful when they are studying earlier units in Plant and Process Design reference to this text will illustrate how certain topics are to be applied during the design project. However, other students in courses not accredited by the IChemE (specifically in the USA) should also find this text useful when studying similar course units. 

During laboratory studies, reaction chemistry is confirmed, waste streams are characterized, process variables are tested, pollution prevention options are identified, data are collected for the pilot plant and process design, and the potential impact of environmental regulations is determined. 

Figure 29 illustrates bucket conveyors. They are designed to elevate materials mainly vertically or for some designs with an inclination. Bucket elevators are mostly used in cases for which other conveying systems are unsuitable, either because of the ground morphology or because of the plant and process design. 

A strategy of process intensification requires a step change in the philosophy of plant and process design. 

The factors influencing plant and process design are as follows. This has to comply with equipment and process data specifications with the following input ... 

Towler, G. and Sinnott, R. (2012) Chemical Engineering Design Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design, 2nd edn, Elsevier, Oxford. 

Towler GP, Sinnott RK. Chemical engineering design principles, practice and economics of plant and process design. Oxford Ekevier 2013. 

Towler, Gavin P., and R. K Sinnott. ChemicalEngneering Design Principles, Practice, and Economics of Plant and Process Design. Boston Elsevier/Butterworth-Heine-mann, 2008. Chapter 11 examines continuous and multicomponent distillation, looking at the principles involved and design variations. Also discusses other distillation systems and components of a system. 

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