Sources of Information for Process Design

A selection of books relating to process design methods and data is listed in the references at the end of this chapter. Items that arc especially desirable in a personal library or readily accessible are identified. Specialized references are given throughout the book in connection with specific topics. 

The extensive chemical literature is served by the bibliographic items cited in References, Section 1.2, Part B. The book by Rasmussen and Fredenslund (1980) is addressed to chemical engineers and cites some literature not included in some of the other bibliographies, as well as information about proprietary data banks. The book by Leesley (References, Section 1.1, Part B) has much information about proprietary data banks and design methods. In its current and earlier editions, the book by PeteTS and Timmerhaus has many useful bibliographies on classified topics. 

For information about chemical manufacturing processes, the main encyclopedic references are Kirk-Othmer (1978-1984), McKetta and Cunningham (1976-date) and Ullmann (1972-1983) (References, Section 1.2, Part B). The last of these is in German, 

Information about equipment sizes and configurations, and sometimes performance, of equipment is best found in manufacturers catalogs. Items 1 and 2 of References, Section 1.1, Part D, contain some advertisements with illustrations, but perhaps their principal value is in the listings of manufacturers by the kind of equipment. Thomas Register covers all manufacturers and so is less convenient at least for an initial search. The other three items of this group of books have illustrations and descriptions of all kinds of chemical process equipment. Although these books are old, one is surprised to note how many equipment designs have survived. 

Extensive physical property and thermodynamic data are available throughout the literature. Two such compilations are 

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One source of information for such properties are quantum-chemical calculations. During the last few years, they have proven to be able to provide valuable and reliable data which are in many cases complementary to experimental data. In particular, they enable one to break up a comphcated reaction chain into small pieces and to investigate the different steps separately, which is much more difficult to achieve in experiment. There is good reason to believe that without the help of good quantum-chemical calculations the reaction mechanisms of many processes, even of those which are used in large scale technical apphcations, will never be understood in detail. And the hope is, of course, that in the near future quantum-chemical calculations will help to design new and better catalysts. 

A panel board or video display imit (VDU) is often the main source of information for operating personnel, as well as their primary interface with the process. Proper display of information and ease of access to data and controls become vital considerations if a plant is to achieve high efficiency and to operate safely. Poor design and layout promote human error and can create hazardous situations. Some of the types of error that can occur are treated below, together with the precautions that may be taken to combat them. 

The book does not focus on occupational safety and health issues, although improved process safety can benefit each area. Detailed engineering designs are outside the scope of the book. This book intends to identify issues and concerns in batch reaction systems and provides potential solutions to address these concerns. This should be of value to process design engineers, operators, maintenance personnel, as well as members of process hazards analysis teams. While the book offers potential solutions to specific issues/concerns, ultimately the user needs to make the case for the solutions that best satisfy their company s requirements for a balance between risk reduction and cost. In many instances the book provides one or more sources of additional information on the subject which could be of value to the reader. 

To proceed with a design, the designer must first assemble all the relevant facts and data required. For process design this will include information on possible processes, equipment performance, and physical property data. This stage can be one of the most time consuming, and frustrating, aspects of design. Sources of process information and physical properties are reviewed in Chapter 8. 

The process engineer must design a plant for the current process solely on the basis of published information. After he has completed his study no one will perform experiments to verify his assumptions, since the company does not plan to use that process. He is on his own. This type of problem is excellent for chemical engineering design classes. Some of best sources of material for such exercises are given at the end of this chapter. 

Physical models of commercial fluidized bed equipment provide an important source of design information for process development. A physical model of a commercial fluidized bed processor provides a small-scale simulation of the fluid dynamics of a commercial process. While commercial processes will typically operate at conditions making direct observation of bed fluid dynamics difficult (high temperature, high pressure, corrosive... 

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