
An Applied Guide to Process and Plant Design
Description
Key Features
- Explains how to deliver a process design that meets both business and safety criteria
- Covers plant layout and the use of spreadsheet programmes and key drawings as aids to design
- Includes a comprehensive set of selection tables, covering those aspects of professional plant design which early-career designers find most challenging
Readership
Table of Contents
- Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part 1: Practical Principles
Introduction
1. Process Plant Design
Introduction
What is engineering?
What is design?
Engineering design
Project life cycle
Process plant design
Process plant versus process design
Academic versus professional practice
State of the art and best engineering practice
The use and abuse of computers
Further reading
2. Stages of Process Plant Design
General
Conceptual design
“Conceptual design of chemical processes”
Front end engineering design (FEED)/basic design
Detailed design
Site redesign
Posthandover redesign
Unstaged design
Product engineering
Fast-tracking
Further reading
3. Process Plant Design Deliverables
Overview
Design basis and philosophies
Specification
Process flow diagram (PFD)
Piping and instrumentation diagram
Functional design specification (FDS)
Plot plan/general arrangement/layout drawing
Program
Cost estimate
Equipment list/schedule
Datasheets
Safety documentation
Design calculations
Isometric piping drawings
Simulator output
Further reading
4. Twenty-First Century Process Plant Design Tools
General
Use of computers by chemical engineers
Implications of modern design tools
Categories of design
Tools—hardware
Tools—software
Further reading
5. The Future of Process Plant Design
Process porn
Will first principles design replace heuristic design in future?
Will process design become a form of applied mathematics in future?
Will primary research become the basis of engineering design in future?
Will “chemical process design” replace process plant design in future?
Will network analysis form the core of design practice in future?
Will process simulation replace the design process in future?
Will process plant design never change?
Further reading
Part 2: Professional Practice
6. System Level Design
Introduction
How to put unit operations together
Matching design rigor with stage of design
Implications for cost
Implications for safety
Implications for robustness
Rule of thumb design
First principles design
Design by simulation program
Sources of design data
Further reading
7. Professional Design Methodology
Introduction
Design methodologies
The “is” and “ought” of process design
Right versus wrong design
Interesting versus boring design
Continuous versus batch design
Simple/robust versus complicated/fragile design
Setting the design envelope
Implications of new design tools
Importance of understanding your design
Manager/engineer tensions in design
Whole-system design methodology
Design stages in a nutshell
Variations on a theme
Further reading
8. How to Do a Mass and Energy Balance
Introduction
Handling recycles
How to set it out in Excel
Using Excel for iterative calculations: “Goal Seek” and “Solver”
9. How to Do Hydraulic Calculations
Introduction
Matching design rigor with stage of design
Hydraulic networks
Pump curves
Further reading
Part 3. Low Level Design
10. How to Design and Select Plant Components and Materials
Introduction
What process engineers design
Matching design rigor with stage of design
Materials of construction
Mechanical equipment
Electrical and control equipment
Further reading
11. How to Design Unit Operations
Introduction
Matching design rigor with stage of design
Rule of thumb design
Approaches to design of unit operations
Sources of design data
Scale-up and scale-out
Neglected unit operations: separation processes
Further reading
12. How to Cost a Design
Introduction
Matching design rigor with stage of design
The basics
Academic costing practice
Professional costing practice
Further reading
Part 4. High Level Design
13. How to Design a Process Control System
Introduction
Matching design rigor with stage of design
Operation and Maintenance manuals
Specification of operators
Automatic control
Standard control and instrumentation strategies
Further reading
14. How to Lay Out a Process Plant
Introduction
General principles
Factors affecting layout
Plant layout and safety
Plant layout and cost
Plant layout and aesthetics
Matching design rigor with stage of design
Further reading
15. How to Make Sure Your Design Is Reasonably Safe and Sustainable
Introduction
Why only reasonably?
Matching design rigor with stage of design
Conceptual design stage
Detailed design stage
Formal methods: safety
Formal methods: sustainability
Specification of equipment with safety implications in mind
Specification of safety devices
Types of safety device
Further reading
Sources
Part 5. Advanced Design
16. Professional Practice
Introduction
General design methodology
Informal design reviews
Formal design reviews
Quality assurance and document control
Informal data exchange
Further reading
17. Beginner’s Errors to Avoid
Introduction
Lack of equipment knowledge
Lack of knowledge of many types of unit operations
Lack of knowledge of many materials of construction
Lack of utilities
Layout
Process control
Further reading
18. Design Optimization
Introduction
Matching design rigor with stage of design
Indicators of a need to integrate design
How to integrate design
When and how not to integrate design
Where’s the harm? The downside of academic “process integration”
Further reading
19. Developing Your Own Design Style
Introduction
The art of engineering
The philosophy of engineering
The literature of engineering
The practice of engineering
Personal Sota
Further reading
Appendix 1. Integrated Design Example
Integrated process control and design example
Appendix 2. Upset Conditions Table
Specific Upset Conditions
Appendix 3. Plant Separation Tables
Preliminary spacings for tank farm layout
Preliminary electrical area classification distances
Size of storage piles
Appendix 4. Checklists for Engineering Flow Diagrams
Appendix 5. Teaching Practical Process Plant Design
Introduction
Pedagogy
Methodology
Exercises
Further reading
Glossary
Index
Product details
- No. of pages: 390
- Language: English
- Copyright: © Butterworth-Heinemann 2015
- Published: March 30, 2015
- Imprint: Butterworth-Heinemann
- eBook ISBN: 9780128003824
- Hardcover ISBN: 9780128002421
About the Author
Sean Moran

Affiliations and Expertise
Ratings and Reviews
Latest reviews
(Total rating for all reviews)
TarltonFerrin Mon Jun 01 2020
Wish I had read sooner!
This is a great book! Those who are new to designing industrial plants or related fields you could only benefit from reading this book. He covers a lot of ground in a helpful amount of detail - helping show a junior designer or engineer the overall picture and in what areas they are likely to be lacking. I thought the author provided some really good insight on what an Engineer actually is and does - little of which I got in my formal engineering academic programs. As a teacher and one who worked in the industry for many years he also discusses the difference between professional engineering and the pitfalls/limitations of an excessively academic approach to actual engineering projects.
JosephKASSA Sun Dec 09 2018
Very useful and interest.
Very useful and interest.
Ketul S. Thu Jun 07 2018
Really Comprehensive about basic Chemical and process Engineering design methods
One of the best books on process and plant design I have come across till date of my professional practice