Chemical Engineering @ChemengFiles.Com

The design process is one of the most exciting and complex fields in chemical engineering, and is the heart of the development of engineering projects related to building new processing plants.

The process design is an interdisciplinary, covering all fields of engineering and has been divided into three main stages:

• Conceptual design

• Basic Design
• Detailed design

The first two stages are performed by the process engineers - mostly chemical engineers - while the latter is performed by a team of mechanical engineers, civil, electrical, instrumentalists, among others, then the starting point of any engineering project processes of the chemical engineering team responsible for conceptual designs and basic.

The conceptual design and synthesis process is the stage where you assemble the topology of the process, ie the diagram or flowchart that shows the basic sequence of operations required to transform raw materials into desired products. As simple as it may seem, the conceptualization of the process is a complex of high responsibility, because errors at this stage will be moved and amplified in subsequent stages. In this stage has much experience process engineer, and he will have to select the operations and unit processes to be included in the process, considering of course not only technical aspects but also economic and environmental, in addition, no single solution therefore it is necessary to weigh the pros and cons of each alternative.

The basic design is the realization of the conceptual design on the definition of operating variables and parameters of construction equipment. The process engineer at this stage to calculate and selection of equipment, pipes and fittings that will be part of the process plant. The construction parameters here are the basic dimensions that relate to tank diameter and height, type, height, size and configuration of the internal parts of columns and reactors, type and strength of pumps and compressors .... Finally. Rather than being a mechanical design, the basic design is the calculation of the parameters of construction of the equipment required in the process to proceed with its purchase or its mechanical design.

Finally, the detailed engineering of the information generated by process engineers in the earlier stages of design to carry out mechanical design, civil, electrical and others.

The process engineer's work as a starting point in the process plant design is then clear: your success depends on the success and safety of the new plant, his mistake may represent not only money but also loss of lives. The success of process engineers is strongly linked to their experience and hence the new engineers have documented more than just practice, practice and realize their designs under the supervision of an engineer "veteran" experienced, as in the ancient art of centuries ago when the initiated progressed under the accompaniment of his master.