LECTURE 1

CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL
PROBLEMS

ECONOMIC
SUCCESS
ENVIRONMENTA
L DAMAGE

SUSTAINAB
LE
DEVELOPME
NT

SOCIAL
ENVIRONMENT
ACCEPTANC
AL
E
PROTECTION
Ecological sustainability demands to defend the bases of the natural
life and not to exceed the stress limits of the environment.
Economic sustainability means efficient utilisation of natural
resources, use of renewable materials and alternative energies, and
recycling of waste.
Social sustainability recognises the prerogatives of the free market
economy based on the social justice and
the rights of individuals.
ECONOMIC
2
PROBLEMS

Process Design & the creative activity

whereby we generate ideas and then
translate them into equipment and
process for producing new materials
or for significantly upgrading the
value of existing materials
Today a designer should be concerned about the rational use of
resources and the preservation of the natural environment.

The process has to be novel, efficient, and competitive in

a global business environment, and also sustainable.
The process should
be compact and economical in energetic consumption
offer flexibility and ready to accept other raw materials
or other specifications of products
3

Starting from a vaguely defined problem

statement such as a customer need
or a set of experimental results,
chemical engineers can develop an
understanding
of
the
important
underlying physical science relevant to
the
problem
and
use
this
understanding to create a plan of
action
and
set
of
detailed
specifications
which,
if
implemented, will lead to a
predicted financial outcome

Constraints
Fixed and invariable
Relaxed or flexible

Design Constraints

Design Process in General

The Design Objective (The Need)

All design starts with a perceived need.
It is important to distinguish between the needs that are must haves and
those that are should haves. The should haves are those parts of the initial
specification that may be thought desirable, but that can be relaxed if required
as the design develops.

Setting the Design Basis

The system of units to be used.
The national, local or company design codes that
must be followed
Details of raw materials that are available
Information on potential sites where the plant
might be located, including climate data, seismic
conditions, and infrastructure availability.
Information on the conditions, availability, and
price of utility services such as fuel (gas), steam,
cooling water, process air, process water, and
electricity, that will be needed to run the process

Generation of Possible Design

Concepts
The creative part of
the design process is the generation
of possible solutions to the problem for analysis,
evaluation, and selection. In this activity, most designers
largely rely on previous experiencetheir own and that
of others.
A. Modifications, and additions, to existing plant; usually carried

out by the plant design group.

B. New production capacity to meet growing sales demand and
the sale of established processes by contractors. Repetition of
existing designs, with only minor design changes, including
designs of vendors or competitors processes carried out to
understand whether they have a compellingly better cost of
production.
C. New processes, developed from laboratory research, through
pilot plant, to a commercial process. Even here, most of the
unit operations and process equipment will use established
designs.

The economic incentives of a plant project, from

the conceptual
phase down to construction and commissioning

The long way from an idea to a real process can be managed

nowadays by means of a systemic approach. This involves
systematic methodologies for designing the whole process and its
sub-systems, as reaction, separations, heat exchangers network
and utilities.
9

 In the past, the development of a new process has been

described often as a kind of 'art'. The strategy, called
sometimes the engineering method, consisted of
sketching a simple but inspired flowsheet, and improving
it by successive layers of refinements, up to final
optimisation. The experience of the designer, the
expertise of the company, and the availability of pilot
data were crucial.
Nowadays, the conceptual design of processes is
becoming increasingly an applied chemical engineering
science. Engineers having a solid scientific background
and mastering computer design tools are capable of
finding much quicker innovative ideas.
Inspiration and expertise still play an important role, as
well as the availability of practical data.

10

THE ORGANIZATION OF A
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
PROJECT
Phase 1: Process design, which covers the steps from the

initial selection of the process to be used, through to the

issuing of the process flowsheets and includes the selection,
specification, and chemical engineering design of
equipment. In a typical organization, this phase is the
responsibility of the Process Design Group, and the work is
mainly done by chemical engineers. The process design
group may also be responsible for the preparation of the
piping and instrumentation diagrams.
Phase 2: Plant design, including the detailed mechanical
design of equipment; the structural, civil, and electrical
design; and the specification and design of the ancillary
services. These activities will be the responsibility of
specialist design groups, having expertise in the whole
range of engineering disciplines.

Anatomy of Chemical
Process

Outline of a design project

13

Each step in the design process will

not be neatly separated from the
others, nor will the sequence of
events be as clearly defined.
There
will
be
a
constant
interchange
of
information
between the various design sections
as the design develops, but it is clear
that some steps in a design must be
largely completed before others can
be started

Project
Organization

Project Documentation
General correspondence within
the design group and with :
Government departments
Equipment vendors
Site personnel
The client
Calculations sheets
Design calculations
Cost estimates
Material and energy balance

Drawings:
Flow sheets
Piping and ID diagrams
Layout diagrams
Plot/site plans
Equipment details
Piping diagram
Architectural drawings
Design sketches

Project Documentation
Specification sheets
The design basis
Feed and products specifications
Equipment list
Spec sheets for equipments
Purchase orders
Quotations
Invoices
Health , safety and environmental
information
Material and safety data sheets (MSDS)
HAZOP and HAZAN documentation
Emission assessments and permit

System Approach
1. System is a combination of a several pieces of
equipment integrated to perform a special function.
2. Systems Analysis is the investigation of an activity,
procedure, method, technique, or business to
determine what must be done and how the operation
may be best accomplished. It consists of applying
mathematical techniques to the study of systems.
3. Systems Engineering is the design of a complex
interconnection system of many elements to
maximise an agreed-upon measure of the system
performance, taking into consideration all the elements
Systems
approach consists of two steps:
related in any way to the system.

Modelling, in which each element of the

systems is described and criteria for
measuring performance are assigned
Optimisation, in which adjustable parameters
17
are set in a manner that gives the best

LIFE CYCLE MODELLING

three basic life cycle forms: waterfall, V-model

and spiral model.
These forms are suited for the design of
computer-based systems, but have larger
applicability, particularly in the field of process

18

WATERFALL MODELLING
REQUIREMEN
T DEFINITONS

SYSTEM
DESIGN

IMPLEMENTAI
ON AND
UNIT TEST

SYSTEM
TEST

The phases must be clearly defined such as the output of one

falls cleanly into the input of the next.
Waterfall model indicates that the project sequencing should
be organised such to avoid feedback between phases,
particularly to review the architectural (system) design.

19

The development of an (idealised) design project can be decomposed in four major

phases: Requirements, Conceptual Design, Basic Design, and Detailed Engineering.

20

 V
Cycle
Model:
appropriate
for
managing
complex
systems
when
systematic validation is
necessary.
The two basic ideas are:
1)decompose the work
in a number of tasks,
and
2)separate
'specification
&
design' tasks from
'production' tasks.

The left side of the cycle represents the refinement of design,

while the right side describes the assembly tasks.
In a V-cycle the project management and quality assurance are carried
out together. Each design step is verified before proceeding to the next
one, and each production task is validated against the corresponding
specification task.
Here verification means that the product fulfils the quality
21
characteristics, such as consistency and completeness, while

Spiral model
The spiral life cycle model is a repeating waterfall form at
successive levels of detail. In addition, it accommodate
unforeseen events by a risk-driven approach.
Similar tasks but with different objectives are
performed during each cycle iteration.
The inner cycles carry out more evaluation and
prototyping tasks, while the outer cycles deal
with final design.
The cumulative cost versus time is measured at
each level.

22

CHEMICAL PRODUCTS
Commodity or bulk chemicals: low operating cost but a higher
capital cost, produced in large volumes
Fine chemicals: produced in small volumes and purchased on
the basis of chemical composition , purity and price
Specialty or effect or functional chemicals: priority tends to be
given to the function then the process of manufacture

23

Process priorities for

various products
Design for manufacture of a commodity:
I. Relatively little product innovation, but intensive
process innovation.
II. Equipment will be designed for a specific process step
Design for manufacture of fine and specialty
chemicals:
I. Selling into a market with low volume,
II. Short product life cycle,
III.Demand for a short time to market, and therefore, less
time is available for process development, with product
and process development proceeding simultaneously.
24

NEW CHEMICAL
PRODUCT
When a new chemical product is first developed, it
can often be protected by a patent in the early
years of commercial exploitation.
For a product to be eligible to be patented, it
must be novel, useful and unobvious.

If patent protection can be obtained, this

effectively gives the producer a monopoly for
commercial exploitation of the product until the
patent expires.
Patent protection lasts for 20 years from the filing
date of the patent. Once the patent expires,
competitors can join in and manufacture the
product
25

Product life cycles

Product A is a poor product

that has a short life with
low sales volume
Product B is a better
product, with a longer
life cycle and higher
sales volume.
Product C
shows high
sales volume with the life
of the product extended
through reformulation of
the product
Product D is a shows a
life cycle that is typical
of commodity chemicals

A rapid decrease in sales patent

protection is lost, leading to loss of
market through competition.

Commodity chemicals, sales volume grows rapidly to a high

volume, but then does not decline and enters a mature
26
period of slow growth

Directions of Process
Engineering
Computer
Integrated
Flexible processes
reduction
Capital cost reduction
Raw material efficiency
PROCESS
Environmental
ENGINEERIN performance
G
Energy saving
Quality and control
Process Safety

Manufacturing
systems
process
designates intensification
the integration
lead
of to
plant operation with
significant
reduction
business
activities. inThe
High
valorisation
raw
the
equipment
and
integration
has size
to of
consider
materials
is the
factor with
capital
costs.
not
only
planning
and
the
strongest
impact
on
accounting
tools,
but
also
Modem
process
design
process
efficiency.
In this
rigorous
modelling
should
aim
to zeroeffluent
Wide-range
respect,
theimplementation
breakthrough
technology.
Process
plants
by
minimisation
of
of
Pinch
Point
Analysis
element
is
the
chemistry.
flexibilityemissions
should be
gaseous
andseen
of
Here
we
mean
also
the
not only in
term
variable
process
waste,
Reduction
of
impofiincluding
urities
development
production
rate,ofbut more
also
wastewater.
and
by-products,
and in
active
and
selective
term
of
composition
ofbethe
implementing
advanced
Inherently
safety
can
catalysts.
Enhancing the
feedstock.
control
systems
can
achieved
by
selectivity
of incorporating
reactions
can
Reduced
inventory
asks
for
ensure
constant
product
more
non-linear
analysis
eliminate
material
andof
the
suppression
quality
in processrecycles
dynamics and
energy
and
intermediate
costly storage
control
contributes
significantly to
facilities
massive cost reduction 27