Chemical Engineering Design

Citation

Towler, G., & Sinnott, R. (2021). Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design (3rd ed.). Elsevier.

Chapter Summary

The third edition has 20 chapters in two parts. Part I, Process Design, runs from flowsheet development through utilities, simulation, control, materials, costing, economics, safety and optimization. Part II, Plant Design, covers the selection and design of the main kinds of equipment. The publisher says the text applies chemical engineering principles to the design of chemical processes and equipment, and adds that the third edition updates plant and equipment costs, regulations and technical standards.

Part I: Process Design

Chapters 1–2: Introduction to Design; Process Flowsheet Development

The opening chapters introduce design and the development of the process flowsheet.

Chapters 3–5: Utilities and Energy Efficient Design; Process Simulation; Instrumentation and Process Control

These chapters cover the utility and energy side of a design, the use of process simulation, and instrumentation and control.

Chapter 6: Materials of Construction

Addresses the choice of materials of construction.

Chapters 7–9: Capital Cost Estimating; Estimating Revenues and Production Costs; Economic Evaluation of Projects

The economic chapters run from estimating capital cost, through revenues and production costs, to the economic evaluation of a project. The publisher notes that the edition includes limited online access for students to Cost Engineering's Cleopatra Enterprise cost estimating software.

Chapters 10–12: Safety and Loss Prevention; General Site Considerations; Optimization in Design

Safety and loss prevention, general site considerations, and optimization in design.

Part II: Plant Design

Chapters 13–14: Equipment Selection, Specification and Design; Design of Pressure Vessels

Chapter 13 introduces how equipment is selected, specified and designed, and Chapter 14 turns to the design of pressure vessels.

Chapters 15–17: Design of Reactors and Mixers; Separation of Fluids; Separation Columns (Distillation, Absorption and Extraction)

The core process equipment: reactors and mixers, the separation of fluids, and separation columns for distillation, absorption and extraction.

Chapters 18–20: Specification and Design of Solids-Handling Equipment; Heat Transfer Equipment; Transport and Storage of Fluids

Equipment for handling solids, heat transfer equipment, and the transport and storage of fluids.

Key Concepts

Part I: Process design (Chapters 1–12)

• Process flowsheet: the representation of a process from which design proceeds.
• Process simulation: the use of software to model flowsheets.
• Capital cost, revenue and production cost estimation: the economic basis for judging a design.
• Economic evaluation of projects: comparing alternatives on financial grounds.
• Safety and loss prevention: designing so that hazards are controlled.
• Optimization in design: choosing among design variables systematically.

Part II: Plant design (Chapters 13–20)

• Equipment selection and specification: matching equipment to a process duty.
• Pressure vessel design: the mechanical design of a basic piece of plant.
• Reactors, mixers and separation columns: the main unit operations of a plant.
• Heat transfer equipment and fluid transport: supporting equipment for every process.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Scope across the whole of design. Part I covers flowsheets, energy, control, materials, costs, economics, safety, site and optimization; Part II covers equipment. The two together span the design of a process and the design of the plant to carry it out.
• Practising designers as authors. The publisher notes that the text is written by practising design engineers with extensive undergraduate teaching experience.
• Many design projects. The publisher cites more than 100 typical industrial design projects drawn from a diverse range of process industries.
• A long edition history. The authors' biographies note that the first edition (as Coulson and Richardson's Volume 6) appeared in 1983, with editions at about five-year intervals since.
• Current standards and sectors. The third edition provides the latest US codes and standards, including API, ASME and ISA design codes and ANSI standards, and adds new content on food, pharmaceutical and biological processes and commonly used unit operations.

Limitations

• US-oriented standards. The updated codes and standards are the US ones listed by the publisher; designers working under other regimes will need the local standards.
• Assumes the core courses. The text is for senior and capstone students and for professionals; it applies, and does not teach, mass and energy balances, thermodynamics, transport phenomena, separations and reaction engineering.
• Breadth over depth. The 20 chapters range from economics to pressure vessels, so each topic receives one chapter and specialized equipment design may call for a dedicated reference.

Where It Fits in the Course

Towler and Sinnott is the design capstone in this chemical-process course list. Felder, Rousseau and Bullard's Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes and Denn's Chemical Engineering: An Introduction teach the balances on which design starts; McCabe, Smith and Harriott's Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering and Geankoplis's Transport Processes and Separation Process Principles give the unit-operation and separation theory that Chapters 15–20 apply to equipment.

Fogler's Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering provides the reactor analysis that Chapter 15 uses. Read Towler and Sinnott after these, when the aim is to bring them together in a design.

How to Use This Book

The publisher's intended readership is chemical and biochemical engineering students in upper-level process design or senior capstone courses, and professionals in the chemical process, biochemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries. Readers should have completed the core chemical engineering courses.

A practical plan:

• Start with: Chapters 1–2, then Chapters 7–9, which give the economic frame for the whole project.
• Process design: Chapters 3–6 and 10–12 as the project requires, with Chapter 10 on safety read early, not left to the end.
• Equipment: Chapter 13 and then the chapters for the equipment in your own design: Chapters 15–17 for reactors and separations, Chapter 19 for heat transfer equipment, Chapter 20 for fluid transport and storage.
• Capstone use: pick a project from the book's design projects and carry it from flowsheet to equipment sizes and costs.