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This is a short guide to Chemical Engineering students wanting help with a design project.
The reason I wrote this is because we get a lot of inquiries to the Process Economics Program from students who've fired up their search engine and who want help with their design project. So here are some quick hints.
We don't sell PEP reports to students, for several business reasons that I won't go into. But the most important reason for you is that your professors have assigned you the project for a reason — to learn how to do process design. If you don't want to learn how to do chemical process design, then it's time to think of a different major. The design project is a pain and a lot of work, but it's an important part of learning how to be a good engineer.
Having said that, there are several resources you can use to make your job easier. Firstly, you aren't going to find the information that you need on the internet (except for patents). You're going to have to (gasp!) go into the library.
When you're starting out, read the relevant chapters in Kirk-Othmer's Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Ullman's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. These are the basics, and will give you a halfway decent introduction to the chemistry and basic technology behind the process. McKetta's Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing and Design contains more information useful to a ChemE, but covers fewer subjects than Kirk-Othmer.
If you haven't looked up these references, give yourself a kick and go to the library.
Herriot-Watt University have compiled a good list of references for Chem. E. design projects: http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/howto/chemeng.html
Usually, you won't find much in the academic literature that will give you process design parameters. The reason for this is simple: academics don't manufacture chemicals, and they usually don't have access to full-scale chemical plants.
A better source of design parameters is patents. Patents are written by companies specifically to protect their technology. You can search, view and download US patents from the IBM patent server: http://www.patents.ibm.com/ibm.html
When you do a search, you'll find dozens, if not hundreds, of patents for the particular area you're interested in. Focus on the patents by major manufacturers of the chemicals you're interested in. Then pick a few patents to read carefully based on their abstracts.
Patents are confusing to read at first. For your purposes, you're most interested in the examples given in the patent. These will give you an idea of the reaction rate. Secondarily, you'll be interested in the description of the invention given in the patent. Claims will probably not be of interest to you. Most of the time, you'll find that the examples in the patent refer to bench-scale testing of the process. Occasionally, very occasionally, you'll find an example that is based on pilot- or full- scale data.
Trying to glean information from patents isn't perfect. In many cases, a company will patent several variations of the processes, even if it has no intention to use most of the variations patented. Or crucial parts of the process may not be patented, but instead held as trade secrets by a company.
Unlike academic papers, a patent is a legal document: the author's primary purpose is to protect the patent holder's technology, not to explain how to copy the technology. Even so, patents can hold vital information to understanding the details of a chemical process. And they are public documents.
Several sources here. Perry's has lots of formulas, albeit sometimes difficult to find. Coulson and Richardson is easier to use for design information. Branan's "Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers" also contains useful information.
Basic resources include Perry's and Lang's Handbook of Chemistry. You can also try extracting the relevant properties from a simulator like Aspen, Simsci or Hyprotech.
The is a list of thermodynamic data and property sites on the web at: http://www.uic.edu:80/~mansoori/Thermodynamic.Data.and.Property_html
Also try the NIST chemistry webbook: http://webbook.nist.gov/
This is probably the toughest part of your project. Peter's and Timmerhaus is a good source, but the prices are somewhat dated, and don't cover certain types of specialized equipment. More recent books include Axtell and Robertson's "Economic Evaluation in the Process Industries" (1989), Garrett's "Chemical Engineering Economics" (1989) and .
Icarus' software can also be used for capital cost estimating, if you have a copy available: however, this is a very detailed cost estimating package, and may require more information on the process design than you have readily available.
Pumps, heat exchangers will usually be cheap compared to reactors, specialized equipment (extruders, dryers) compressors and towers. So don't sweat getting your pump prices to three significant figures.
There are several resources for chemical prices. For instance, ICIS-LOR, SRI Consulting's Chemical Economics Handbook, or PEP Yearbook. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that you'll have access to this information.
Other alternatives are getting hold of a copy of Chemical Market Reporter. CMR contains an extensive list of spot prices for hundreds of chemicals. Note that these are spot, list prices: actual contract prices will be different from these (usually lower). European Chemical News (ECN) and Asian Chemical News (ACN) also sometimes carry info on chemical prices in these regions.
E-mail me (or one of my colleagues in PEP) multiple times saying "I'm a student and I want to buy a PEP Report", after I've told you that we don't sell them to students. Just don't. You may annoy me enough that I forward a copy of your e-mail to the head of your ChemE department.
Post a message in the USENET newsgroups: sci.engr.chem, sci.chem, or sci.polymers asking people "To send you any information on XYZ process for making chemical ABC".
Firstly, it's vague: how are the readers of the newsgroup supposed to know what you need? Secondly, it makes it look like you haven't done any work: people on USENET tend to resent being asked to do homework for someone else. If you do post a question in those newsgroups, make it specific, and make it look as though you've done some work.
A question like "I am doing a design report on manufacture of linear alkyl benzene sulfonate surfactants, and was wondering if the drying step should be a spray tower or a wiped-film evaporator" is a more acceptable question, and might just get a polite, informative response.
Draft Version 0.1 written by Tom McVey
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