Designing a chemical plant involves multiple engineering disciplines, human resources, and capital studies. Economic evaluations, logistics studies, and plant location studies are important. A team of people with technical and commercial experience defines the project scope. Resources and process feasibility are considered before construction. Engineers build the plant, and economics is present at every stage.
Chemical plant design is a complicated process involving multiple engineering disciplines, human resources, and capital studies. Economic evaluations, logistics studies, and plant location studies are just as important in chemical plant design as engineering studies and theoretical calculations. To handle the diverse workload, large teams of people from diverse professional backgrounds must work together to ensure the success of a new plant project.
Before any technical work can begin on a new chemical plant, the scope of the project must be defined. The scope will give the technical and commercial staff an idea of what the new chemical plant will do and how it will be beneficial. This phase of the design process is usually performed by a team of people with both technical and commercial experience. Considerations such as product demand and process feasibility are important at this stage of chemical plant design.
The resources available to the facility are also considered before any construction can begin. In addition to resources such as chemical raw materials, resources such as available labor force in the area and water supplies are also taken into account. Logistics studies must be performed to determine the cost of shipping materials into and out of the proposed facility.
One of the most important considerations of designing a chemical plant is the process by which the proposed plant will operate. If the plant is designed as an extension of the company’s existing operations, the technical work is much easier. Technology licensed from another company or engineering firm can reduce design efforts by the company building the plant, but additional costs are added. Entirely new processes will require rigorous process simulations, laboratory work and trials in a pilot plant.
After completing the process simulations and laboratory tests, it is the engineer’s job to take the results and use them to build the plant itself. Electrical engineers need to calculate how much power is required for the plant and take care of the control systems. Mechanical engineers are primarily involved in the construction of new unit operations and facilities, while civil engineers plan transportation systems and water delivery systems. Chemical engineers are primarily concerned with the unit operations of the plant, such as distillation columns, reactors, and heat exchangers.
Present at every stage of the chemical plant design process is the concept of economics. Chemical plants are built with the aim of producing chemicals safely and economically. Various aspects of chemical plant design, from deciding on the physical location of the plant to the type of material chosen for a distillation column, are affected by their impact on plant profits.
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