Department Editor: Scott Jenkins

ost of the more than $100 billion in capital spending and $1.2 trillion in prodution costs spent annually by the chemical process industries (CPI) is committed by decisions made in the early phases of process development and plant design. A more disciplined approach to decision-making that fosters early attention to costs and more thorough consideration of available options has the potential to lower costs for most projects and better balance capital and production costs. The Economic Design Model is a method to formalize this disciplined approach to cost considerations [1]. The model has three phases: setting project objectives; creating a thorough and comprehensive list of options; and conducting an economic analysis of the technically workable options. The model is helpful for early-stage decision-making (product and process development, feasibility evaluation and conceptual phases). Large amounts of money are at stake in these early phases because the decisions made there set the future economic framework.

Project design decision-making: Option lists

Catalyst 220F Feed 120F oil 350F H2 Figure 1. An engineer might develop a flowsheet like this one to meet business and technical objectives for a hypothetical oil hydrogenation example Cooling jacket H2O surge tank 150 psig steam 250F 300F H2O 250F 220F H2O 120F Filter press Hydrogenated oil Catalyst Catalyst

Technical Function Flowsheet, Oil Hydrogenation (with permission from CRC Press) Heat oil to reaction temperature 1st issue Catalyst

Creating OPtiOns Lists

The heart of the Economic Design Model in a process- or plant-design project involves creating a full list of options for completing the project. To identify the best of the available options, engineers must diverge early in a project to consider multiple options before converging on a decision. Doing so requires carefully and deliberately constructing an option list that is more comprehensive than a typical one. Experience indicates that more than one workable technical option usually exists, so the decision comes down to economics. Economics decisions, in turn, are best made on the basis of balancing capital and production costs evaluating whether it makes sense to spend additional capital to reduce production costs, or if it is better to reduce capital outlay but be left with higher production costs. Reasons why option creation falls short Three main reasons exist for why the consideration of options in a design project often falls short. One involves the heavy schedule demands placed on engineers. These demands can create the perception among engineers that there is not sufficient time for anything other than to find a workable solution to the design problem. Another can be viewed as a consequence of standardized plant design, which generates a reluctance to make changes that would alter the standardized designs (even when improved technology is available or economic conditions have changed). The third reason for why option lists often fall short of the mark is that creating effective ones can simply be hard to do. Option creation tools The need for increased rigor in creating options lists may be more difficult, but there are several tools that can help greatly. While brainstorming and its variations can be used for generating options, there are additional tools that bring discipline to the option creation process and help overcome the factors that could cause

the option lists to fall short. The tools promote divergence before Hydrogenate oil Remove Heat oil to to convert the design answers were selected, catalyst so reaction tri-unsaturates oil is clear temperature promote higher levels of underto di-unsaturates standing of the design and help spark creativity. Flowsheet development. The Catalyst H2 Feed oil Cool oil to first tool is an alternate methodstorage Figure 2. A TFF for this example could ology for development of the temperature look like this. It focuses on the technical design flowsheet. The concept purposes of each step, rather than on unit is to focus on the technical operations or specific equipment purpose of each step in the process, rather than specific questions that lay the foundation for a project unit operations or equipment types. The resultare not addressed well, either because the ing block diagrams, called technical function answer appears at first glance to be obvious, flowsheets (TFFs), help to slow convergence or because of the perception that there is not to design specifics until all possible options enough time to answer them sufficiently, or have been thoroughly considered. Technibecause no one thought to ask the question in cal function descriptions are verb-object the first place. combinations, rather than nouns usually used The general process and process-interaction to describe unit operations. For example, in questions address broad project issues, such the case of a hypothetical oil hydrogentation as the following examples: Should a product process, technical function phrases could be: intermediate be bought or synthesized? Should separate solids from the oil, heat oil or the process be a batch or continuous one? react oil with hydrogen. These descriptions What grade of a raw material should be purare intentionally less specific and more generchased? Should recycle or purge streams be alized than the descriptions of unit operations used, and do those streams need to be treated that could fulfill those technical functions, before reuse or disposal? How does this unit such as pressure filter, shell-and-tube heat operation affect the downstream process? exchanger, and multistage stirred-column reactor (Figures 1 and 2). TFFs are backed up by material and energy balances (often based using the MOdeL tO FinaLize on pilot plant data) and a detailed table that Once a comprehensive list of options exists, explains the purpose for each function, lists project engineers can move on to the next stage important operating conditions (temperature, of the Economic Design Model, in which each pressure, flow, and so on) and describes the option is analyzed to determine whether the opbasis for selecting operating conditions. tion can meet the technical needs of the project, Unit operations guides. Use of the TFF methodas well as to determine which of the technically ology sets the stage for the option list creation. feasible is the most economical option. When it comes time to select unit operations for the different technical functions, the Unit References Operations Guides, as published in [2], will help engineers define most of the potential op1. Brown, Thane, Capital and Production Costs: tions. Eight guides are available, covering the Improving the Bottom Line, Chem. Eng., Janufollowing topics: blending and mixing; drying ary 2010, pp. 2633. (water removal only); heat transfer (inlcud2. Brown, Thane, Engineering Economics and ing evaporation); mass transfer (including Economic Design for Process Engineers, CRC crystallization); material transport; mechanical Press, Atlanta, Ga., 2006. separation; reactions; and size modification. Question lists. Intended to increase the depth Note: This edition of Facts at Your Fingertips of understanding about a process, the question was adapted from Capital and Production Costs: list is a series of process-related questions that Improving the Bottom Line, an article authored by will lead to more design options and higher Thane Brown that appears in the January 2010 quality designs. It is often the case that general issue of Chemical Engineering.