CHAPTER 4

Flow-sheeting
4.1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter covers the preparation and presentation of the process ow-sheet. The owsheet is the key document in process design. It shows the arrangement of the equipment selected to carry out the process; the stream connections; stream ow-rates and compositions; and the operating conditions. It is a diagrammatic model of the process. The ow-sheet will be used by the specialist design groups as the basis for their designs. This will include piping, instrumentation, equipment design and plant layout. It will also be used by operating personnel for the preparation of operating manuals and operator training. During plant start-up and subsequent operation, the ow-sheet forms a basis for comparison of operating performance with design. The ow-sheet is drawn up from material balances made over the complete process and each individual unit. Energy balances are also made to determine the energy ows and the service requirements. Manual ow-sheeting calculations can be tedious and time consuming when the process is large or complex, and computer-aided ow-sheeting programs are being increasingly used to facilitate this stage of process design. Their use enables the designer to consider different processes, and more alterative processing schemes, in his search for the best process and optimum process conditions. Some of the proprietary ow-sheeting programs available are discussed in this chapter. A simple linear ow-sheeting program is presented in detail and listed in the appendices. In this chapter the calculation procedures used in ow-sheeting have for convenience been divided into manual calculation procedures and computer-aided procedures. The next step in process design after the ow-sheet is the preparation of Piping and Instrumentation diagrams (abbreviated to P & I diagrams) often also called the Engineering Flow-sheet or Mechanical Flow-sheet. The P & I diagrams, as the name implies, show the engineering details of the process, and are based on the process owsheet. The preparation and presentation of P & I diagrams is discussed in Chapter 5. The abbreviation PFD (for Process Flow Diagram) is often used for process ow-sheets, and PID for Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams.

4.2. FLOW-SHEET PRESENTATION

As the process ow-sheet is the denitive document on the process, the presentation must be clear, comprehensive, accurate and complete. The various types of ow-sheet are discussed below.
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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

4.2.1. Block diagrams

A block diagram is the simplest form of presentation. Each block can represent a single piece of equipment or a complete stage in the process. Block diagrams were used to illustrate the examples in Chapters 2 and 3. They are useful for showing simple processes. With complex processes, their use is limited to showing the overall process, broken down into its principal stages; as in Example 2.13 (Vinyl Chloride). In that example each block represented the equipment for a complete reaction stage: the reactor, separators and distillation columns. Block diagrams are useful for representing a process in a simplied form in reports and textbooks, but have only a limited use as engineering documents. The stream ow-rates and compositions can be shown on the diagram adjacent to the stream lines, when only a small amount of information is to be shown, or tabulated separately. The blocks can be of any shape, but it is usually convenient to use a mixture of squares and circles, drawn with a template.

4.2.2. Pictorial representation

On the detailed ow-sheets used for design and operation, the equipment is normally drawn in a stylised pictorial form. For tender documents or company brochures, actual scale drawings of the equipment are sometimes used, but it is more usual to use a simplied representation. The symbols given in British Standard, BS 1553 (1977) Graphical Symbols for General Engineering Part 1, Piping Systems and Plant are recommended; though most design ofces use their own standard symbols. A selection of symbols from BS 1553 is given in Appendix A. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has also published a set of symbols for use on ow-sheets. Austin (1979) has compared the British Standard, ANSI, and some proprietary ow-sheet symbols. In Europe, the German standards organisation has published a set of guide rules and symbols for ow-sheet presentation, DIN 28004 (1988). This is available in an English translation from the British Standards Institution.

4.2.3. Presentation of stream ow-rates

The data on the ow-rate of each individual component, on the total stream ow-rate, and the percentage composition, can be shown on the ow-sheet in various ways. The simplest method, suitable for simple processes with few equipment pieces, is to tabulate the data in blocks alongside the process stream lines, as shown in Figure 4.1. Only a limited amount of information can be shown in this way, and it is difcult to make neat alterations or to add additional data. A better method for the presentation of data on ow-sheets is shown in Figure 4.2. In this method each stream line is numbered and the data tabulated at the bottom of the sheet. Alterations and additions can be easily made. This is the method generally used by professional design ofces. A typical commercial ow-sheet is shown in Figure 4.3. Guide rules for the layout of this type of ow-sheet presentation are given in Section 4.2.5.

FLOW-SHEETING
AN 500 Water 2500 Total 3000 H1 Water 5000 Total 5000 60C 15C DM water Steam
From storages

135

15C

40C CW

F1 60C To dryer

Cat. 5 Water 100 Total 105

From catalyst prep

R1 AN Water Polymer Salts Total 50 2600 450 5 3105

60C Water AN Polymer Salts Total 7300 45 2 5 7352 AN Water Polymer Salts Total 5 300 448 trace 753

Equipment key R1 Polymer reactor H1 Water heater F1 Vacuum filter

Figure 4.1.

Flow-sheet: polymer production

4.2.4. Information to be included

The amount of information shown on a ow-sheet will depend on the custom and practice of the particular design ofce. The list given below has therefore been divided into essential items and optional items. The essential items must always be shown, the optional items add to the usefulness of the ow-sheet but are not always included.

Essential information
1. Stream composition, either: (i) the ow-rate of each individual component, kg/h, which is preferred, or (ii) the stream composition as a weight fraction. 2. Total stream ow-rate, kg/h. 3. Stream temperature, degrees Celsius preferred. 4. Nominal operating pressure (the required operating pressure).

Optional information
1. Molar percentages composition. 2. Physical property data, mean values for the stream, such as: (i) density, kg/m3 , (ii) viscosity, mN s/m2 . 3. Stream name, a brief, one or two-word, description of the nature of the stream, for example ACETONE COLUMN BOTTOMS. 4. Stream enthalpy, kJ/h. The stream physical properties are best estimated by the process engineer responsible for the ow-sheet. If they are then shown on the ow-sheet, they are available for use by the specialist design groups responsible for the subsequent detailed design. It is best that each group use the same estimates, rather than each decide its own values.

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Tail gas To sheet no 9317 1 10 Water 11 2

Air Filter 8 Absorber 3 Cooler 6 4 Filter W. H. B. 7 Condenser

12

Compressor 2A 1A Steam 5 1 9

Ammonia 14 From sheet no 9315 Vaporiser Reactor (Oxidiser)

Mixer
13 Product

Flows kg/h Pressures nominal 2A Oxidiser air

(1)

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Line no. 1 1A Stream Ammonia Ammonia Component feed vapour

2 Filtered air

3 Oxidiser feed

4 Oxidiser outlet

5 W.H.B. outlet

6 7 8 9 Condenser Condenser Secondary Absorber gas acid air feed

10 Tail(2) gas

11 Water feed

12 13 Absorber Product C & R Construction Inc acid acid

731.0 2628.2 8644.7 967.2 29.4 1860.7 8 40 1 40 Trace Trace

731.0

3036.9 9990.8

731.0 2628.2 8644.7

Nil 935.7 8668.8 1238.4

408.7 1346.1

683.9 10,014.7 202.5

371.5 10,014.7 21.9 (1) 967.2 (Trace) 850.6 1010.1 1754.8 8 40 11,897.7 8 40 29.4 10,434.4 1 25 26.3 1376.9 8 25

Trace Trace Trace

NH3 O2 N2 NO NO2 HNO3 H2 O Trace 12,003.9 8 204 8 907 8 234 12,003.9 12,003.9 10,143.1 (935.7) 8668.8 (1) (1238.4) Trace Nil 1161.0 275.2 8668.8 202.5 (1) (?) Nil 1161.0

1376.9 2840.0 1 40

Trace Trace Trace Trace 1704.0 1136.0 4700.6 1 43

Nitric acid 60 per cent 100,000 t/y Client BOP Chemicals SLIGO Trace Sheet no. 9316 2554.6 2146.0

Total 8 230

731.0

731.0

13,027.7

11,272.9

Press bar Temp. C

8 15

8 20

1 15

Dwg by Date Checked 25/7/1980

Figure 4.2.

Flow-sheet: simplied nitric acid process (Example 4.2) (1) See example

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Figure 4.2a.

Flow-sheet drawn using FLOSHEET

Figure 4.3.

A typical ow-sheet