Heuristic

IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN

Heuristic
• involving or serving as an aid to learning,
discovery, or problem-solving by experimental
and especially trial-and-error methods
• of or relating to exploratory problem-solving
techniques that utilize self-educating techniques
(such as the evaluation of feedback) to improve
performance
Heuristic
• If applied with thought and care, heuristics can make
life much easier during project scoping, process
design, equipment specification and similar tasks
• Provided that they are updated when appropriate to
keep them relevant, time-tested heuristics rules based
upon experience, also referred to as rules of thumb,
can be useful for the design, specifying and operation
of several kinds of equipment used in process plants.
Heuristic

•A heuristic is a statement concerning

equipment sizes, operating conditions, and
equipment performance that reduces the
need for calculations.
•Experience-based tools used as guidelines
PROCESS OF CREATING NEW HEURISTICS
Predict – Authenticate – Re-evaluate
Rules in Heuristic

• the engineer should not shy away

from using heuristics
• he or she should not rely blindly
upon them.
General Heuristics for Process Design
• Select raw materials and chemical reactions to
avoid or reduce the handling and storage of
hazardous and toxic chemicals.
• Use an excess of one chemical reactant in a
reaction to consume completely a valuable, toxic
or hazardous chemical reactant. (see MSDS for
chemical hazards)
General Heuristics for Process Design
• For pure products, eliminate inert species before
reaction when separations are easy and when the
catalyst is adversely affected by the inert, but not
when a large exothermic heat of reaction must be
removed.
• Introduce purge streams to provide exists for
impurities when the impurities are in trace quantities
or difficult to separate. Light species leave via vapor
purge and heavier species leave via liquid purge
streams.
General Heuristics for Process Design
• Do not purge species that are valuable or toxic or
hazardous even in small concentrations. Add
separators to capture valuable species. Add reactors
to eliminate toxic or hazardous species.
• Byproducts that are produced in reversible reactions,
in small quantities, are usually not recovered in
separators or purged. Instead they are recycled to
extinction
General Heuristics for Process Design
• For competing reactions, both in series and parallel
adjust T and P and catalyst to obtain high yields of the
desired products. Check that there are no kinetic
limits to this assumption.
• For reversible reactions, consider conducting them in
a separation device capable of removing the products
driving the reaction to more products. This gives a
very different distribution of products.
General Heuristics for Process Design
• Separate liquid mixtures with distillation,
stripping, enhanced distillation, LL extraction,
crystallization and/or adsorption.
• Separate vapor mixtures using partial
condensation, cryo D, absorption, adsorption,
membrane sep. and/or desublimation.
General Heuristics for Process Design
• High exothermic heat of reaction: Consider using excess
reactant, an inert diluents or cold shots. Consider them early
on in the design
• Lower exothermic heat of reaction: Use heat exchanger
on/in reactor. Or use intercoolers between adiabatic
reaction stages.
• High endothermic heat of reaction: Consider use of excess
reactant, inert diluents or hot shots. Consider them early on
in the design.
• Lower endothermic heat of reaction: Use heat exchanger
on/in reactor. Or use inter-heaters between adiabatic
reaction stages.
Heat Exchanger Heuristics
• Use shell and tube HX in counter current for process streams.
For T>750F use furnace.
• Near optimal approach ΔT’s
• Below ambient 10F
• Ambient to 300F 20F
• Higher Temps 50F
• 250 to 350 for furnace
• CW temperature range used is 90 to 120 F
• Boiling a liquid use 45 F approach ΔT
Heat Exchanger Heuristics
• In a shell-and-tube exchanger, the tube side is for corrosive, fouling,
scaling and/or high-pressure fluids; the shell side is for viscous and/or
condensing fluids
• Typical minimum temperature approaches are 20°F with normal
coolants, or 10°F or less with refrigerants
• Ordinarily, the maximum heattransfer area for shell and tube heat
exchangers is about 5,000 ft2
• When refrigerating to temperatures below about - 80°F, it is
customary to use cascades of two or more refrigeration stages
Evaporators
• The maintaining of a suitable temperature gradient (for
instance, about 45°F) can minimize film-related efficiency
losses. From an efficiency standpoint, about 250 Btu/(h)(ft2)
is a suitable overall coefficient of heat transfer
• In countercurrent evaporation systems, a suitable
temperature approach between the inlet (hot) and output
(cold) streams is about 30°F. In multistage operation, the
typical minimum value is 10°F
• In a well-designed evaporator system, it should be possible
to achieve heat recoveries of more than 75%
Heat Exchanger Heuristics

•ΔP in HX
•1.5 psi for boiling or condensation
•3 psi for gas
•5 psi for low viscosity liquid
•7-9 psi for high viscosity liquid
•20 psi for process fluid in furnace
Pressure Operation Heuristics
• pump a liquid rather than compress a gas, unless
refrigeration is needed.
Fluid handling
• Fans are suitable for raising gas pressures moderately (for
instance, by 3%, or by 12 in. of water); for higher pressures
up to about 40 psig, blowers are suitable; for yet higher
pressures, employ compressors ( however there is overlap
between the operating ranges of blowers and compressors)
• Typical polytropic efficiencies for large centrifugal
compressors are about 76 to 789f; rotary compressors
normally have efficiencies around 70%, except for liquid-
sealed ones, which have efficiencies around 50%
Fluid handling
• Fans are suitable for raising gas pressures moderately (for
instance, by 3%, or by 12 in. of water); for higher pressures
up to about 40 psig, blowers are suitable; for yet higher
pressures, employ compressors ( however there is overlap
between the operating ranges of blowers and compressors)
• Typical polytropic efficiencies for large centrifugal
compressors are about 76 to 789f; rotary compressors
normally have efficiencies around 70%, except for liquid-
sealed ones, which have efficiencies around 50%
Conveying of particulate solids
• Screw conveyors:
(a) Can transport solids that are abrasive or sticky
(b) Typical incline is about 20 deg
(c) Most are 150 ft or less in length
(d) With a conveyor of 12-in. diameter, throughputs of
up to about 3,000 ft3/h are feasible; typically, screw
rotation rates are up to about 60 rev/min
(e) Power consumption relatively low
Conveying of particulate solids
• Bucket elevators:
(a) Vertical transport of abrasive or sticky
materials is feasible
(b) Typically, speeds can reach 100 to 300 ft/min;
at 100 ft/min, bucket elevators with 20X20-in.
buckets can convey about 1,000 ft3/h
Conveying of particulate solids

•Drag type conveyors:

(a) Can convey for relatively short
distances in any direction
(b) Have high power requirements
(c) Typical speeds are 30 ft/min (for, e.g.,
fly ash) to 250 ft/min (for grains)
Conveying of particulate solids
• Pneumatic conveyors:
(a) They offer high capacity
(b) Usually employed with conveying distances of 400
ft or less
(c) Can transport simultaneously to several
destinations
(d) Operate under vacuum or low pressures
(e) Typical conveying-gas velocities are 35 to 120 ft/s
Cooling towers
• In full-scale units, air saturation can reach 90%
• To minimize pressure drop (ordinarily a maximum of 2 in.
water), employ an open-structured material for the tower fill
• Typical water circulation rates are 1 to 4 gal/min per square
foot, whereas the air rates are 1,300 to 1,800 lb/h per square
foot, or 300 to 400 ft/min
• Countercurrent induced-draft towers, which can cool water
to about 2°F above the wet-bulb temperature, are the most
prevalent version of tower used in the process industries
Cooling towers
• For a given service, the required size (volume) of a given
tower is a function of the difference between the wet- bulb
and the exit temperatures; the smaller the difference, the
larger the required volume
• Evaporation losses are typically 1% of the circulation for
every 100°F of cooling range. Windage or drift losses in
mechanical-draft towers typically amount to 0.1 to 0.3%. To
keep salt from building up excessively, it is typical to blow
down 2.5 to 3% of the circulation
Storage tanks
• For less than 100 gal, it is common practice to use vertical tanks on
legs
• For between 100 and 10,000 gal, horizontal tanks on concrete
supports are commonly used
• For beyond 10,000 gal, consider vertical tanks on concrete
foundations
* Liquids that are subject to breathing losses may conveniently be
stored in tanks with floating or expansion roofs, for conservation
* Although the amount of material inventoried is highly plant-specific,
many process plants specify 30 days worth of capacity, for raw
materials and products alike
Drums
• Liquid drums usually are horizontal
• Drums for gas-liquid separation are vertical
• A length-to-diameter ratio of 3 is considered optimal; but in practice,
the ratio for drums commonly falls between 2.5 and 5.0
• In liquid-liquid separation, reflux drums are usually kept about half
full, with holdup time of about 5 min. (or 5 to 10 min if the drum
liquid is fed to a downstream separation tower)
• For entrainment removal, mesh pads of 4 to 12 in. thickness can
achieve 99% removal; a thickness of 6 in. is widely used
Reactors
• In stirred tank reactors, it is preferable to maintain a
liquid level that is approximately equal to the tank
diameter
• Common motives for conducting batch reactions, in
stirred-tank reactors, are: the daily production rate is
relatively low; reaction times are relatively long;
particular process parameters, such as the feed rate or
the vessel temperature, must be programmed during
the course of the reaction
Reactors
• An array of continuous stirred-tank reactors in
series (four or five, for instance) is in many cases
the system of choice for slow reactions ofliquids
and slurries
• Tubular reactors are attractive for short-
residence-time reactions (seconds or minutes),
high throughputs, and reactions that require a
relatively large amount of heat transfer
Distillation and gas absorption
• Generally speaking, distillation tends to be the most
economical method for liquid-liquid separation; more so, for
instance, than liquid-liquid extraction or crystallization.
Flashing can be more economical than distillation, but is
more limited by physical properties of the mixture
• The well-known simple equation for relative volatility -
relative volatility = (vapor pressure of more volatile
component)/(vapor pressure of less-volatile component) - is
valid only for ideal mixture
Distillation and gas absorption
• If the system is ideal and there are only two components,
the McCabe-Thiele method offers a good approximation
to the number of equilibrium stages
• The most common determinant of the column operating
pressure is either the temperature of the available
condensing medium (in many cases, cooling water at
about 100 to 120°F) or the maximum allowable reboiler
temperature (for instance, 366°F for 150-psig steam)
Distillation and gas absorption
• For many separations, the optimal reflux ratio is 1.2 times the
minimum reflux ratio
• In many cases, the economically optimal number of trays equals twice
the minimum number of trays
• Reflux pumps should be oversized by about 25%
• From a maintenance standpoint, tray spacings of about 20 to 24 in.
are attractive
• Typical pressure drop per tray is of the order of 3 in. of water or 0.1
psi
Distillation and gas absorption
• For separation of light hydrocarbons and aqueous solutions,
the tray efficiencies are typically 60 to 90% for distillation,
and 10 to 20% for gas absorption and stripping
• For a typical sieve tray, the holes are 0.25-0.50 in diameter,
and the hole area is about one-tenth of the active cross-
section area
• For a typical valve tray, the holes are about 1.5 in. diameter,
each outfitted with a liftable cap; there are typically 12 to 14
caps per square foot of active tray cross-section
Distillation and gas absorption
• The typical height of a column weir is 2 in.; the weir length is
usually about 75% of the tray diameter; maximum liquid rate
is about 8 gal/ min. per inch of weir; for high liquid rates,
multipass arrangement are often the choice
• For towers of less than 3 ft diameter and where low pressure
drop through the tower is desirable, packings (random or
structured) are commonly preferred over trays. If the packing
is initially distributed with care and is periodically
redistributed, the volumetric efficiency can be greater than
that of a comparable tray tower
Distillation and gas absorption
• Most reflux drums are horizontal, kept about half full, and
have a liquid holdup of 5 min
• For 3-ft-diameter towers, about 4 ft of column height should
be added at the top for vapor disengagement, and 6 ft at the
bottom for liquid level and reboiler return
• Due to wind-loading and other structural considerations,
towers should be no higher than about 175 ft. Furthermore,
the ratio of tower height to diameter should be less than 30
Liquid-liquid extraction
• Ordinarily, the phase with the greater volumetric
flowrate should be the dispersed phase; however, in
extractors subject to backmixing, the phase with the
lower flowrate should instead be dispersed. It is also
preferable that the dispersed phase be the one that
wets the equipment less well. Finally, because the
holdup of continuous phase is usually the greater, it is
desirable that that phase consist of the less expensive
and/or less hazardous material
Liquid-liquid extraction
• For separations achievable in relatively few stages (5 to 10
for instance), packed extraction towers offer advantages,
unless the surface tension exceeds 10 dynes/cm. It is
possible to achieve attractive HETS values (5 to 10 ft, for
example). Dispersed-phase loadings should not exceed 25
gal/(ft2 min), and the dispersed phase should be
redistributed every 5 to 7 ft
• Sieve tray on extraction columns typically have holes of only
3- to 8-mm diameter. Velocities through the holes should
kept below about 0.8 ft/s to minimize formation of
excessively small drops. Typical tray spacings are 6 to 24 in.;
typical tray efficiencies are in the range of 20 to 30%
Crystallization from solution
• Whether melt crystallization or crystallization from solution
is employed, the maximum recovery of solids is limited by
the eutectic composition
• Crystal growth rates and the final crystal size are both
controlled by limiting the extent of supersaturation in the
liquid
• It is good operating practice to hold the liquid temperature
at a few Fahrenheit degrees below the saturation
temperature for the prevailing concentration
Filtration
• A convenient way to classify the ease of a given filtration task
is to measure the rate of cake buildup on a laboratory
vacuum leaf filter: 0.1 to 10 cm/s indicates rapid filtration;
0.1 to 10 cm/ min, medium-speed filtration; and 0.1 to 10
cm/h, slow filtration
• Selection of the filtration method for a given task depends
partly on whether the liquid phase or the solid phase is the
one of value. Among the suitable methods if the liquid phase
is desired are filter presses, sand filters and pressure filters. If
the solid phase is desired, consider rotary vacuum filters
Drying of Solids
• Continuous tray and belt dryers for natural or pelletized 3-
15-mm granular material commonly have drying times in the
range of 10-200 min
• Drum dryers that handle pastes and slurries operate with
contact times of 3-12 seconds, generating flakes that are 1-3
mm thick; common evaporation rates are 15 to 30
kh/(m2)(h). Commonly found diameters are 1.5 to 5.0 ft;
common rotation rates are 2-10 rev/min; evaporative
capacities as high as about 3,000 lb/h are feasible in full-sale
installations
Drying of Solids
• Fluidized-bed dryers work best on very small particles, with diameters
of a few tenths of a millimeter; but this technique has also been used
successfully with particles of up to 4 mm diameter. A suitable velocity
for the fluidization gas is twice the minimum required for fluidization.
In many continuous operations, drying times of 1-2 min are sufficient,
but some products (including some pharmaceuticals) require much
longer
• Most spray dryers complete their task in less than one minute; in fact,
the surface moisture is usually removed within the first 5 s. The wet
feed and the drying air are most commonly fed in parallel. The
atomizing nozzles typically operate at pressures of 300 to 400 psi, and
have openings that measure 0.012 to 0.15 in.
Size Reduction
• Ball or roller mills are commonly set up to operate in a closed
circuit which includes size classification and the return of the
oversize to the mill
• Roll crushers come in two versions: either smooth or with
teeth. A 24-in., toothed crusher can accommodate pieces of
feed as large as 7 in. in radius. Smooth rolls achieve
reduction ratios of about fourfold. Rotation speeds are
typically 50 to 900 rev/min
Size Reduction
• To produce particularly small particles, consider hammer
mills. Large units operate at 900 rev/min; small ones can
reach 16,000 rev/min
• Rod mills usually feed on particles of about 50-mm size. The
material is usually reduced to about 8-65 mesh, but
reduction to 300 mesh is achievable
•
Size Reduction
• For fine grinding, consider ball mills, tube mills or
pebble mills. The lastnamed are the choice when
metal contaminations must be avoided
• For jaw crushers, the feed is usually under 4 in.
diameter; typically, about eight to ten strokes are
needed to achieve the required size reduction.
Gyratory crushers can produce particles that are more
rounded
Mixing and agitation
• Solids with a low settling velocity (such as 0.03 ft/s)
can be successfully suspended with either turbine or
propeller agitators; suspension of solids with settling
velocities greater than 0.15 ft/s requires vigorous
agitation with a propeller
• When only brief contact time (such as 1 or 2 s) is
required between two components, inline blending
should prove adequate. Typical power inputs are 0.1
to 0.2 hp/gal
Mixing and agitation
• Small propellers are usually run at about 1,500
to 1,750 rev/min, large ones at about 400 to 800
rev/min
• Paddle agitators typically employ paddles that
extend to about 50 to 80% of the inside
diameter of the vessel. Typically, the rate of
rotation lies between 20 and 150 rev/min
Agglomeration
• Some major methods of particle size enlargement are:
compression into a mold; extrusion through a die followed by
cutting or breaking to size; globule formation from molten
material followed by solidification; and agglomeration under
tumbling or other conditions of agitation without a binding agent
• For rotating-drum granulators typical length-to-diameter ratios
are 2 to 3, rotational speeds are 10 to 20 rev/ min, and the pitch
as great as 10 deg. The size of the produced granules depends in
part on the rotational speed, the residence time and the amount
of binder. Commonly, the produced granules are 2 to 5 mm in
diameter
Agglomeration
• If uniformity of product size is important, rotary disk
granulators are preferable to drum granulators, other
things being equal
* For roll compacting and briquetting, typical rolls
measure from 130-mm diameter by 30 mm wide to
about 900- mm diameter by 550 mm wide. The
material extruded by the rolls, typically about 1 mm
thick, can be broken into any size desired
Agglomeration
• Rotary compression equipment, feeding upon powders or
granules and typically operating at around 100 rev/min, is
suitable for producing tablets of uniform size, at rates as high
as 10,000 tablets/min
• Fluidized-bed granulation is typically carried out in beds
having a depth of 12 to 24 in. Typical air velocities are 0.1 to
2.5 m/s, which is three to ten times the minimum velocity
needed for fluidization
References
• Anaya Durand, A., Alarid Miguel, J., Gallegos Diez Barroso, G., Alejandro
Leon Garcia, M., & Pablo Sierra Angeles, J. (2006). Heuristics rules for
process equipment. Chemical Engineering -New York- Mcgraw Hill
Incorporated Then Chemical Week Publishing Llc-, 113, 44–47.
• Luyben, W. L. (2010). Heuristic Design of Reaction/Separation Processes.
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 49(22), 11564–11571.
https://doi.org/10.1021/ie101509w
• http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/CHE/alamer/ChE_425/CHE_425_Ch9.pdf
• https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~dlewin/CACHE_Workshop/LECTURE_05_He
uristics_for_Process_Synthesis.pdf
• https://www.che.utah.edu/~ring/.../4-L2-
Heuristics%20for%20Process%20Design.ppt