INTRODUCTION TO PROCESS PLANT LAYOUT & PIPING DESIGN

The objective of plant design is to define the equipment, piping, instrumentation and process requirements needed to build and operate a process plant. By equipment, we mean vessels, pumps, heat exchangers, etc. These are the most common type of equipment in chemical and petrochemical plants, where most of the process streams are gases or liquids. Other industries that deal with solids use equipment like conveyors, Cyclones, and others that will not be dealt with here. Vessels can be of many types, such as drums, tanks, reactors, phase separators, and distillation columns.

 PIPING DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS

Piping is the physical elements that interconnect the equipment and in which the process streams flow. Piping comes in different sizes and materials. It is the duty of the process engineer to specify the size and materials of the piping and also the thermal insulation, if required. The term piping also includes accessories such as elbows, tees, valves, flanges, etc. The most common material is carbon steel. Other materials, such as varies grades of stainless steel, and plastic materials, such as PVC, Teflon, are also used. Instrumentation are devices used to measure, control, and monitor the process variables. These variables can be flow, temperature, pressure liquid levels, viscosity, and others. Control valves and relief valves are also an important part of the instrumentation. Plant design normally starts with a process scheme that is a known series of physiochemical operations that must be performed to go from the feed stocks to the desired products. These operations are established during the process development stage, normally in pilot plants, which are a small scale versions of the industrial plant. The most common operations are: Mixing two or more streams to obtain a homogeneous mixture. Splitting a stream in two or more streams of same composition.

Heating or cooling stream to a given temperature. Vaporizing a liquid stream partially or totally. Condensing a vapor stream partially or totally. Adiabatically flashing a stream to a given pressure. Exchanging heat between two streams. Pumping a liquid stream. Compressing a vapor stream. Separating a stream into 2 or more streams in a series of vapor- liquid equilibrium (VLE). Reacting certain components of a mixed stream according to a predefined stoichiometry.

PIPING DESIGN
Piping plant design is an essential part of successful plant operation. Many decisions must be made in the design phase to achieve this successful operation, including: Required fluid quantity to or from a process The optimum pressure- temperature for the process Piping material selection Stress and nozzle load determination Pipe support scheme

PRINCIPALS OF PROCESS PLANT LAYOUT

PLOT PLAN
Roads Access Storage Admin Utilities

PROCESS PLANT
Roads Access Units Buildings

PROCESS UNIT
Access Equipment

PROCESS EQUIPMENT
Spacing Arrangement

IMPORTANT ISSUES IN LAYOUT

General terrain Safety and environment Regulations, Native, Flammable /non-flammable materials High /Low pressure units Wet / Dry systems Maintenance, Utilities

IMPORTANT SAFETY ISSUES IN PLANT LAYOUT

Accident containment and avoidance of Domino effects High hazard operations Segregation of different risks Exposure to possible explosion over pressure Exposure to fire radiation Minimizing vulnerable piping Drainage and grade sloping Prevailing wind directions Provisions for future expansion

OVERALL PHILOSOPHY
Arrange units to provide: Economical plant Safe and easy to operate and maintain Compactness in arrangement Integrated in flow sequence Space provided for convenient operation and maintenance access Planed expansion

HOUSED PLANT
Multi level Vertical and horizontal arrangements important Gravity flow possible Mobile crane-use in central aisle Pipe rack locations and main access Piping runs to change elevation on direction change Ability to extend plant Offices and control room

EQUIPMENT LAYOUT ISSUES

Pumps (NPSH, suction line, motor location) Instrumentation(CVs accessible) Heat exchangers(bundles, fin-fan vs. water)

Flares(radiation levels, alternatives) Solids (use gravity flow, Containment) Expensive piping (Run lengths) Reactors (catalyst dump) Maintenance (access, removal)

MODULAR SYSTEMS
Major savings in construction costs( 50%) Require more detailed engineering design Extra structural steel (30%) Transportation costs (1-2% of module cost) Small footprints possible Ideal for small-scale plants

PROCEDURE & WORK FLOW PHYSICAL QUANTITIES & UNITS

We have just brought the pipes now we need to solve some more problems. Pipes are all straight pieces. Even some Pipes are of different sizes We need some branch connections. We need some bend connections. Anyway, the pipes and fittings are in place, but the ends are yet to joined with the Tank nozzles. We now have to complete the end connections We need some arrangement to stop the flow if needed To control the flow in a pipe line we need to fit a special component, that is called- valve Other than valves another important line component of pipe line is a filter, which cleans out debris from flowing fluid. This is called strainer When some fluid is flowing in a pipe we may also like know the parameters like, pressure, temperature, flow rate etc. of the fluid. To know these information we need to Install INSTRUMENTS in the pipeline Here are some of the pipe supporting arrangements. There can be numerous variants. All depend on piping designers preference and judgment.

PROCESS UNIT

Access

Equipment

PROCESS EQUIPMENT

Spacing

Arrangement

IMPORTANT ISSUES IN LAYOUT

General terrain

Safety and environment

Regulations, Native,

Flammable /non-flammable materials

High /Low pressure units

Wet / Dry systems

Maintenance, Utilities

Important Safety Issues in Plant layout

Accident containment and avoidance of Domino effects

High hazard operations

Segregation of different risks

Exposure to possible explosion over pressure

Exposure to fire radiation

Minimizing vulnerable piping

Drainage and grade sloping

Prevailing wind directions

Overall Philosophy

Arrange units to provide:

Economical plant

Safe and easy to operate and maintain

Compactness in arrangement

Integrated in flow sequence

Space provided for convenient operation and maintenance access

Planed expansion

Housed Plant

Multi level

Vertical and horizontal arrangements important

Gravity flow possible

Mobile crane-use in central aisle

Pipe rack locations and main access

Piping runs to change elevation on direction change

Ability to extend plant

Offices and control room

Pumps (NPSH, suction line, motor location)

Instrumentation(CVs accessible)

Heat exchangers(bundles, fin-fan vs water)

Flares(radiation levels, alternatives)

Solids (use gravity flow, Containment)

Expensive piping (Run lengths)

Reactors (catalyst dump)

Maintenance (access, removal)

& Piping Design Fundamentals

Piping is the physical elements that interconnect the equipment and in which the process streams flow. Piping comes in different sizes and materials. It is the duty of the process engineer to specify the size and materials of the piping and also the thermal insulation, if required. The term piping also includes accessories such as elbows, tees, valves, flanges, etc.

The most common material is carbon steel. Other materials, such as varies grades of stainless steel, and plastic materials, such as PVC, Teflon, are also used.

Instrumentation are devices used to measure, control, and monitor the process variables.

These variables can be flow, temperature, pressure liquid levels, viscosity, and others. Control valves and relief valves are also an important part of the instrumentation.

Plant design normally stars with a process scheme that is a known series of physic-chemical operations that must be performed to go from the feed stocks to the desired products. These operations are established during the process development stage, normally in pilot plants, which are a small scale versions of the industrial plant.

The most common operations are:

Mixing two or more streams to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Splitting a stream in two or more streams of same composition.

Heating or cooling stream to a given temperature.

Vaporizing a liquid stream partially or totally.

Condensing a vapor stream partially or totally.

Adiabatically flashing a stream to a given pressure.

Exchanging heat between two streams.

Pumping a liquid stream.

Compressing a vapor stream.

Separating a stream into 2 or more streams in a series of vapor- liquid equilibrium (VLE).

Reacting certain components of a mixed stream according to a predefined stoichiometry.

Piping code

In 1926 the American standards institute initiated Project B31 develop a piping code. ASME was the sole administrative sponsor. A number of separate sections have been prepared, most of which have been published.

The various sections designations follow.

B31.1 Power Piping

B31.2 Fuel Gas Piping (Withdrawn in 1988)

B31.3 Process piping.

B31.4 Liquid Transportation System for Hydrocarbons, Liquid Petroleum Gas, Anhydrous Ammonia, and Alcohols.

B31.5 Refrigeration Piping.

B31.6 Chemical Plant Piping (never published).

B31.7 Nuclear Piping(Moved to B&PV Code Section III).

B31.8 GAS Transmission and Distribution piping Systems.

B31.9 Building Service Piping.

B31.10 Cryogenic Piping (Never published).

B31.11 Slurry Piping.

B31.12 Hydrogen Piping (project started in 20004)

Plant Capacity in MTPY(metric ton per year)

Product specification in terms of purity maximum content of certain inpurities,