1 1. Locations where gravity feed is used.

      2 2. Product quality concerns where product residence times must be minimized

      3 3. Equipment requiring easy access for maintenance.

      1 1. Prepare heat and mass balance studies for a proposed process, both “by hand” and by use of computer programs. The use of a spreadsheet package (e.g., Excel) is now prevalent in accomplishing these calculations. Simulation software products from vendors are now apt in performing these tasks.

      2 2. Prepare rough cost economics, including preliminary sizing and important details of equipment, factor to an order of magnitude capital cost estimate [3] (see also [2]), prepare a production cost estimate and work with economic evaluation representatives to establish a payout and the financial economics of the proposed process.

      3 3. Participate in layout planning for the proposed plant (see [4, 5]).

      4 4. Prepare final detailed heat and material balances.

      5 5. Prepare detailed sizing of all process equipment and possibly some utility systems. It is important that the process engineer visualizes the flow and processing of the fluids through the system and inside the various items of equipment in order to adequately recognize what will take place during the process.

      6 6. Prepare/supervise preparation of draft of process flowsheets for review by others.

      7 7. Prepare/supervise preparation of piping or mechanical flow diagram or piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID), with necessary preliminary sizing of all pipe lines, distillation equipment, pumps, compressors, and so on, and representation of all instrumentation for detailing by instrument engineers.

      8 8. Prepare mechanical and process specifications for all equipment, tanks, pumps, compressors, separators, drying systems, and refrigeration systems. This must include the selection of materials of construction and safety systems and the coordination of specifications with instrumentation and electrical requirements.

      9 9. Determine size and specifications for all safety relief valves and/or rupture disks for process safety relief (including runaway reactions) and relief in case of external fire.

      10 10. Prepare valve code specifications for incorporation on item 7 above, or select from existing company standards for the fluids and their operating conditions (see Figures 14.21 and 14.22).

      11 11. Select from company insulation standards (or prepare, if necessary) the insulation codes to be applied to each hot or cold pipe or equipment. Note that insulation must be applied in some cases only to prevent operating personnel from contacting the base equipment. Table 14.1 for typical insulation thickness from which code numbers can be established.

      12 12. Establish field construction hydraulic test pressures for each process equipment. Sometimes the equipment is blanked or blocked off, and no test pressure is applied in the field, because all pressure equipment must be tested in the fabricators’ or manufacturers’ shop as per American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code.

      13 13. Prepare drafts of line schedule and/or summary sheets (Figures 14.20a–14.20d), and equipment summary schedules (Figures 14.23–14.28), plus summary schedules for safety relief valves and rupture disks, compressors and other major equipment. Some of the process data sheets and equipment schedules (over 30) are readily available for downloading from the companion website.

      14 14. Prepare detailed process and mechanical specifications for developing proposals for purchase by the purchasing department.

      15 15. Participate and possibly lead the process hazard reviews (i.e., hazard and operability studies, (HAZOP) (Chapter 24).