Chapter Three
Process Flow Diagrams
Dr. Mohannad Aljarrah
Department of Chemical Engineering
Jordan University of Science and Technology
Creating a process can be demonstrated with
the following chart
Select mode: Raw materials, products, by- Review and determine
Batch or continuous products required principal operation
Continuous: preferred for commodity chemicals,
petroleum products, plastics, papers, solvents,
etc…
Continuous processes are the norm unless proven
otherwise as it reduces labor cost, improve
controllability, and provide more uniform product
Batch/Semi-continuous process: utilized for small
production rates, e.g., specialty chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, electronic materials. Also for
intermittent demand and when plant is used for
different products.
Batch may be used if safety is of concern.
Production rate is determined by market, and raw
materials consumption is determined by production.
Rate of consumption determines composition, phase,
form, temperature, pressure…
1st rule of thumb
Recycle at least 99% of the valuable reactants
2nd rule of thumb
Do not bother about less valuable reactants (air, water,
etc)
Establish flow rates of each product
Define:
◦ Phase (liquid, gas, solid)
◦ Composition (mole or mass fraction)
◦ Form (particle size, particle size distribution)
◦ Temperature
◦ Pressure
◦ Special storage requirements
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Converting raw materials to products involves any
number of the following basic steps:
◦ Molecular change Reaction
◦ Composition change Separation
◦ Phase elimination phase separator
◦ Temperature difference Change in temperature
◦ Pressure difference Change in pressure
◦ Phase difference change in phase
◦ Distribution change mixing of streams.
The objective is to converge the raw material (A) at
certain conditions to final product (B) at other
conditions, the differences are eliminated by the
above basic operations.
The most effective way of communicating
information about a process is through the
use of flow diagrams
Turton et al., Analysis, synthesis and design of chemical processes, 1998
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Conceptual understanding
Block Flow Diagram (BFD)
Ease of navigation
Complexity
Details
Process Flow Diagram (PFD)
Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID)
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BFD is a:
◦ series of blocks connected with the input and
output stream
◦ is a diagram that shows the general structure of the
process
◦ is a diagram that provides little information about
the process such as temperatures and pressures.
However, it does not provide details about what is
going on inside the blocks
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Operations shown by blocks
Major flow lines shown with arrows giving flow direction
Flow goes from left to right whenever possible
Light streams (gases) toward top, heavy streams (liquids and
solids) toward bottom
Critical information unique to the process supplied (i.e., reaction
stoichiometry, conversion)
If line cross, the horizontal is continuous and the vertical is
broken
Simplified material balance
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BFD of coal to higher alcohol fuels process
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PFD shows all process engineering information
Typical conventions :
◦ All major equipment are represented, described and
uniquely numbered
◦ All process flow streams are shown and identified by
numbers, with description of each stream conditions and
composition
◦ All utility streams supplied to major equipment are shown
◦ Basic control loops, illustrating the control strategy used
during normal operation, are shown
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A. Process topology
• Process topology is the location of and interaction
between equipment and process streams
B. Stream Information
C. Equipment information
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British Standard 1553*
Heat exchanger Pump Phase separator Distillation Column
Reactor/Absorber Open tank Conveyer belt Ball mill Cyclone
You may use your company standards or any other standards.
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General format XX-YZZ A/B
◦ XX: 1 or 2 letters to classify the equipment
P = Pump
T = Tower
R = Reactor
E = heat exchanger
TK = Storage tank
etc
◦ Y is the 1 or 2 digits identify the area within the plant
◦ ZZ are the number designation for each item in an
equipment class
◦ A/B represents presence of parallel or backup units (i.e
spare equipment)
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Example2: What each number and letter for the following
equipment means? P-101A/B
P-101A/B The equipment is a pump
P-101A/B The equipment is in area 100, in
some plant it may called area 1
P-101A/B This pump is number 01 in area
100
P-101A/B There is a back-up pump installed.
This means we have 2 identical
pumps P-101A and P-101B
Example2: T-905 is the 5th tower in unit nine hundred
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Streams are typically numbered from left to
right when possible
Horizontal lines are dominant
√ ╳ ╳
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Information flag
Information flag
Some standard symbols
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The information needed are those required to estimate the cost of the equipments
*For complete specification for all other units please refer to Turton et al. 1998.
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Often the basic
control loops are
included on the PFD
instrumentation
and other control
loops are not
shown
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Also called mechanical flow diagram
Contains all piping with valves, control valves, etc…
Contains information required by engineers to start for the
plant construction
Each PFD requires many P&IDs to provide the necessary
data
Allow investigation of effect of operating conditions on
operability and economics (e.g., HAZOP)
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P&ID diagram for benzene distillation in the HDA process
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Based on P&ID diagrams
◦ Mechanical engineers and Civil engineers will build/install
equipment
◦ Instrument engineers will specify/install/check control
systems
◦ Piping engineers will develop plant layout and elevation
drawings
◦ Project engineers will develop plant and construction
schedules
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