Page 105 - Design of Simple and Robust Process Plants

90 Chapter 4 Process Synthesis and Design Optimization
I can find a hundred men to tell me an idea won't work, what I want are men who will
make it work.

Creativity is an activity which can be stimulated in brain storming exercises by
means of a technique called functional analysis as discussed in Chapter 10. Ref-
erence need to be made to process knowledge but also to simplification techniques
as discussed in the following chapter.

Summary
The lessons to be learned for synthesis teams with regard to creativity are:

. Be aware of the opportunities for designing competitive plants based on the
simple and robust concepts.
. Motivate the development team in being creative, and challenge the team at
the synthesis steps of the project to come up with creative solutions ± but
leave time for implementation.
. Sequential thinking in solving problems is a barrier against finding inte-
grated, operational solutions.
. Set up brainstorming teams during different phases of the synthesis work to
generate the maximum number of ideas, and have them evaluated by the
team itself.
. Be aware that selling new ideas is much more difficult that creating them.
. Creativity resulting in design improvement alternatives can at best be excer-
sized in brain storming sessions..

4.2
The Methodology of Process Synthesis

The starting point for a conceptual design (including a process synthesis study) is a
technical feasibility study for a project, as mentioned previously. The feasibility
study, which is based on process simulations and economic cost, compares the dif-
ferent technologies and selects the best technology for the project. The selected tech-
nology also emphases a feasible flowsheet
The first elements to be collected and completed during the synthesis work are:
. The physical and chemical properties.
. The constraints (see Section 4.1.2).
. The reactor and separation models for the selected technology, based on the
feasible flowsheet.
. The unit ratios and the DFCs and NPVs of the different sections of the select-
ed technology, based on the feasible flowsheet
In the following paragraphs, the methodology is followed as shown diagrammati-
cally in Figure 4.1 and Table 4.1.