Page 12 - Design of Simple and Robust Process Plants

Design of Simple and Robust Process Plants. J. L. Koolen XIII
Copyright 2002 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
ISBNs: 3-527-29784-7 (Hardback); 3-527-60047-7 (Electronic)

Foreword

The very rapid development of the chemical industry after the Second World War
has been accompanied by an equally rapid development of the science of chemical
engineering. Simultaneous developments in other engineering disciplines have
enabled the manufacture of new and much better equipment and instrumentation
for process plants. During the 1970s,a high level of efficiency was reached,so much
so that even now some researchers in the field insist that it was during that decade
that process design discipline reached maturity. However,new demands by the pub-
lic have led to an increasing amount of attention being paid to aspects of safety and
environmental protection. Moreover,progress in the fields of mathematics,infor-
matics,physics,and electronics have major implications for chemical engineers.
Today,most design methods for equipment have been converted into software so
that many routine tasks can be carried out using a computer.
During recent years,an awareness of the limited availability of raw materials and
energy sources,together with the high priority for environmental protection,have
led to an intensification of the interaction between different relevant disciplines. In
addition,the globalization of chemical enterprises ± leading to larger sizes of
chemical companies and a much stronger competition world-wide ± demands much
more awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of a company's own specialists
compared with that of their competitors. Competition demands strict control of
investments. Companies will build their plants wherever the best economics are
achieved,and hence investment in plants will be carefully controlled. Whilst savings
on investments implies that more plants can be built with the same available funds,
even greater new demands will have to be met in the 21st century! Technology will
be judged on the basis of its sustainability,and in the future new renewable raw
materials will have to be used for our daily goods,energy,and fuels. Moreover,pro-
cesses will need to become an order of magnitude more reliable.
Over the years,many scientists have pondered the fundamentals of engineering
disciplines,including the strategy of process engineering and the logistics of
chemical manufacturing. In turn,this has led to many system studies and even
schools of study of the process design engineer's work. Although many rules and
regulations have been developed for system studies,production scheduling and
production logistics,very few of these are actually used in the process industry.
Much can be learned from positive achievements in the mass production of consu-