Page 115 - Plant design and economics for chemical engineers

GENERAL DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS 9 1
design of piping configuration to accommodate silencers, modification of equip-
ment, additional labor costs, and possible downtime to make necessary changes.
Considerable judgment, therefore, must be exercised by the designer to estab-
lish final design-stage noise recommendations. These should not only consider
the results of the equipment data-analysis procedure, but should also recognize
additional factors such as administrative controls, feasibility of redesign, eco-
nomic alternatives, intrusion of noise into the community, and the basic limita-
tions of the equations employed in the applicable computer programs.
To attain efficient, effective, and practical noise control, it.is necessary to
understand the individual equipment or process noise sources, their acoustic
properties and characteristics, and how they interact to create the overall noise
situation. Table 11 presents typical process design equipment providing high
noise levels and potential solutions to this problem.

PLANT LOCATION
The geographical location of the final plant can have strong influence on the
success of an industrial venture. Considerable care must be exercised in select-
ing the plant site, and many different factors must be considered. Primarily, the
plant should be located where the minimum cost of production and distribution
can be obtained, but other factors, such as room for expansion and safe living
conditions for plant operation as well as the surrounding community, are also
important.
A general consensus as to the plant location should be obtained before a
design project reaches the detailed estimate stage, and a firm location should be
established upon completion of the detailed-estimate design. The choice of the
final site should first be based on a complete survey of the advantages and
disadvantages of various geographical areas and, ultimately, on the advantages
and disadvantages of available real estate. The following factors should be
considered in selecting a plant site:

1. Raw materials availability
2 . Markets
3 . Energy availability
4 . Climate
5 . Transportation facilities
6 . Water supply
7. Waste disposal
8. Labor supply
9. Taxation and legal restrictions
10. Site characteristics
11. Flood and fire protection .
12. Community factors