Basic Principles and Calculations in Process Technology

A Practical Guide to Physical and Chemical Principles and Calculations for Today’s Process Control Operators

In Basic Principles and Calculations in Process Technology, author T. David Griffith walks process technologists through the basic principles that govern their operations, helping them collaborate with chemical engineers to improve both safety and productivity. He shows process operators how to go beyond memorizing rules and formulas to understand the underlying science and physical laws, so they can accurately interpret anomalies and respond appropriately when exact rules or calculation methods don’t exist.

Using simple algebra and non-technical analogies, Griffith explains each idea and technique without calculus. He introduces each topic by explaining why it matters to process technologists and offers numerous examples that show how key principles are applied and calculations are performed. For end-of-chapter problems, he provides the solutions in plain-English discussions of how and why they work. Chapter appendixes provide more advanced information for further exploration.

Basic Principles and Calculations in Process Technology is an indispensable, practical resource for every process technologist who wants to know “what the numbers mean” so they can control their systems and processes more efficiently, safely, and reliably.

T. David Griffith received his B.S. in chemical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then top-ranked in the discipline. After working in research on enhanced oil recovery (EOR), he cofounded a small chemical company, and later in his career he developed a record-setting Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) software package. He currently instructs in the hydrocarbon processing industry.

Coverage includes

• Preparing to solve problems by carefully organizing them and establishing consistent sets of measures

• Calculating areas and volumes, including complex objects and interpolation

• Understanding Boyle’s Law, Charles’s Law, and the Ideal Gas Law

• Predicting the behavior of gases under extreme conditions

• Applying thermodynamic laws to calculate work and changes in gas enthalpy, and to recognize operational problems

• Explaining phase equilibria for distillation and fractionalization

• Estimating chemical reaction speed to optimize control

• Balancing material or energy as they cross system boundaries

• Using material balance calculations to confirm quality control and prevent major problems

• Calculating energy balances and using them to troubleshoot poor throughput

• Understanding fluid flow, including shear, viscosity, laminar and turbulent flows, vectors, and tensors

• Characterizing the operation of devices that transport heat energy for heating or cooling

• Analyzing mass transfer in separation processes for materials purification

There is growing demand for a new generation of process control operators: a demand that is typically served through Process Technology programs at community and junior colleges. The field's Center for the Advancement of Process Technology (CAPT) has identified the physics and chemistry knowledge needed by process operators, but until now, no single textbook brought together that knowledge. Basic Principles and Calculations in Process Technology fills this significant gap in the marketplace, covering all relevant foundational chemical and physical science. By doing so, this classroom-tested book will help process operators to go beyond simply following rules, and interpret what is occurring during an anomaly. It also establishes a firm basis for communication between operators and the chemical engineers who will supervise them.

The book explains by simple arithmetic analogies the basic principles governing process operations without using complicated calculus or differential equations, and includes:

• Basic concepts, units of measure, conversion factors, and areas/volumes
• Gas Laws: P/V/T Boyles Law
• Thermodynamics: Energy, heat, and work
• Material and energy balances including shell balances and laboratory calculations
• Reaction kinetic effects on processes, simplifying complex mechanisms involving intermediate steps
• Transport phenomena: fluid flow, heat transfer, and mass transfer diffusion using simplified shell balances
• Relevant economics: accounting material balance, DROI, discounted rate of return on investment 

Dr. David Griffith received his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then ranked number one in chemical engineering. After working in research on enhanced oil recovery (EOR), he and two friends started a small chemical company in Wisconsin specializing in furniture restoration products. Later, his career took a major shift when he developed a record-setting electronic data interchange (EDI) software package for his wife’s computer software consulting business, and provided support to users as far away as Australia. Now, he is doing what he enjoys most, teaching in the hydrocarbon processing industry.

In addition to technical papers based on his graduate school and industrial research, he also wrote and published the user manuals for his EDI software, with which users set implementation records with trading partners J.C. Penney’s and Marathon Oil.

Griffith says, “One would be amazed with the parallels between teaching students, reporting research results to associates, and supporting business customers over long distances.” Besides his background in chemical engineering, he was also mentored by one of the most outstanding statisticians in the world who also had a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering along with an M.S. and Ph.D. in statistics. He also says that he tries to be practical and takes the approach of understanding processes instead of just working with equations.

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Chapter 1: Introductory Concepts

Chapter 2: Areas, Volumes, Complex Objects, and Interpolation

Chapter 3: Units of Measure

Chapter 4: Gas Laws: Pressure, Volume, and Temperature

Chapter 5: Thermodynamics: Energy, Heat, and Work

Chapter 6: Phase Equilibria

Chapter 7: Chemical Reaction Kinetics

Chapter 8: Material Balances

Chapter 9: Energy Balances

Chapter 10: Transport Phenomena: Fluid Flow

Chapter 11: Transport Phenomena: Heat Transfer

Chapter 12: Transport Phenomena: Mass Transfer

Chapter 13: Postface

Appendix A : Answers to Problems

Appendix B: Conversion Factors

Appendix C: Gas Constants

Appendix D: Steam Tables

Index