Material and energy balance in process plant design

Once the literature survey in done and the specific objectives and the plant size has been determined from demand study, the next step is to do the mass and energy balance. This is a crutial step as it affects the sizing and thus the economics of the plant.  

In this blog, I will revise some principles and state how to do balances on filters, distillation columns, kilns and so on. Soon I will add more posts on solved energy and material balances on some key processes. Please subscribe to get email updates on the coming posts which you shouldn´t miss.

The market demand study and raw material availability studies give us the proper size of the manufacturing plant. The size of the plant should balance the raw material availability and the market demand. Based on this, the material and energy balances are done.

Using the information form demand study determine the capacity of the plant in terms of total annual production or total raw material requirement. This leads to the following ways of making balances.

There are two approaches for performing material and energy balances; upstream and downstream ways as known informally. In the upstream the balance is started from the last

Critical reading in literature survey

A literature survey is not a collection of paraphrases from many sources instead it is a serious evaluation of previous researches with an aim to expand on the reasons for pursuing  a particular research. 

It is important to be critical while reviewing literature in research investigation because of three main reasons. First, to develop properly the research questions and develop once own approach. Secondly, to know most important issues and their relative contribution to the research. Thirdly, to write papers critically.  

Critical reading and thinking during literature review helps to establish a theoretical framework and methodological focus for a research. Especially if the research is new, a critical literature review helps to design a proper methodology relative to what has been done before. Being

Literature survey in process plant design, Part Two

Problem statement: This section develops the main motivation for the study explaining real life problems to be dealt with. It is also called the rationale.  In stating the problem it is best to specifically describe what the project intends to solve. For example, the possible real life problems may be shortage or even absence of the product in the local market, or to reduce the foreign import or to introduce a new and innovative product.  The problem statement should specifically mention these reasons.  

The justifications of the project, reasons for studying the problem, should also be included in this section. For instance, the fact that Brewery industries in XXX region mainly import malt while it

Market study in process plant design

Market study is the crucial part of the literature survey as it later determines the proper size of the plant and the selling price of the product. It contains present demand and supply, pricing and distribution and projected demand. The later could be made based on the past and current price trends. Also, it can be estimated from expected future scenarios (e.g

Literature survey in process plant design (Part One)

A literature survey is not a collection of paraphrases from many sources instead it is a serious evaluation of previous researches with an aim to expand on the reasons for pursuing  a particular research.  See the post critical reading in literature survey.

The literature survey is best written if it is designed to contain the at least the following information; history and background, problem statement, methodology and objectives.

History and background: It reviews previous literature on related topics of the main research idea. Note that you should write only relevant information. Don´t fall in the trap of stating every trivial but non important texts just because you like them or want to increase your thesis volume.

For a plant design project, the best contents are short description of the process, chemical