Process engineering is the understanding and application of the fundamental principles and
laws of nature that allow humans to transform raw material and energy into products that are useful to society, at an industrial level.
[ By taking advantage of the driving forces of nature such as pressure, temperature and concentration gradients, as well as the law of conservation of mass, process engineers can develop methods to synthesize and purify large quantities of desired chemical products.][ Process engineering focuses on the design, operation, control, optimization and intensification of chemical, physical, and biological processes. Process engineering encompasses a vast range of industries, such as ]agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...
, automotive, biotechnical, chemical
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...
, food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ...
, material development, mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
, nuclear
Nuclear may refer to:
Physics
Relating to the nucleus of the atom:
*Nuclear engineering
*Nuclear physics
*Nuclear power
*Nuclear reactor
*Nuclear weapon
*Nuclear medicine
*Radiation therapy
*Nuclear warfare
Mathematics
*Nuclear space
* Nuclear ...
, petrochemical
Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable ...
, pharmaceutical
A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and ...
, and software development
Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development inv ...
. The application of systematic computer-based methods to process engineering is "process systems engineering".
Overview
Process engineering involves the utilization of multiple tools and methods. Depending on the exact nature of the system, processes need to be simulated and modeled using mathematics and computer science. Processes where phase change and phase equilibria are relevant require analysis using the principles and laws of thermodynamics to quantify changes in energy and efficiency. In contrast, processes that focus on the flow of material and energy as they approach equilibria are best analyzed using the disciplines of fluid mechanics and transport phenomena. Disciplines within the field of mechanics need to be applied in the presence of fluids or porous and dispersed media. Materials engineering principles also need to be applied, when relevant.[
Manufacturing in the field of process engineering involves an implementation of process synthesis steps. Regardless of the exact tools required, process engineering is then formatted through the use of a ]process flow diagram
A process flow diagram (PFD) is a diagram commonly used in chemical and process engineering to indicate the general flow of plant processes and equipment. The PFD displays the relationship between ''major'' equipment of a plant facility and does ...
(PFD) where material flow
Material flow is the description of the transportation of raw materials, pre-fabricates, parts, components, integrated objects and final products as a flow of entities. The term applies mainly to advanced modeling of supply chain management
...
paths, storage equipment (such as tanks and silos), transformations (such as distillation columns, receiver/head tanks, mixing, separations, pumping, etc.) and flowrates are specified, as well as a list of all pipes and conveyors and their contents, material properties such as density
Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematicall ...
, viscosity
The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water.
Viscosity quantifies the inte ...
, particle-size distribution, flowrates, pressures, temperatures, and materials of construction for the piping and unit operation
In chemical engineering and related fields, a unit operation is a basic step in a process. Unit operations involve a physical change or chemical transformation such as separation, crystallization, evaporation, filtration, polymerization, isomerizat ...
s.[
The process flow diagram is then used to develop a ]piping and instrumentation diagram
A piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID or PID) is a detailed diagram in the process industry which shows the piping and process equipment together with the instrumentation and control devices.
Superordinate to the P&ID is the process flow di ...
(P&ID) which graphically displays the actual process occurring. P&ID are meant to be more complex and specific than a PFD. They represent a less muddled approach to the design. The P&ID is then used as a basis of design for developing the "system operation guide" or " functional design specification" which outlines the operation of the process. It guides the process through operation of machinery, safety in design, programming and effective communication between engineers.
From the P&ID, a proposed layout (general arrangement) of the process can be shown from an overhead view (plot plan
A site plan or a plot plan is a type of drawing used by architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and engineers which shows existing and proposed conditions for a given area, typically a parcel of land which is to be modified. Sites plan ...
) and a side view (elevation), and other engineering disciplines are involved such as civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
s for site work (earth moving), foundation design, concrete slab design work, structural steel to support the equipment, etc. All previous work is directed toward defining the scope of the project, then developing a cost estimate to get the design installed, and a schedule to communicate the timing needs for engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation, commissioning, startup, and ongoing production of the process.
Depending on needed accuracy of the cost estimate and schedule that is required, several iterations of designs are generally provided to customers or stakeholders who feed back their requirements. The process engineer incorporates these additional instructions (scope revisions) into the overall design and additional cost estimates, and schedules are developed for funding approval. Following funding approval, the project is executed via project management
Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...
.
Principal areas of focus in process engineering
Process engineering activities can be divided into the following disciplines:[Research Challenges in Process Systems Engineering](_blank)
by Ignacio E. Grossmann and Arthur W. Westerberg, Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA
*Process design
In chemical engineering, process design is the choice and sequencing of units for desired physical and/or chemical transformation of materials. Process design is central to chemical engineering, and it can be considered to be the summit of that ...
: synthesis of energy recovery
Energy recovery includes any technique or method of minimizing the input of energy to an overall system by the exchange of energy from one sub-system of the overall system with another. The energy can be in any form in either subsystem, but mos ...
networks, synthesis of distillation
Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the he ...
systems ( azeotropic), synthesis of reactor networks, hierarchical decomposition flowsheets, superstructure optimization, design multiproduct batch plants, design of the production reactors for the production of plutonium, design of nuclear submarines.
*Process control
An industrial process control in continuous production processes is a discipline that uses industrial control systems to achieve a production level of consistency, economy and safety which could not be achieved purely by human manual control. ...
: model predictive control, controllability measures, robust control, nonlinear control, statistical process control, process monitoring, thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws o ...
-based control, denoted by three essential items, a collection of measurements, method of taking measurements, and a system of controlling the desired measurement.
* Process operations: scheduling process networks, multiperiod planning and optimization, data reconciliation, real-time optimization, flexibility measures, fault diagnosis.
*Supporting tools: sequential modular simulation, equation-based process simulation
Process simulation is used for the design, development, analysis, and optimization of technical processes such as: chemical plants, chemical processes, environmental systems, power stations, complex manufacturing operations, biological processes, ...
, AI/expert systems
In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert.
Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge, represented mainly as if� ...
, large-scale nonlinear programming (NLP), optimization of differential algebraic equations (DAEs), mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP), global optimization, optimization under uncertainty, and quality function deployment (QFD).
*Process Economics:[
*Process Data Analytics: Applying ]data analytics
Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...
and machine learning
Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.
Machine ...
methods for process manufacturing problems.
History of process engineering
Various chemical techniques have been used in industrial processes since time immemorial. However, it wasn't till the advent of thermodynamics and the law of conservation of mass in the 1780s that process engineering was properly developed and implemented as its own discipline. The set of knowledge that is now known as process engineering was then forged out of trial and error throughout the industrial revolution.[
The term ''process'', as it relates to industry and production, dates back to the 18th century. During this time period, demands for various products began to drastically increase, and process engineers were required to optimize the process in which these products were created. ]chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...
techniques and practices were being used in a variety of industries. By this time, process engineering had been defined as "the set of knowledge necessary to design, analyze, develop, construct, and operate, in an optimal way, the processes in which the material changes".[ By the end of the 20th century, process engineering had expanded from chemical engineering-based technologies to other applications, including ]metallurgical engineering
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sci ...
, agricultural engineering
Agricultural engineering, also known as agricultural and biosystems engineering, is the field of study and application of engineering science and designs principles for agriculture purposes, combining the various disciplines of mechanical, civil ...
, and product engineering
Product engineering refer to the process of designing and developing a device, assembly, or system such that it be produced as an item for sale through some product manufacturing process. Product engineering usually entails activity dealing with ...
.
See also
* Chemical process modeling
* Chemical technologist
* Industrial engineering
Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information an ...
* Industrial process
Industrial processes are procedures involving chemical, physical, electrical or mechanical steps to aid in the manufacturing of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale. Industrial processes are the key components of heavy i ...
* Materials science
* Modular process skid
* Process chemistry
* Process flowsheeting
Process flowsheeting is the use of computer aids to perform steady-state heat and mass balancing, sizing and costing calculations for a chemical process. It is an essential and core component of process design.
The process design effort may be s ...
* Process integration
* Systems engineering process
References
External links
Advanced Process Engineering at Cranfield University (Cranfield, UK)
Centre for Process Systems Engineering (Imperial)
Process Systems Engineering at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York)
Department of Process Engineering at Stellenbosch University
Process Research and Intelligent Systems Modeling (PRISM) group at BYU
Process Systems Engineering Laboratory at RWTH Aachen
The Process Systems Engineering Laboratory (MIT)
Research Challenges in Process Systems Engineering by Ignacio E. Grossmann and Arthur W. Westerberg
* Advance
Process Engineering Consulting
at Canada
{{Engineering fields
Engineering disciplines
Chemical processes