A Critique On

Chemical Engineering Plant Design

Lait Pressé, Inc.

By Bracino, Codico, David, Duaqui, Padit, Panganiban, & Vergara

GROUP 6
Arada, Gracylyn Margot
Bulatao, Franz Joshua Raoul
Cabungcal, Cesarah Justine
Duff, Angelo Mitchel

4 – ChE D

March 25 2019
 The chemical engineering plant design Lait Pressé, Inc. created by Bracino, Codico, David, Duaqui,
Padit, Panganiban, & Vergara, former chemical engineering students from the University of Tomas, has
the following recommendations on how the process and instrumentation diagram and totality of the plant
can be improved to increase the production capacity of the desired product. Areas and issues to be looked
upon are:
1) the design of seven (7) major equipment which limits the optimal capacity of the plant
2) the maximization of the efficiency of every equipment (e.g. pumps)
3) the calculation of the utility cost with regards to steam usage in the production line and
4) the creation of a comprehensive study on determining the plant production capacity
In resolving design matters, one must first have a knowledge on chemical engineering principles and plant
design to effectively come up with a solution. Possible theories on how to boost the optimal capacity of
the plant is to either add or subtract an equipment in the plant. It is important to assess the process chain
for each product, and the utilization of products in each step. However, in increasing the equipment count,
there will also be an increase in economic costs such as operations, maintenance, and repair.
 An example of a diagram involved in the plant is the production of powdered milk as seen in figure
27, the raw milk is first stored in a silo (ST-01) before it is processed. It is then put through a centrifugal
separator (CS-01) in order to separate the cream milk and the skimmed milk. A portion of the cream milk
is carried to the butter-processing section while the remaining is carried to the powdered milk section.
The cream milk in the powdered milk section is first put mixed with the skimmed milk inside a mixing tank
(MT-01). After mixing, the whole milk is placed in a heat exchanger for pasteurization (HX-01). It is then
pumped into a forward-feed triple effect evaporator (E-01 to E-03). After concentrating, it is placed inside
a homogenizer (R-01). The powdered milk is formed after putting the homogenized whole milk through a
spray drier (SD-01). Lastly, the powdered milk undergoes final drying in the fluidized bed dryer (FB-01).
There is nothing to change in the diagram as the objective of creating powdered milk is achieved. In
increasing the volume of products being manufactured, the efficiency of the equipment must be at its
optimal value. By calculating the plant capacity, the minimum amount on each individual process values
can be obtained and be used as parameters in then obtaining the maximum amount. The plant capacity
is solved via scaling the boilerplate capacity of each process by multiplying the ratio of the uptime and
operating hours per year.

Another factor to be considered is steam in the production line which is mostly used for its latent
heat. The two factors considered in steam economy are:

1) continuous removal of condensate from the heat exchanger and

2) maintenance of the lowest possible backpressure

It is important to ensure that the steam-heated exchanger is neither flooded or stalled by the condensate
because the heat exchanger area will be blocked; it is ideal to maximize the area of the heat exchanger.
As for the second factor, as the backpressure increases at the outlet of the heat exchanger, the available
latent heat from steam would gradually be reduced. The possibility of the heat exchanger to stall would
occur when the backpressure equals the steam pressure. Hence, there are suggested ways on steam
optimization. One is to switch motor drives, a common alternative when excessive low-pressure steam is
released, instead of steam turbines. Next is to use mechanical vacuum pumps in place of steam jet
ejectors. This is because the later requires at least ten times more input energy than the first. Also, the
use of the steam jet ejectors has greater wastewater load since the condensate from it still needs to be
drained to the sewer. It is also suggested for some power plants to use steam strippers as it would be
more efficient to indirectly heat the incoming stream in a separate exchanger, then supply steam for the
purpose of stripping.(The steam indirectly contacts the process stream, raising the temperature of the
incoming stream and then the intended component is stripped out.) This would not only recover the part
of the steam supplied as condensate but will also reduce the amount of the wastewater load. Another
option is to preheat the incoming stream with a process that goes to cooling, to optimize steam usage.
Possibly, identification of a suitable source of heat nearby would be of advantage. The concept “matching
suitable heat sinks and heat sources” (“pinch” technology) can basically be applied when waste heat from
furnace exhausts or boiler are utilized to preheat the incoming stream.

Production capacity is a vital statistic for describing the performance of a chemical plant, but there
is no universally accepted definition or means to evaluate it (AIChE, 2014). In coming up with a
comprehensive study about the plant production of Lait Pressé, Inc., the following must be assessed:
 1) the bottleneck
2) the design capacity from process calculations
3) the demonstrated capacity by empirical testing and
4) the effective capacity from plant availability

The evaluation of these features leads to the enhancement of production capacity and possible paradigm
against competitors through calculations of determining the equipment size, fulfilment of contractual
arrangements, and assistance to supply chain management.

References:

[1] Carpenter, A., & Ogle, R. (2014). Calculating the capacity of chemical plants. Retrieved
from https://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files/cep/20140859.pdf.

[2] Darby, A. (2015). Plant capacity modelling considerations. Retrieved from

https://www.innovaltec.com/plant-capacity-modelling-blog/.

[3] Venkatesan, V. (2011). Optimize your steam system, part II. Retrieved from
https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/articles/2011/optimize-steam-system-
part2/?fbclid=IwAR2cZtt9mMl5wfjc9LUyga2mrNnD-
x6jE8GVAMyC9ZYeWsG0_fG1Skz3qkg.