The Internet is a great source of instructive material on process design. In this and other upcoming articles, we will try to bring to our visitors links that we find interesting and which contain material of special interest for the process engineer.
In our view, a good material is an article or tutorial that gives you the information needed to understand the basic concepts and guides you through the actual application of that knowledge to solve real engineering problems. It should not contain excessive marketing hype or information such as model numbers or detailed dimensions about the equipment manufactured by the vendor. It should discuss the main process variables important to select and size the equipment and provide data of continuous reference value for the engineer.
If you search the internet, you will find thousands of links to web pages about process equipment. Unfortunately, most are not very useful to the new or aspiring process engineer (although they may be helpful later on when dealing with specific questions about specific pieces of equipment). Once in a while, however, we run into really good material, the kind we will pass on to our readers and network members.
In this first installment, we will discuss the ITT Goulds Centrifugal Pump Fundamentals.
Centrifugal Pumps are an important part of the process and are used in virtually all process plants. All process engineers at one time or another will have to select, size, or specify one. Those working in a plant environment will certainly have at some point to operate or troubleshoot them. Because of its relevance, we have selected this site to start this series. We have others already selected, which will be discussed in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned.

The ITT Goulds tutorial is divided in several sections. The sections are not very well organized, so you have to get used to the cumbersome navigation scheme in order to find the information you want. The first section contains a primer on Centrifugal Pump Fundamentals and the second deals with Conversion Factors.  The Pump Application Guide section discusses piping design, materials of construction, sealing, and other important subjects. Other sections deal with physical properties of water and other process liquids, including slurries and pulp suspensions, needed to calculate friction losses. The Mechanical Data section contains a host of reference material about standard pipe fittings. There is also a section on motors.

All in all, we find the publication exceptionally valuable and recommend it to our readers and network members.

If you know about any good web material, please let us know and we will evaluate it and discuss it here. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it and opinions on recommended sites are also welcome as they help to improve our reviews and selections.

Many network members, mainly new graduates, write to us asking for information on how to get started on process design and what skills are required.
Although the field of Process Design is vast and knowledge of specific technologies is often needed, it is possible to identify a few subjects that are of general use no matter what technology you work in.
Some skills are normally taught in undergraduate courses, such as

• Thermodynamics
• Vapor-liquid equilibrium and distillation equipment design
• Reaction engineering and reactor design
• Heat transfer, specially shell & tube exchangers
• Hydraulics including piping pressure drop and pump calculations.

We need to emphasize that by skills we don't mean knowing the rigorous derivation of differential equations and things of that sort, but rather an understanding of the concepts involved and how they relate to equipment design. For example, designing a steam and condensate system with pressure letdowns, compressors, superheaters, and condensate flash drums will require a minimum knowledge of adiabatic and isentropic processes and the use of steam tables (normally in computerized form).

Skills not usually, but more and more, taught in undergraduate courses:

• Heat and material balance using process simulators
• Understanding piping and instrumentation diagrams
• Basic process instrumentation and control
• Overpressure protection
• Basic interlock protection

We would say 90% of the tasks assigned to a process engineer are directly related to one of the above-mentioned subjects.
In future articles, we will comment on each of these topics. Some of them are already covered in the Tutorials, which we encourage you to check. Other topics will eventually evolve into tutorials, so keep checking on our website regularly. As usual, we welcome questions, criticism, and suggestions for improvement.