Process Equipment

Specifying the hardware that makes a plant. From process calculations to real equipment: boilers, shell-and-tube heat exchangers, reactor vessels and agitators, distillation column hardware, and the selection and specification of pumps and compressors — with sizing rules engineers use on datasheets.

• Boilers — Boilers generate the steam that heats and powers process plants. Learn fire-tube vs water-tube boilers, steam properties and duty, efficiency (direct and indirect methods), fuel consumption, blowdown and water treatment, economisers, and boiler safety.
• Heat Exchangers — This lesson covers heat-exchanger hardware and specification. Learn TEMA shell-and-tube types, tube layout and bundle sizing, tube-side and shell-side velocities, baffles, fouling allowances, materials, plate and air-cooled exchangers, and the exchanger datasheet.
• Reactors — This lesson covers reactor hardware. Learn pressure-vessel design (wall thickness, corrosion allowance, codes), agitator selection and power, heat-transfer jackets and coils, materials of construction (steel, stainless, glass-lined), nozzles, relief and scale-up.
• Distillation Columns — This lesson covers column hardware design. Learn trays (sieve, valve, bubble-cap) vs packing (random, structured), flooding and column diameter (Souders–Brown/Fair), tray spacing and efficiency, column height, pressure drop, weeping and entrainment, and internals like distributors and downcomers.
• Pumps — This lesson covers pump selection and specification for process plants. Learn centrifugal vs positive-displacement choice, API 610 pump types, NPSH available calculations, seals (single, double, sealless), materials, datasheets, spare philosophy, and minimum flow and protection.
• Compressors — This lesson covers compressor selection and operation in process plants. Learn the type map (reciprocating, screw, centrifugal, axial), staging and intercooling, discharge-temperature limits, capacity control, surge and anti-surge control, drivers, and API 617/618 specifications.