The average process engineer has the following responsibilities:

1. Prepares studies of process cycles and systems for various product production or improvements or changes in existing production units.2. Prepares material and heat balances.3. Prepares economic studies associated with process performance.4. Designs and/or specifies items of equipment required to define the process flowsheet or flow system; specifies corrosion resistant materials of construction.5. Evaluates competitive bids for equipment.6. Evaluates operating data for existing or test equipment.7. Guides flowsheet draftsmen in detailed flowsheet preparation.

Process Design Scope

1. Process material and heat balances2. Process cycle development, correlation of pilot or research data, and correlation of physical data.3. Auxiliary services material and heat balances.4. Flowsheet development and detailed completion.5. Chemical engineering performance design for specific items of equipment required for a flowsheet, and mechanical interpretation of this to a practical and reasonable specification. Here the process requirements are converted into hardware details to accomplish the process end results at each step in the product production process.6. Instrumentation as related to process performance, presentation and interpretation of requirements to instrument specialists.7’. Process interpretation for proper mechanical, structural, civil, electrical, instrument, etc., handling ofthe respective individual phases of the project.8. Preparation of specifications in proper form and/or detail for use by the project team as well as for thepurchasing function.9. Evaluation of bids and recommendation of qualified vendor.

Role of the Process Design Engineer

1. Prepare heat and material balance studies for a proposed process, both “by hand” and by use of computer programs.2. Prepare rough cost economics, including preliminary sizing anid important details of equipment, factor o an ordler of magnitude capital cost estimate, prepare a production cost estimate, and work with economic valuation representatives to establish a payout and the financial economics of the proposed process.3. Participate in layout planning for the proposed plant (see [46] [47]).4. Prepare final detailed heat and material balances. repare detailed sizing of all process equipment and possibly some utility systems. It is important that the process engineer visualize the Row and processing of the fluids through the system and inside the various items of equipment in order to adequately recognize what will take place during the process.6. Prepare/supervise preparation of draft of process flowsheets for review by others.7. Prepare/supervise preparation of piping or mechanical flow diagram (or P and ID), with necessary preliminary sizing of all pipe lines, distillation equipment, pumps, compressors, etc., and representation of all instrumentation for detailing by instrument engineers.8. Prepare mechanical and process specifications for all equipment, tanks, pumps, compressors, separators, drying systems, refrigeration systems. This must include the selection of materials of construction and safety systems and the coordination of specifications with instrumentation and electrical requirements.9. Determine size and specifications for all safety relief valves and/or rupture disks for process safety relief (including run-a-way reactions) and relief in case of external fire.10. Prepare valve code specifications for incorporation on item 6 above, or select from existing company standards for the fluids and their operating conditions (see Figures 1-25 and 1-26).11. Select from company insulation standards (or prepare, if necessary) the insulation most be applied to each hot or cold pipe or equipment. Note that insulation must be applied in some cases only to prevent operating personnel from contacting the base equipment. See Table 1-1 for typical insulation thickness from which code numbers can be established.12. Establish field construction hydraulic test pressures for each process equipment. Sometimes the equipment is blanked or blocked off, and no test

pressure is applied in the field, because all pressure equipment must be tested in the fabricators’ or manufacturers’ shop per ASME Code.13. Prepare drafts of line schedule and/or summary sheets (Figures 1-24 A-D) , and equipment summary schedules (Figures 1-27, 1-28, 1-29, 1-30), plus summary schedules for safety relief valves and rupture disks, compressors and other major equipment.14. Prepare detailed process and mechanical specifications for developing proposals for purchase by the purchasing department.