Process Design - Design Considerations

Design Considerations

Designs have objectives and constraints, and even a simple process requires a trade-off among such factors.

Objectives that a design may strive to include:

• Throughput rate
• Process yield
• Product purity

Constraints include:

• Capital cost
• Available space
• Safety concerns
• Environmental impact and projected effluents and emissions
• Waste production
• Operating and maintenance costs

Other factors that designers may include are:

• Reliability
• Redundancy
• Flexibility
• Anticipated variability in feedstock and allowable variability in product.