Ankur's_Chemical_Engg_Blog

Dear All,

Today's blog entry relates to pressure drop in fixed bed reactors.

Let us examine the components that contribute to the calculated pressure drop in fixed bed reactors. The design pressure drop should consider a safety margin on the calculated pressure drop.

Bed Pressure Drop : For both gases and liquids this should be calculated based on the...

Most new process engineers working in design consultancy are unaware of the safety rules that need to be strictly adhered when making a field visit to a chemical process unit whether it be an upstream oil and gas processing installation, a refinery or a petrochemical plant. Today's blog entry tries to expalin some basic safety rules for a site visit. I...

I have been a member of Cheresources for the last 4-1/2 years. When I started out on the forums I had little idea of how questions need to be answered on a forum. I observed a lot of veterans on the forum including the administrator Art Montemayor on how they took up the task of answering queries posted by students, professionals and specialists and I...

Oceans occupy approximately 71% of the earth's surface (~3.6 x 10⁸ square kilometers). They are also the major source of direct sustenance to a very diversified marine life and indirectly a source of sustenance for man kind. The global rainfall and weather patterns are controlled by the process of sea water evaporation and movement...

When I started my career in the design engineering field I had the privilege of working with some excellent project managers. Coincidentally all these persons were chemical engineers who had worked as process engineers in their earlier avatar and knew the nitty gritty of what design engineering is all about. This in no way implies that engineers with other...

Lots of young engineers seek new opportunities of employment. In most cases the overpowering consideration is to get a hike in the salary and / or an enhanced position in the new organization. Is this all to seeking a new job? I would consider it a folly to have such a approach while seeking new employment. A lot more needs to be found out about your...

Fired Heaters / Steam Boilers require combustion air for combustion of the fuel to generate heat for heat transfer to the fluid being heated which in case of steam boiler would be water. Control of combustion air is an absolute must to control the combustion process to provide optimum heat transfer in any fired heater / boiler.

A Forced Draft (FD) fan is...

Working for now more than 15 years in an engineering consultancy has given me some insight in how to build a design calculation document which is concise and complete and can be also submitted for certification to certification authorities.

Many good engineering consulting companies have standard templates for preparing a design calculation report which...

The "Design Institute for Physical Properties" (DIPPR) an industry technology alliance of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) has done some great research on thermophysical properties of hundreds of compounds and the research continues for adding more compounds in the DIPPR 801 database.

Most of the times when a reliable and renowned sim...

After a 2 month hiatus I am back on my blog and wih something really special.

Since the past 1 year or so the subject of compressors has intrigued me and led me to a quest in understanding more of this fascinating subject which all chemical engineers have to deal at one time or the other in their professional careers. A lot of reading on the subject went...

An important process engineering deliverable is the document called "Process Design Basis". This document summarizes the process engineering related activity for the given project. For large projects it is an extensive document. In certain cases it includes HSE related information where a separate HSE design basis is not part of the engineering...