A Detailed List Of Books For Process Design Engineering

Often in the forum there are questions about which book or published resource to refer for a particular subject in process engineering. If we look around the list is huge and sometimes some engineer may have access to some book whereas the other person may have access to another book. Apart from the standard chemical engineering texts during the undergraduate course which most young chemical engineers are familiar such as "McCabe & Smith", "Coulson & Richardson", "Treybal", "Smith & Van Ness", "Levenspiel", "Wilkes" "Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot" and "Kern", there are several specialized books on subjects such as pumps, compressors, mixers, dryers, natural gas, steam, petroleum and many such other. The purpose of this blog entry is to list down a few of these books which I have personally encountered during my career. There is no order of preference in the subject-wise list provided and the readers may have their own preferences regarding which book provides a better coverage to a particular subject. Readers may also provide their own preferences on the book for the particular subject matter in the comments section of the blog entry.

Natural Gas Engineering

1. GPSA Engineering Databook
(By far amongst the best resources I have encountered for any kind of process design engineering not only in the natural gas engineering field but also general engineering related to vessels, hydraulics, instrumentation etc.)

2. Fundamentals of Natural Gas Processing by Arthur J. Kidnay and William R. Parrish (an excellent extension to the GPSA Engineering Databook. Some missing information from the databook has been explained in this book)

3. Handbook of Natural Gas Transmission & Processing by Saeid Mokhatab, William A. Poe, James J. Speight

4. Natural Gas Engineering Handbook by Dr. Boyun Ghuo and Dr. Ali Gahalambor
(Has a small collection of excel spreadsheets related to natural gas engineering as part of the book)

5. Standard Handbook of Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering by Wiiliam C. Lyons

Pipelines

1. Pipeline Rules of Thumb Handbook by E. W. McAllister

2. Liquid Pipeline Hydraulics by E. Shashi Menon

3. Gas Pipeline Hydraulics by E. Shashi Menon

4. Subsea Pipelines & Risers by Yong Bai & Qiang Bai

Compressors

1. Compressors: Selection and Sizing by Royce N. Brown (my personal favorite since I used it to develop calculations related to both centrifugal and reciprocating compressor although the units used in the book are English units)

2. Compressor Handbook by Paul C. Hanlon

3. Compressors and Modern Process Applications by Heinz P. Bloch

Pumps

1. Pump Handbook by Igor Karassik, Joseph P. Messina, Paul Cooper, Charles C. Heald
(widely accepted for pump design even by nuclear regulatory authorities)

2. Sulzer Centrifugal Pump Handbook

Petroleum Refining

1. Petroleum Refinery Engineering by W. L. Nelson

2. Handbook of Petroleum Processing by David S.J. "Stan" Jones and Peter R. Pujado

3. Refining Processes Handbook by Surinder Prakash

Distillation

1. Distillation Design by Henry Z. Kister

2. Distillation Operation by Henry Z. Kister

3. Packed Tower Design and Applications by Ralph F.Strigle, Jr.

Drying

1. Handbook of Industrial Drying by Carl W. Hall

Mixing

1. Handbook of Industrial Mixing Science & Practice by Edward L. Paul, Victor A. Atiemo-Obeng & Suzanne M. Kresta

Chemical Process Design & Economics

1. Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers by Max S. Peters and Klaus D. Timmerhaus

2. Chemical Process Engineering - Design & Economics by Harry Silla

Pipe Hydraulics

1. Flow of fluids through Valves, Fittings and Pipes, Crane Technical Paper 410M

2. Chemical Engineering Fluid Mechanics by Ron Darby

Steam

1. Steam - It's Generation and Use by The Babcock & Wilcox Company (This is like a Bible on Steam)

2. Industrial Boilers and Heat Recovery Steam Generators: Design, Applications, and Calculations by V. Ganapathy

Health, Safety & Environment

1. Loss Prevention in the Process Industries by Frank P Lees

2. Fundamentals of Stack Gas Dispersion by Milton R. Beychok

General Design Calculation Books

1. Handbook of Chemical Engineering Calculations by Nicholas P. Chopey

2. Chemical Process Equipment - Selection & Design by Stanley M. Walas

3. Pocket Guide to Chemical Engineering by Carl R. Branan

4. Process Design for Reliable Operations by Norman P. Lieberman

I could go on and on but I believe that even if any chemical engineer is able to read and grasp through a miniscule fraction of the contents of the books mentioned above he or she is going to find that his or her knowledge has increased significantly and that makes him or her a far improved engineer and the person has embarked on a career path of growth and success.

Readers are welcome to add to the list and discuss their thoughts and opinions on this blog entry.

Regards,
Ankur.