1 reply to this topic

[Eflatun]

Hi,

I need distillation column, reactor, heater and pump prices for producing 1,3 butadiene from ethanol in two steps. Will you help me please?

[Steve Hall]

For a student project, I would do the following steps to arrive at a cost estimate in your report:

 

1. Create the design, including Process Flow Diagram with Energy and Material Balances, Equipment List, Sizing Calculations, Equipment Datasheets (optional, but very good for showing work)

 

2. Consult references that give procedures for creating estimates, and the information needed for each level of accuracy. Yours is probably an "order of magnitude" estimate that is factored from the cost of major equipment. For instance, you might take major equipment costs then multiply by a factor of 4 to 6 to get the total installed cost inside your battery limits (i.e., excludes site work, land, etc.)

 

3. If you can convince vendors to give you real budget prices for the major equipment, great. Otherwise, use published sources such as the old articles in Chemical Engineering magazine to get an estimate and then use an inflation factor (e.g., Marshall and Swift - see last page of Chemical Engineering mag) to adjust the cost to today. This won't be very accurate, but it would give you the practice and show due diligence for your project which is what really counts.

 

That's pretty much the only "help" you can get from this forum - nobody can quote you a price for a pump without specifications (pump prices range from US$100 to $100,000+ depending on where you buy it, materials of construction, capacity, driver, etc., etc.). But you knew that already, right?

 

To give you the idea about costing equipment, I'm attaching one of the old Chemical Engineering articles. Please get the others from your school library. They are too old to find digital versions.

Attached Files

•  Mulet et al - Estimate costs of distillation and absorption towers via correlations.pdf   4.84MB   90 downloads