Piping, pump, compressor & control valve Process Engineering

Description

This course is curating 4 courses for chemical process engineers in 1 course:

1. Pipe Sizing Calculation for Chemical Process Engineers

2. Pump Hydraulics and Specifications

3.  Compressor Principles, Operation and Control

4. Control Valve: Hydraulics, Characteristics and Sizing

Pipe Sizing

Pipe sizing is one of the first major activities a process engineer carries out during the preparation of the P&ID.

Pipe size is an important factor for a well-designed process. It shall affect fluid velocity, pressure drop, flow regime,…etc.

A poorly sized pipe can cause disturbance to the whole process and may lead to plant shutdown in critical cases.

Pipe size also has a lot to do with cost, oversizing a pipe means extra cost, more complex pipe design, more foundation, even sometimes process issues.

In this course, you'll learn how to choose the correct pipe size that works with the corresponding fluid service and compare it with velocity, pressure drop, and two-phase flow regime criteria.

Through this course, you'll see how to calculate the velocity and pressure drop of a fluid in the pipe.

Then after calculating the parameters, we'll see the expected criteria range for each service, so that we can compare them with our calculated parameters.

We'll see also what are the two-phase flow regimes and how we should deal with them.

Finally, I'll give some examples for pipe sizing and I'll give an Excel sheet that can guide you on how to size pipes in the future.

Pump Hydraulics and Specifications

Pumps have been the heart of any plant as they are the main equipment used to guarantee the required process flow or pressure. Pumps are used extensively in oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical industries to pump different fluid types at various pressures and temperatures.

Without a pump or if there is a problem in the pump operation, this can cause a huge process disturbance, and in some cases, this may lead to process shutdown.

Sizing the pumps and their suction and discharge systems is one of the major carried out activities in process design. This course will not just explain the theory of operation of a pump against the process. We will see live examples where we shall calculate main pump requirements with respect to the net positive suction head, differential head, and hydraulic power.

This will be through excel sheets that will be provided in the course to teach you how to calculate these parameters. Calculation sheets will be available to you throughout the course.

In this course, We shall see how the pump curve works and how to plot it against the system curve.

We will see how the pump and process system interact with each other and how the pump responds and interacts with process changes or disturbances.

We shall examine the pump curve for both centrifugal and positive displacement pumps and see how each of them interacts with the discharge system differently.

We shall see different control methods to make sure we are on the required pump operating point.

We shall also see different pump configurations how to operate the pumps in series and in parallel and how this is reflected on pump curves.

Compressor Principles, Operation and Control

Compressors are the main equipment used to transfer gases and raise their pressure. They are used in many different applications. You'll see compressors in the oil and gas industry, whether in midstream or in downstream refineries, in petrochemical plants and in many other chemical processing applications. 

Compressors are relatively expensive compared to other pieces of equipment in a process plant. That’s why it is always important to understand their types, how they work, their main issues, and how to overcome them.

This course will try to cover the main compressor principles. We shall see how each of these principles works in the case of both centrifugal and reciprocating compressors.

We shall see how compressing gases which are compressible differs a lot from pumping incompressible liquids.

We shall go through dynamic compressors and their types, then positive displacement compressors and their types. This shall be through comparisons showing the advantages and disadvantages of each type.

In this course, We shall see how the compressor curve works and how to plot it against the system curve for both dynamic and positive displacement types.

We will see how the compressor and the process system interact with each other and how the compressor responds and interacts with process changes or disturbances.

We shall go through compressor surge, its effects, and best practices to avoid it.

We shall see different control methods to make sure we are on the required compressor operating point. This shall also include both centrifugal compressors and reciprocating compressors.

Control Valve: Hydraulics, Characteristics and Sizing

Control valves are an essential part of any process plant. You can hardly see a process plant whether in oil and gas industry or in any chemical processing plant without a control valve as they are used to control more than 95% of process parameters.

Throughout this course, we shall see the main functions of a control valve and how they work,

We shall go in deep on what is a control valve Cv or flow coefficient and how it is important in sizing and rating of a control valve.

We shall go through control valve inherent and installed characteristics and how the process configuration affects the operation of a control valve and what is the difference between inherent and installed characteristics.

Then we shall see when to use a butterfly valve as a control valve and how the valve geometry affects its characteristics.

Finally, we shall go through the valve sizing procedure, how to choose the controlling case, we shall go through more than one example, carry out calculations and you shall have an excel sheet that can guide you in the future.

These examples will teach you not only how to calculate the pressure drop of the control valve or how to choose the cases that shall affect the valve sizing, they shall even show how the whole system hydraulics interact with each other and the means to debottleneck it.

Waiting to see you in the course and let’s start.

What You Will Learn!

• Learn how to calculate the main parameters used for pipe sizing for liquid, gas and two phase flow
• Know the common velocity criteria used for judging a pipe size for different fluid services
• Know the common pressure drop criteria used for judging a pipe size for different fluid services
• See how two phase flow regimes affect the pipe
• See some examples of choosing the suitable pipe size and how the chosen criteria affects the pipe diameter
• How pump curves work and get the operating point against system curve
• Calculate pump available NPSH and make sure that we are avoiding pump cavitation using solved examples
• Estimate pump differential head based on process needs and discharge side resistance using solved examples
• Calculate pump power
• Difference between the operation of a centrifugal pump and positive displacement
• Pump control methods
• Operation of pumps in series and in parallel
• Main differences between pumps and compressors
• Main compressor types
• When to use more than one stage of a compressor
• Performance curves of both dynamic and positive displacement compressors
• Surge scenario and best practices to avoid it
• Compressor stonewall
• Dynamic compressor methods of control
• Reciprocating compressor methods of control
• The main functions of a control valve in a process
• How a control valve works?
• The valve flow coefficient
• Valve inherent and installed characteristics
• Calculate control valve main parameters and controlling cases

Who Should Attend!

• Engineers who want to understand the hydraulics in process plants
• Chemical Engineering Graduates or undergraduates

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