TABLE OF CONTENTS Key Learning Objectives
How design projects are carried out and documented in industry
Why engineers in industry use codes and standards and build margins into their designs
How to improve a design using optimization methods
Why experienced design engineers very rarely use rigorous optimization methods in industrial practice
This chapter is an introduction to the nature and methodology of the design process and its application to the design of chemical manufacturing processes.
This section is a general discussion of the design process. The subject of this book is chemical engineering design, but the methodology described in this section applies equally to other branches of engineering.
Chemical engineering has consistently been one of the highest paid engineering professions. There is a demand for chemical engineers in many sectors of industry, including the traditional processing industries: chemicals, polymers, fuels, foods, pharmaceuticals, and paper, as well as other sectors such as electronic materials and devices, consumer products, mining and metals extraction, biomedical implants, and power generation.
The reason that companies in such a diverse range of industries value chemical engineers so highly is the following:
Starting from a vaguely defined problem statement such as a customer need or a set of experimental results, chemical engineers can develop an understanding of the important underlying physical science relevant to the problem and use this understanding to create a plan of action and set of detailed specifications which, if implemented, will lead to a predicted financial outcome.
The creation...
