Best plant design books according to redditors

As a process engineer here are some books i either use almost every day, or find very very useful:

Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers:

https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Thumb-Chemical-Engineers-Fifth/dp/0123877857

Crane Technical Paper no. 410.

https://www.amazon.com/Fluids-Through-Valves-Fittings-TP-410/dp/B003152YTG

Chemical Engineering Reference Manual:

https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Engineering-Reference-Manual-7th/dp/1591264103

GPSA Data Book (I have an electronic copy, your mileage finding a paper copy may vary):

http://www.browntechnical.org/products/gpsa-engineering-data-book-fps-english-unit.html

The 9th edition is available for preorder and will be released August 17th, 2018 according to Amazon!

Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, 9th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071834087/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_6jaZAbW79CFH7

For pleasure:

• The Disappearing Spoon
  
• Periodic Tales
  
• Stuff Matters
  
• Molecules of Murder
  
• The Elements of Murder
  
• The Elements
  
• Molecules
  
• Molecules that Changed the World
  
• The Chemistry Book
  
  Undergraduate
  
  
• Organic:
  Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, The art of writing reasonable organic reaction mechanisms
  
  
• Inorganic: Inorganic Chemistry, Molecular Symmetry and Group Theory
  
  
• Analytical: Principles of Instrumental Anlsysis, Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry
  
  Graduate
  
  
• Organic: Advanced Practical Organic Chemistry, March's Advanced Organic Chemistry, Greene's Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis, Purification of Laboratory Chemicals, Strategic Applications of Named Reactions in Organic Synthesis
  
• Inorganic: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry

You are asking very basic questions that should be critical to your startup. Reddit is not the place for this. I recommend this book http://www.amazon.com/Fluid-Catalytic-Cracking-Handbook-Edition/dp/012386965X It is quite detailed and offers answers to most of your questions. However, a lot of a detail to actually make the zeolite that will survive an FCC is probably not available anywhere and possibly a trade secret.

You should really consider hiring an expert to answer these questions for you.

Yeah, OP is fabricating hard. For instance, the first one he mentioned is $1500 if you get the nearly 20-year-old first and, apparently, only edition. I doubt it's in use too many places right now.

Same with the chemical reactors book -- yeah, $600, but it's for a book from 1986, apparently. The environment one is from 2003. You get the idea. He's cherry picking like mad, and I don't think he's using current editions of anything.

A working guide to process equipment - Norm & Liz Lieberman

Edit: Should have finished reading before replying!

I proffer the speculation that the aggressive flight profile (this payload was just a couple hundred Kg short of Echostar 23, one that required an expendable flight) meant more heating on the outer skin with the result that the engine-soot stuck better.

The Impact of Ash Deposition On Coal Fired Plants says "adhesive strength increases with increasing substrate metal temperature".

Three theories on why the skin temperature might have been higher if the above applies to kerolox exhaust:

• Aggressive re-entry - Downside to this theory is that we've seen other 'hot' stages that haven't looked as dirty.
  
• Higher glide-ratio entry profile (which seems to be the direction they're going for Block V's new gridfins) to increase air-drag braking meant greater 'heat soak'. (My favorite of the three)
  
• Some quality to the surface paint that's an artifact of it being a flown stage, like some level of 'gloss' that might minimize future sticking soot got burned off on the first flight.

I think this book might be useful to you:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071828060/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487830606&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=a+working+guide+to+process+equipment&dpPl=1&dpID=51ZkmH8DRYL&ref=plSrch

I picked this up: https://www.amazon.com/Process-Plant-Layout-Piping-Design/dp/0131386298/

I do not recall paying that much... maybe I got a used version?

Edit: JUST realized you are not O&G anymore. Reading fail. Sorry dude, I am of no help.

I wrote up half a dozen methods in my climatecolab proposal, skip down to the "feasibility" section. I've got a lot of links.

Two of the biggest are biochar (working charcoal into soil) and farming practices that restore topsoil (no chemical fertilizer, no plowing other than a subsoil plow). Those two alone could absorb a huge amount of carbon, while also improving soil and reducing fertilizer runoff. A really good book on this is The Biochar Solution. Another, which focuses on topsoil restoration alone, is Priority One. That one has some annoying parts (he totally discounts biodiversity), but the stuff on soil is great. He's very optimistic about it.

A super cheap way to get started with biochar is cookstoves.

There's also a technology called "artificial trees," which absorbs and liquifies CO2. One of these can absorb as much CO2 as you'd offset by building 500 similar-sized windmills. At scale they estimate it'd cost as little as $20 per ton of carbon.

Five percent of our CO2 emissions are from cement production; there's a carbon-negative cement to fix that part.

There are a couple other techniques I linked that use the ocean, and this one (pdf) that I found later. Another idea I found recently is this scheme to repopulate tundra with bison and elk, converting it to grassland and stabilizing the carbon there, avoiding gigatons of emissions.

Edit: here's a recent article in Time about how farmers can absorb a lot of carbon.

That job sounds about right for an analytical chemist tbh. You asked for Books and I will give you books.

The all-around grand champion book for chemical engineers to have is Perry’s handbook.

In chemistry you did remedial thermodynamics in comparison to what chemical engineers are given, so I suggest this book as a primer in chemical thermodynamics. It covers phase equilibria, basic thermodynamics, and non-ideal behavior at a depth not seen in chemistry programs.

For heat and mass transfer I used this book in my undergrad. This is something that was almost certainly left untouched in your chemistry program.

For reaction engineering, I used [Folger’s book] (https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Chemical-Reaction-Engineering-4th/dp/0130473944/). You might recognize some of the constituent pieces, but this will bring it all together to solve for definite times and conversions.

More applicable to your direct job is process control. [Bequette's book] (https://www.amazon.com/Process-Control-Modeling-Design-Simulation/dp/0133536408/) will probably be one of the most directly important books on this list for you as far as process monitoring goes. And [this book] (https://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Synthesis-Processes-International-Engineering/dp/0132618125/) will give your insight into why processes are made the way they are.

The most important book in the list is [Process Safety] (https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Process-Safety-Fundamentals-International/dp/0131382268/). It is important that you understand what is and is not dangerous, along with what it and is not safe. You can skip the blast calcs, but do look at the TLV data, because that will come up for emissions.

This list is overbuilt and if you only have time for 3 pick the last 3 I listed and pick up a cheap Perry’s handbook for reference.

Perry's Handbook will tell you the detailed physics behind them.

I enjoyed http://www.amazon.com/Working-Process-Equipment-Norman-Lieberman/dp/0071496742

It's more on the practical and anecdotal side, but still has plenty of mathematics.

I really enjoyed High Voltage Engineering Fundamentals by Kuffel. Took a graduate level HV lab at University and used this book to supplement my lecture notes. Very cool book for a very cool topic.

https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Essential-Oils-Technology-Applications/dp/1466590467

Its $140 but this book is what some pharma companies are basing their futures on. It has so much valuable information I don't where to start.

Just get the book man... thats all u need honestly. I took the book and a few other support books (but this is honestly the only one i used) and i passed the first time.

https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Engineering-Reference-Manual-7th/dp/1591264103/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1521490020&sr=8-3&keywords=chemical+engineering+PE

Also get the practice question book - very useful

https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Problems-Chemical-Engineering-Exam/dp/1591264111/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521490020&sr=8-2&keywords=chemical+engineering+PE

Thanks Rossay, the book is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Applied-Guide-Process-Plant-Design/dp/0128002425. Perhaps sometimes ranty, but always interesting, if I do say so myself. Has to be the first chem eng textbook with more jokes than equations...

BTW, this article never appeared in TCE, it was pulled on the day of publication at the request of the IChemE president. I wrote a few similar articles there previously though...

here is the reference:

https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Thumb-Chemical-Engineers-Stephen/dp/0123877857/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538514227&sr=8-2&keywords=rule+of+thumb+for+chemical+engineers

The full calculation for tubeside & shell side coefficients are in there. You can also look at other heat transfer textbooks for the equations.

Ethanol is a very common recrystallization solvent. This is sitting on my desk right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if half of the recrystallization procedures in it call for ethanol. More relevantly, it also is non-toxic, which is useful if you're using it to purify something that's going to be consumed.

I'd posit that you could find a better recrystallization solvent if you tried hard enough, but it probably wouldn't be much better, and it'd probably be toxic.

pdf download for that book, if anyone is interested. It comes in handy on occasion.

I've used Chemical Engineering Design by Towler & Sinnott a bunch to get basic ideas on project/plant design https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Engineering-Design-Second-Principles/dp/0080966594/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479397144&sr=1-1&keywords=chemical+engineering+design

Ahhhhh, it all makes sense now, thanks for finally dropping a clue about your credentials. Sorry if I was brusque; I'll clue you into something. Years ago I was also an engineering grad student (also for free) and foolishly thought all that groovy stuff I was learning actually meant something. It does, don't get me wrong, but not in the way I thought it did. Professional engineering is not science; we make assumptions, we take short cuts, we use handbooks and correlations. We have to be able to call upon that school knowledge to help guide us in making decisions but the work we do is something entirely different. Diffusivities (be they related to neutrons, heat transfer, momentum transfer, or mass transfer) are known well enough over the appropriate regions for most engineering calculation. You may claim that this is false, or far from the truth, but I don't have the time to go over 3 semesters of nuclear power plant design theory. What I will do, though, since you are in engineer school as we type, is point you to the library: this one and that one are good starting places. A tip: if you mention Lamarsh in a question about nuclear engineering, every nuclear engineer in sight will automatically treat you with respect and answer your question or point you to someone who can.




I know I'm not going to change your mind about this so I'll stop trying; you do seem very passionate about it and I respect that. However, I do resent you implication that I'm only doing this for money(ha!), prestige (double-ha!), or curiosity (well, I am curious, but not really my purpose for working in this industry).




I also just noticed that you edited your original reply while I've been typing. I'm sorry if I've upset you, but you do have a rather abrasive way of conversing in these threads and before I realized where you were coming from I wasn't sure how to approach it. For the record I do not work at a plant but at a vendor (we design and analyze nuclear safety systems) and I hold both a B.S. and M.S. in nuclear engineering, concentrated in thermal-hydraulics design and analysis (although apparently this doesn't make me a real engineer in you definition). I guess the really infuriating thing about your threads is that you're painting an entire sector of the engineering community with the same brush, but no bother I guess. I'd like to reply to each of the searing accusations you put forth in your edited reply, but I fear they would fall on deaf ears. If you'd like to actually ask me a real engineering question and get a real answer, feel free to PM me, these threads just aren't suited to that type of exchange.




Best of luck on your finals and, I assume, your Quals (if you haven't already taken them).

ah cool thx for the list. ill start from that order when i have time and can get ahold of those books.

to make sure,

A working guide to process equipment =

Lieberman Distillation operation ???

kister Distillation design =

kister Distillation troubleshooting =

kister Distillation design and control using aspen =

luyben = ????

, it seems kister distillation design is pretty easy to get a hold of. would it also be fine to start from there?

also, back in uni, the book i used to distillation column (which was in separations course) was mccabe. what do you think about mccabe for distillation? I never learned anything from it regarding distillation section, but if others think its good, ill have another go at it.

That's because they have 2 reference manuals that condense everything down:

https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Engineering-Reference-Manual-7th/dp/1591264103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481981946&sr=8-1&keywords=pe+chemical+engineering

https://www.amazon.com/Perrys-Chemical-Engineers-Handbook-Eighth/dp/0071422943/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481981968&sr=8-3&keywords=perry%27s

How'd she do? I'm just about to start studying, taking the ChE PE in the spring

Looking for this full textbook PDF download https://www.amazon.com/Working-Guide-Process-Equipment-Fourth/dp/0071828060

paying $1 PP.

EDIT: open still. waiting on reply on 2nd person that pmmed me. going to 3rd after if no reply soon

EDIT2: got it. closed. thanks all

Smells like bullshit. Let me check those prices.

Acta Philosophorum The First Journal of Philosophy: $270

Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications: $283

Management Science An Anthology: $37

History of Early Film: $224

Biostatistical Genetics and Genetic Epidemiology: $140

Companion Encyclopedia of Psychology: $40

Feminism and Politics: $4

Concepts and Design of Chemical Reactors: $149

Advanced Semiconductor and Organic Nano-Techniques: $195

Ethics in Business and Economics: $4

Environment in the New Global Economy: $400

Solid State Chemistry and Its Applications: $40

Of course, they're still a rip off.