Chemical Engineering Bookshelf for January 2016
Book Review: Ludwig’s Applied Process Design for Chemical and Petrochemical Plants, Vol 3., 4th Edition. By A. Kayode Coker.
Reviewed by: Dr. Gavin P. Towler, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies, 25 E. Algonquin Road, Des Plaines, IL 60016. Phone: (847) 391-2788
Ludwig’s Applied Process Design is one of the classic chemical engineering design manuals, providing practicing engineers with detailed methods and data needed to design chemical processing equipment and plants. The latest edition (4th) in the series (Vol. 3) has been produced by Dr. Kayode Coker, who brings a wealth of industrial experience and offers a welcome update and extension of the material.
Volume 3 is primarily concerned with the design of heat-transfer systems, utility systems and rotating equipment. The majority of the book addresses the design of heat-transfer systems, including heat-transfer equipment, heat-exchanger networks, and refrigeration systems. The chapter on heat transfer has been substantially improved, with added material on the design of condensers, thermosiphon reboilers, air coolers and the design of insulation. The treatment of fouling in design has also been updated. An excellent new chapter on heat integration has also been added. It provides a detailed introduction to the pinch design method for design and optimization of heat exchanger networks. This chapter explains the pinch concept very clearly and uses detailed examples to walk a user through the whole methodology of exchanger network design.
The chapters on design of compression equipment, surge drums and driver selection remain one of the best sources for detailed information on these subjects in the open literature. All of the chapters have been updated with new methods and contain a wealth of useful data, such as compressibility charts and compressor performance curves. The chapter on drivers contains several new additions and updates the material on electric motors to cover new higher efficiency machines. Taken together, these chapters are very valuable for anyone who is designing gas-handling systems or preparing information to discuss with equipment vendors.
Overall, Dr. Coker has done an excellent job of bringing this book up to date and ensuring that it continues to treat the subject from the perspective of industrial practice. The book is a worthwhile addition to the library of any engineer engaged in process design or plant operations.
Other recently published books for CPI professionals
Molecularly Imprinted Catalysts. Edited by Songjun Li, Shunsheng Cao, Sergey Piletsky and Anthony Turner. Elsevier Inc., 2015, 310 pages, $170.00.
Novel Materials for Carbon Dioxide Mitigation Technology. By Fan Shi and Bryan Morreale. Elsevier Inc., 2015, 414 pages, $189.95.
Advances in Industrial Mixing: A Companion to the Handbook of Industrial Mixing. Edited by Suzanne Kresta, Arthur Etchells, David Dickey and Victor Atiemo-Obeng. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2015, 1,036 pages, $200.00.
Microawave-assisted Polymerization (RSC Green Chemistry). By Anuradha Mishra, Tanvi Vats and James Clark. Royal Society of Chemistry (U.K.), 2015, 200 pages, $205.00.
Chemical Processes for a Sustainable Future. Edited by Trevor Letcher, Janet Scott and others. Royal Society of Chemistry (U.K.), 2015, 824 pages. $135.98.
Engineering Possibilities: Soft Skills for Young Engineers. By Holly Blair, CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2015, 136 pages, $14.95.
Membrane Distillation and Osmotic Distillation. By Minh Nguyen and Robert Johnson. Wiley Interscience, 2015, 300 pages, $99.95.
Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources: Evaluation and Development. By Y. Zee Ma and Stephen Holditch. Gulf Professional Publishing, 2015, 550 pages, $150.00.
Modeling of Chemical Wear: Relevance to Practice. By A. Sethuramiah and Rajesh Kumar. Elsevier, 2015, 240 pages, $99.95.
Scott Jenkins