The fastest way to increase a skill is by learning from someone else. Reading books is for sure one of the most accessible ways to do that.

As many people ask me about which book I recommend for an engineer who wants to work with process design, below I have listed 3 books I believe will help you in your journey. If you like others, feel free to add them in the comments.

You can see more details about these books at Amazon, just click in the book cover.

1) Applied Process Design For Chemical and Petrochemical Plants. Ernest E. Ludwig.

This book consists of 3 volumes and covers many subjects related to equipment process design. There are pictures and a few examples of how to apply some calculations.

Volume 1, includes important supplemental mechanical and related data, nomographs and charts. Also included within are improved techniques and fundamental methodologies, to guide the engineer in designing process equipment and applying chemical processes to properly detailed equipment. (link to Amazon)

Volume 2, Third Edition, which covers distillation and packed towers as well as material on azeotropes and ideal/non-ideal systems. (Link to Amazon)

Volume 3, Third Edition, which covers heat transfer, refrigeration systems, compression surge drums, and mechanical drivers. (Link to Amazon)

2) An Applied Guide To Process and Plant Design. Sean Moran.

This book is not focused on equipment design, but I like it because it talks about process design deliverables. This book will help you to understand the workflow of process design.

The book covers plant layout and the use of spreadsheet programmes and key drawings produced by professional engineers as aids to design; subjects which are usually learned on the job rather than in education. You will learn how to produce smarter plant design through the use of computer tools, including Excel and AutoCAD, “What If Analysis”, statistical tools, and Visual Basic for more complex problems. (Link to Amazon)

3) Industrial Chemical Process Design. Douglas Erwin.

Who buys this book has access to worksheets and programs developed by the author. Not as extensive as Item 1, but with good practical examples. I have this one in my bookshelf.

Industrial Chemical Process Design, Second Edition provides a step-by-step methodology and 25 downloadable, customizable, needs-specific software applications that offer quick, accurate solutions to complex process design problems. These applications uniquely fill the gaps left by large, very expensive commercial process simulation software packages used to select, size, and design industrial chemical process equipment. (Link to Amazon)

Bonus: Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook. 

This is the classical one and I also have this in my bookshelf. I used part of my first payment as chemical process engineer to buy the hardcopy 🙂 (Link to Amazon)

Unit Conversion Factors and Symbols • Physical and Chemical Data including Prediction and Correlation of Physical Properties • Mathematics including  Differential and Integral Calculus, Statistics , Optimization • Thermodynamics • Heat and Mass Transfer • Fluid and Particle Dynamics *Reaction Kinetics • Process Control and Instrumentation• Process Economics • Transport and Storage of Fluids • Heat Transfer Operations and Equipment • Psychrometry, Evaporative Cooling, and Solids Drying • Distillation • Gas Absorption and Gas-Liquid System Design • Liquid-Liquid Extraction Operations and Equipment • Adsorption and Ion Exchange • Gas-Solid Operations and Equipment •  Liquid-Solid Operations and Equipment • Solid-Solid Operations and Equipment •Chemical Reactors • Bio-based Reactions and Processing • Waste Management including Air ,Wastewater and Solid Waste Management* Process Safety including Inherently Safer Design • Energy Resources, Conversion and Utilization* Materials of Construction

I love books and whenever is possible, I like to have a hardcopy on my bookshelf.

PS. The picture is from my own bookshelf. 😀

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