Today, I will share with you the 3x free pump selection software I use in my job as a chemical process engineer in plant design. They are very useful for conceptual design and preliminary estimation.
PRELIMINARY INFORMATION FOR PUMP SELECTION
Pumps are one of the most common equipment found in the chemical, petrochemical, and oil&gas industry. This equipment is needed to build pressure on liquid streams. Without pumps, the transportation of liquids would be very limited.
For the proper selection of a pump, the chemical process engineer must define operating pressure, temperature, fluid composition, max/min/rated flow rate, total head (dynamic+static) and NPSHa of the system. With these information, viscosity and mass density can be defined.
This data is filled in a document known as process/specification datasheet for pumps. To the full specification of a pump, it is also added to the technical specification the hazard area classification, ingress protection required and other information issued by disciplines like electrical, mechanical, instrumentation etc.
In any case, the process data for a pump borns with the chemical process engineer, because we are responsible for heat and material balance definition. Source of information for pump definition.
While the chemical process engineer defines the inputs for pump selection, the accuracy of the heat and material balance depends on information from pump vendors.
For instance, to define the OPEX of the project to be used in the economic analysis, it is necessary to have the preliminary power consumption of the process. Considering only a system with pumps, this value has a direct relationship with pump efficiency. If during conceptual design pump efficiency is estimated much higher than the purchased pump, OPEX will be higher and the company´s profits will be lower. it also implies in the motor size as in the earlier stages of a project the electrical engineer will rely on process engineer information for motor sizing selection (CAPEX). If you consider the opposite, i.e., much lower efficiency than the final pump purchase, economics may not be enough to guarantee project approval.
So, as a chemical process engineer in plant design, you need to have and use the right information for your heat and material balance or process simulation on Aspen HYSYS, Aspen PLUS, ChemCAD, Unisim, PROII, DWSim, SYmmetry etc. Use process simulation standard values to pump efficiency will be a recipe to wrong estimates in many cases.
Pump simulation on Aspen Hysys
To improve the results of your heat and material balance by hand calculation or using process simulation software, I strongly recommend that instead of using default information available in the software or guidelines to report the final results, you review your heat and material balance based on real data. Because this way, you will have more accurate results for CAPEX and OPEX.
3x FREE PUMP SELECTION SOFTWARE
Disclaimer: All options listed below are available for free, in any case, I cannot guarantee they will be available when you reach this post. Eventually, the company can change the link to get access or change the way the software is available. With that in mind, let’s go to the list:
1) Grundfos Pump Product Center
Grundfos is the largest pump manufacturer in the world, based in Denmark, with more than 19,000 employees globally. The annual production of more than 16 million pump units, circulator pumps (UP), submersible pumps (SP), and centrifugal pumps (CR). Grundfos also produces electric motors for the pumps as well as electric motors for separate merchandising. Grundfos develops and sells electronics for controls for pumps and other systems (Wikipedia).
With Grundfos Product Center you are able to search, size, select and compare standard Grundfos pumps and pre-engineered Grundfos pump systems. To have access to Grundfos free online tool there is no need for registration or download.
Use this link to start pump selection: [GRUNDFOS PRODUCT CENTER]
2) Goulds Pump Selection System
ITT Goulds Pumps is among the most widely recognized and respected brands in the global pump industry, serving customers in the oil and gas, mining, power generation, chemical, pulp and paper, and general industrial markets. As the only manufacturer to make digital monitoring standard on every process pump, ITT Goulds Pumps continues to lead the industry in both mechanical pump design and the adoption of smart technologies (Goulds Pump website).
Goulds Pump Selection System offers customized pump selection and analysis with complete pump performance data and product information. Search by design point (flow rate and head), set limits, correct for viscosity and analyze pump performance. To use this tool you need to do free registration and have JAVA software.
Use this link to start pump selection: [GOULDS PUMP SELECTION SYSTEM]
3) KSB Pump EasySelect
KSB SE & Co. KGaA is a German multinational manufacturer of pumps, valves with headquarters in Frankenthal (Pfalz), Germany. The KSB Group has manufacturing plants, sales and marketing organizations, and service operations on every continent (Wikipedia).
KSB Pump EasySelect software can be used to select pumps and valves quickly and easily in a user-friendly configuration environment. You can use the Free online tool without the need for registration or download.
Use this link to start pump selection: [KSB PUMP EASYSELECTION]
CHEMICAL PROCESS ENGINEERING AND PLANT DESIGN
To become a chemical process engineer able to work with plant design, you need to know more than just equations. You need to understand what the design companies really want from you.
My name is Jeferson Costa and I teach students, graduates and engineers how to work with chemical process engineering and plant design. Keep following my social media to learn more about chemical process engineering and plant design, or join my Inprocess Booster training program to learn under my guidance.
Regards,
Jeferson Costa
