Process Operability

An integration of process design and operations

 

The material in this section provides teaching and learning materials for undergraduate education in process operability.  For the purposes of this presentation, operability is defined concisely in the following.

 

Operability encompasses characteristics that ensure the process has the capacity and flexibility to achieve a range of operating conditions safely, reliably, profitably and with good dynamic performance and product quality.

Operability must be considered at the design stage to ensure excellent dynamic operation can be achieved.  Therefore, the topic links the process control and process design courses, and the materials here are appropriate for either or both courses.

None of the content in operability is entirely new.  However, the integration of these many process systems engineering topics is novel.  They can be easily included in a process design course, with operability a natural topic after flowsheeting and before/integrated with equipment sizing and economic analysis.

 

In addition, the teaching and learning materials presented here are available at no cost to the student and to academic departments at not-for-profit academic institutions.

To introduce the operability concepts and present the compelling reasons for including operability in the undergraduate curriculum, a white paper and accompanying conference presentation are available.  If you are interested, they may be downloaded by clicking on the following icons.

Why is Operability Important, even Essential?
White paper	Presentation

Teaching and Learning Materials

 

These materials are copyrighted, but a special license for use is provided for the use at not-for-profit educational institutions.  For details, see PC-Education Disclaimer and Copyright.

Any other individuals or organizations should contact the author for terms of use.

Click on text for link to learning materials

No materials (yet) indicated by red X

Operability topic	Class teaching visual aids*	Book chapter
Introduction	Introduction	1. Introduction
Operating Window	Operating window	2. Operating  Window
Flexibility	Process Flexibility	3. Flexibility
Reliability	Process Reliability	4. Reliability
Safety	The Safety Hierarchy	5. Safety
	Pressure Relief
	HAZOP – Identifying potential safety problems
	LOPA – Selecting the appropriate safety systems
Process Control	See Section “Process Control Learning Support” on this site	6. Process Control
Efficiency	Process Efficiency	X
Operations during Transitions	Operations during transitions	X
Monitoring and diagnosis	Process Monitoring	X
	Process Troubleshooting Refining TS Skills New: Problem Solving e-Lessons (with a Trouble-Shooting example)	9. Process Troubleshooting
		Appendices
Process Control Equipment	See Section “Instrumentation for Process Control” on this site	A. Process Control Equipment

*      Some of the teaching visual aids include copyrighted figures; the location of the original (URL or reference) is provided on the Power Point page with the figure.  The instructor is responsible for ensuring that the classroom use of these materials is consistent with copyright and intellectual property legislation (fair use, fair dealing, etc.) where the course is taught.  If not, the instructor is responsible for removing such copyrighted materials.