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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Process Fundamentals and Balances

Process flow diagram

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

nounCore term

In chemical engineering, process flow diagram means: A drawing that shows the main equipment of a plant, how the streams connect them and the key operating data such as flows, temperatures and pressures.

In Turkish: proses akım şeması, proses akış diyagramı, PFD

How it is used

Prepared early in a project, before the P&ID. It usually has a stream table at the bottom. Engineers draw, issue, review and mark up a process flow diagram, and everyone calls it the PFD.

Example sentences

  1. Check the stream table on the process flow diagram for the design temperature of the feed.

  2. The process flow diagram shows only the main equipment; valves and instruments are on the P&IDs.

Common collocations

  • issue the process flow diagram
  • stream table
  • PFD revision
  • draw a process flow diagram
  • P&IDShort for piping and instrumentation diagram: a detailed drawing of every pipe, valve, instrument, control loop and safety device in a unit.
  • mass balanceA calculation based on the rule that mass is not created or destroyed: everything that goes into a system must come out, react or build up inside it.
  • energy balanceA calculation that tracks all the energy entering and leaving a system as heat, work and the enthalpy of the streams, so that heating and cooling needs can be found.
  • unit operationA basic physical step that appears in many different processes, such as distillation, filtration, drying or heat exchange. Any plant can be described as a chain of these steps.

More terms: Process Fundamentals and Balances

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