PIPING & INSTRUMENTATION

(P&IDs)
• The process flow-sheet shows the arrangement of the major pieces of equipment
and their interconnection. It is a description of the nature of the process.

• The Piping and Instrument diagram (P&ID) shows the engineering details of the
equipment, instruments, piping, valves and fittings; and their arrangement.

• It is often called the Engineering Flow-Sheet, Engineering Line Diagram or

Mechanical Flow Diagram (MFD).

• The P&I diagram will resemble the process flowsheet, but the process information
is not shown.

• The same equipment identification numbers should be used on both diagrams.

P&ID should include:

1. All process equipment identified by an equipment number. The equipment should be

drawn roughly in proportion, and the location of nozzles shown.

2. All pipes, identified by a line number. The pipe size and material of construction
should be shown. The material may be included as part of the line identification
number.

3. All valves: control and block valves, with an identification number. The type (gate,
plug, ball, globe, diaphragm, etc.) and size should be shown. The type may be shown by
the symbol used for the valve or included in the code used for the valve number.

4. Ancillary fittings that are part of the piping system, such as inline sight-glasses,
strainers, and steam traps, with an identification number.

5. Pumps, identified by a suitable code number.

6. All control loops and instruments, with an identification number.

 Information found on a P&ID

Equipment Piping Instruments Utilities

Backup units Size (Use Standard Sizes) Indicators Entrance utilities
Parallel units Schedule (Thickness) Recorders Exit utilities
Materials of construction Controllers Exit to waste treatment
Insulation (thickness and Show instrument lines
type)

Exclusions from P&IDs

 Symbols and Layout

The symbols used to show the equipment, valves, instruments and control loops
will depend on the practice of the particular design office.

The equipment symbols are usually more detailed than those used for the process
flow-sheet.

Standard symbols for process equipment, pumps, controllers and valves are defined
by international (International Society of Automatization-ISA) and national (British
Standard BS 1646, German Standard DIN 28004, American National Standards
Institute-ANSI) standards.
ISA-5.1-1984
(R1992)

BS 1646

It represent all types of control Locally mounted means that Main panel means that
valve, and both pneumatic and the controller and display is they are located on a panel
electric actuators. located out on the plant near in the control room.
to the sensing instrument
location.

Except on small plants, most controllers would be mounted

in the control room.

See Appendix-A in Sinnott, Towler for a large list of equipment and piping systems.
All process information that can be measured at
the plant is indicated by a circle mark on the
P&ID.
Piping Connection Symbols
From Process Flow Sheet to P&ID
Biodiesel Production
P&ID for Benzene
Distillation
 CONTROL AND INSTRUMENTATION
INSTRUMENTS

• Instruments are provided to monitor the key process variables during plant operation.
• They may be incorporated in automatic control loops, or used for the manual monitoring
of the process operation.
• In most modern plants, the instruments will be connected to a computer control and data
logging system.
• Instruments monitoring critical process variables will be fitted with automatic alarms to
alert the operators to critical and hazardous situations.
• It is desirable that the process variable that is to be monitored should be measured
directly; however, this is often impractical and some dependent variable that is easier to
measure is monitored in its place.

For example, in the control of distillation columns the continuous, on-line, analysis of the
overhead product composition is desirable but difficult and expensive to achieve reliably, so
temperature is often monitored as an indication of composition. The temperature instrument may
form part of a control loop controlling, say, reflux flow; with the composition of the overheads checked
frequently by sampling and laboratory analysis.
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL OBJECTIVES

1. Safe plant operation

(a) To keep the process variables within known safe operating limits.
(b) To detect dangerous situations as they develop and to provide alarms and automatic
shut-down systems.
(c) To provide interlocks and alarms to prevent dangerous operating procedures.

2. Production rate
To achieve the design product output.

3. Product quality
To maintain the product composition within the specified quality standards.

4. Cost
To operate at the lowest production cost, commensurate with the other objectives.

5. Stability
To maintain steady, automatic plant operation with minimal operator intervention.
 AUTOMATIC CONTROL SCHEMES in P&IDs

Control loops needed for steady process operation

(a) Level controls
(b) Flow controls
(c) Pressure controls
(d) Temperature controls

Basic rules of process control

• There can only be a single control valve on any given stream between unit operations.
• A level controller is needed anywhere where a vapor-liquid or liquid-liquid interface is maintained.
• Pressure control is more responsive when the pressure controller actuates a control valve on a vapor
stream.
• Two operations cannot be controlled at different pressures unless there is a valve or other restriction
(or a compressor or pump) between them.
• Temperature control is usually achieved by controlling the flow of a utility stream (such as steam or
cooling water) or a bypass around an exchanger.
• The overall plant material balance is usually set by flow controllers or flow ratio controllers on the
process feeds. There cannot be an additional flow controller on an intermediate stream unless there is
provision for accumulation (surge); such as, an intermediate storage tank.
Preparation of a
Process Control
Loop
 TYPICAL CONTROL SYSTEMS

LEVEL CONTROL

Level Alarm: High/Low

Level Valve

Typical arrangement for the level control at the base of a column. The control valve should be
placed on the discharge line from the pump.
PRESSURE CONTROL
FLOW CONTROL

To provide flow control on a compressor or pump running at a fixed speed and supplying a near constant volume
output, a by-pass control would be used, as shown in (a).
The use of variable speed motors as shown in (c) is more energy efficient than the traditional arrangement shown in
(b), and is becoming increasingly common.
TEMPERATURE
CONTROL
REBOILER & VAPORIZER CONTROL

Level control is often used for vaporizers; the controller controlling the steam supply to the heating
surface, with the liquid feed to the vaporizer on flow control, as shown in Figure above. An increase in
the feed results in an automatic increase in steam to the vaporizer to vaporize the increased flow and
maintain the level constant.
DISTILLATION COLUMN CONTROL
REACTOR
CONTROL

The schemes used for reactor control depend on the process and the type of reactor. If a reliable online
analyzer is available, and the reactor dynamics are suitable, the product composition can be monitored
continuously and the reactor conditions and feed flows controlled automatically to maintain the
desired product composition and yield.
 3-D PLANT MODEL
After the PFD, P&ID and other diagrams of the facility are drawn, a three-dimensional
drawing is made to see the visuality and equipment layout in perspective.

Isometric View of Preliminary 3-D Plant Layout Model

for Dimethylether (DME) Process (Aveva PDMS
Software)
- END -