Show equipment and streams of a process.
A PFD shows major equipment, main process streams, flow rates, temperatures, pressures and compositions (material balance table), plus key control loops. It is the primary schematic for design, economics and communication; detailed piping is in P&IDs.
A PFD of an ammonia plant shows reformers, converters, compressors and separators.
Process flow diagrams give a high-level view of a plant, which is needed to discuss design and to check the mass and energy balances.
Show equipment and streams of a process.
Process flow diagrams give a high-level view of a plant, which is needed to discuss design and to check the mass and energy balances.
The main equipment, the major process streams with their flows and conditions, and the principal connections between units.
Detailed piping, instrumentation and minor valves, which are shown on the P and ID instead.
Typical applications include presenting a plant concept to a client before detailed design, checking the main streams and equipment for a new process and identifying where recycles and purges enter a process.
Study "Unit operations" first (topic 67 of 100 in Materials & Chemical). It covers the groundwork this topic builds on.
Equipment symbols. Stream numbers. Utilities.
A PFD of an ammonia plant shows reformers, converters, compressors and separators.
The next topic is "P&ID", which builds directly on this one.
It is classed as Advanced in Materials & Chemical (topic 68 of 100). It is an advanced topic. It assumes you are comfortable with the intermediate topics in Materials & Chemical.
Want to practise? Open the interactive course for quick checks, quizzes, simulations and progress tracking.