A Working Guide to Process Equipment

by Norman P. Lieberman

Working Guide to Process Equipment , 2nd Ed. carefully and clearly explains all the basic technical issues that you need to know to trouble-shoot most process equipment problems. This guide contains a wealth of useful diagnostic tips, worked-out calculations, practical examples, and informative illustrations to help you quickly pinpoint trouble and repair typical malfunctions Trayed and packed distillation towers; Natural and forced reboilers; Partial and total condensers; Steam systems and deaerators; Vaccuum systems; Fired heaters; Shell and tube heat exchangers; Centrifugal compressors; Gas turbines and reciprocating engines; Centrifugal pumps and motor drivers. In no time at all, this essential problem-solving manual will become your most trusted on-the-job tool for dealing effectively wtih costly equipment malfunctions.

Genres: Engineering, Textbooks

Hardcover

First published December 6, 2002

Reviews

[Greg Ivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally bought this book as a reference manual, which I think is its intended purpose. For that, I've only found it to be moderately useful; there are some formulas, some diagrams, and a lot of introductory information that a person who's new to chemical engineering, operating, inspecting, or repairing of refinery process equipment might be able to make use of. For most people that already do this for a living, this book doesn't really present a lot of professional value as either a reference book, or an educational tool. The information IS solid, it's just that it's mostly stuff that you probably already know.

NOW, all that stuff aside, you should know that this book isn't really about troubleshooting problems in refineries. It's a stunning autobiography of a nerdy kid from Brooklyn who doesn't study hard, doesn't work hard, somehow becomes an engineer, and then leaves a trail of destruction and chaos in his wake. I was looking up something about gas-fired heaters, and stumbled across a light-hearted story wherein he admits to making a simple mistake. I think the purpose of including this anecdote was so that you could learn from a real-life lesson based on his experience, but it ends very abruptly with a sentence about how his mistake ended with 20 people rolling around on the ground because they were literally on fire. After staring in disbelief at what I had just read, I abandoned all pretext of doing any actual work that day and read the book all the way through.

With my new outlook on what this book was, my full read-through did not disappoint. Among the better stories in this book are a brief chapter about almost causing a young engineer to kill himself when the author mixed up the words "thermocouple" and "thermowell", a diatribe about his high-school girlfriend and how he wishes that she could see how much money he's made since she called him a "nerd", and a long introductory chapter about killing all his son's fish because he doesn't understand how the oxygen pump works.

So in the end, this book turned out to be a surprisingly poignant meditation on mortality, the ethics of accidentally killing people (no big deal), and the way that if you kind-of try then you can eventually have a wildly successful career and a book deal. As long as you've set a bunch of people on fire.

I did not throw this book.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was at university, a lecturer assigned two books for our Separations course - this book and another text book. I asked him which one I should buy if I could only choose one. He said whatever I do I should buy this book and I would still want to read it years later. He was right.

I still go back to this book because of its easy to understand technical writing, but also because it is often written as an autobiography of Norm Lieberman. There are so many funny stories and anecdotes, while still capturing the technical aspects of being a process engineer.

Some of my favourite quotes below:
“Trays, like people, rarely perform as expected.”

[Ahmed Khattab]

An interesting book.

At the first chapter Norman explains some process engineering concepts by comparing them to everyday life.

Then in the next chapters he explains some equipment from his real-life experiences and tells stories from his life in an exciting way! He got the talent of simplifying complex concepts while keeping you thrilled. He will even make you laugh at some points.

I partially read it. It's the first book to read for Norman and sure I am going to refer to other unread chapters when needed and read other books of him InShaaAllah.

[Shivam Rana]

Nice book for chemical engineers

[David Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most often referenced books in my professional library.