Branan's Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers, Fourth Edition

There are four main sections: 1) equipment design, 2) process design, 3) plant design, and 4) operations.

For example, one of the chapters within plant design is called "Safety." It contains the following parts: - Estimating LEL and Flash (provides method for estimating LEL given the stoichiometry of combustion and a vapor pressure curve) - Tank Blanketing (method for determining inert gas requirements for breathing losses and working losses; includes data maps of the US) - Equipment Purging (for dilution, pressure-cycle, and vacuum-cycle purging) - Static Charge from Fluid Flow (reprint of an article from Hydrocarbon Processing) - Mixture Flammability (method and examples for estimating) - Relief Manifolds (describes method adopted by API)

In short, if you are practicing process engineering for plant design or maintenance, you should have this book.


A MUST HAVE books for Chemical Engineers   October 7, 2000
Andrew M. Ward (Sugarland, Texas USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

This is one of the few MUST HAVE books for Chemical Engineers doing process engineering. When I travel (for work) I always take "Transport Phenomena" (aka BSL), The GPA Databook and "Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers". Rules of Thumb... is a great reference for process design and trouble shooting field problems.

A Practical Tip: The best thing to do with "Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers" is to carefuly remove the binding and put it into a 3-hole notebook (e.g., the GPA databook) and then file all the classic process design articles with the appropriate chapters.


From an Industrial Practitioner - This is an Excellent Quick Reference   July 11, 2006
David De Sousa
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book is an excellent and priceless reference on Process Equipment Fundamentals and Quick Calculations for any engineer or practitioner working in the process industries. I am an Electronic Engineer, but I have been working for the last 16 years as an Instrumentation, Automation and Process Control Engineer for the Oil & Gas Industry. As a result I have been involved with Chemical Engineering issues in a day to day basic.

I have found this book to be an excellent tool aid to analyze operational problems that affect process performance.

Chemical engineers working in operations and design for the process industries will find this book most useful.



Useful but read the fine print   June 10, 2007
Dirk J. Willard (Chicago, IL)
This reference is highly useful for consulting work. It has its limits. A true rule-of-thumb book for chemical engineers would require volumes so I would say the author did well, hence the 5 stars. A good example of the limits of this book are what he does with knock-out pots. He limits his presentation to reflux drums instead of expanding his study to KO pots in general. The section on reflux drums is difficult to use because the tables presented for liquid holding times is difficult to understand, let alone use. The reader would be tempted to use this method for KO pots unless he sees the fine print in the corner of the page. Look for these caveates.

The index is good, which is critical for such a reference. If I had a choice between buying Hicks or Branan, it would be a hard choice. I would probably advise the cheaper book, Branan. Besides, Hicks, "Standard Handbook of Engineering Calculations," covers a broad range of engineering calculations. Branan is more focused on chemical engineering. It is unfortunate that it is not expanded to cover more of the field.

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Any practicing Chemical Engineer must have this book   May 31, 2008
C. Hertzler (SF Bay Area)
This book is a work horse. It is extremly practical and to the point. Important concepts and design equations are laid out in a concise and easy to read format. This book noteworthy for the depth of the material covered and the incredibly succint delivery of that information.