Design Guides

Practitioner-oriented design and operations guides covering major refinery and petrochemical unit operations. Each guide is organized into short chapters that cover fundamentals, design rules of thumb, and field experience.

FCC Operations GuideFluid catalytic cracking unit fundamentals, process variables, heat balance, troubleshooting, startup, and calculations.
Field Operations HandbookMobilization, field safety, communications, project management, checkout, commissioning, performance testing, and closeout practices for field engineers.
Fired Heaters Design GuideFired heater fundamentals, efficiency, burner types, skin thermocouples, field evaluation, and combustion troubleshooting.
Fractionation Design GuideTray selection, feed location, condenser and reboiler design, pressure control, and composition control for distillation columns.
Heat Exchangers Design GuideTEMA selection, air-cooled exchanger design, stab-in reboilers, vent condensers, and heat exchanger field evaluation.
Hydroprocessing Operations GuideHydrotreater and hydrocracker fundamentals, catalyst sulfiding, reactor temperature management, emergency procedures, and turnaround planning.
Instrumentation & Control Design GuideLevel instruments, SIS design, control valves, temperature sensors, spillback measurement, and antisurge control.
Metallurgy & Corrosion Design GuideMaterials selection, wet H₂S cracking, killed steel and PWHT, austenitic stainless steel, and mill scale removal.
Miscellaneous Design GuideHot oil systems, steam generation, ejector design, winterizing, and MDMT considerations.
Piping Design GuidePipe sizing, equivalent lengths, pump circuits, feed/product circuits, and thermosiphon hydraulics.
Pressure Relief Design GuideRelief sizing overview, fractionator relief, inlet pressure drop, heat exchanger overpressure, fire case, and relief headers.
Process Technology Quick Reference CardsOne-card summaries of major refining and petrochemical process technologies — catalytic reforming, hydrocracking, hydrotreating, FCC, alkylation, isomerization, aromatics, gas processing, hydrogen, and renewable fuels.
Pumps & Hydraulics Design GuidePump and compressor selection, NPSH methodology, spillback design, pump protection, seals, head curves, and dry gas seals.
Renewable Fuels Processing GuideFeedstocks, reaction chemistry, process configurations, catalyst considerations, product specifications, and regulatory framework for renewable diesel and SAF.
Vessels & Internals Design GuideDesign pressure and temperature selection, vessel sizing, nozzle sizing, level instruments, vacuum vessels, ceramic balls, and reference data.

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Disclaimer. This material is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute professional engineering advice. Calculations, reference data, and methodologies are based on published standards and accepted engineering practice but are not a substitute for engineering judgment, site-specific analysis, or review by a licensed Professional Engineer. Inflection Point Engineering, LLC makes no warranties, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for a particular purpose of any content presented here, and shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from its use. Users assume all risk associated with applying this content to real-world design, operations, or decisions.