Sources for Cost Estimating for Chemical Plant Design (ChE161.1)

Library Contact:   Carol Salomon       e:  salomo@cooper.edu              t: 212-353-4187

General Information

How to Estimate Utility Costs  -  article in Chemical Engineering,  April 2006, p.66-69.   Includes utility cost coefficients, heating value and density of typical fuels, graph of prices for fuels on an energy-equivalent basis, refrigerant and wastewater treatment calculation examples. 
Photocopy of article available on Reserve in the Cooper Library;  Library has journal on microfilm.   Contact Carol Salomon for digital copy of article.

Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index -  tracks changes in costs of equipment, construction labor, buildings and engineering supervision.  Included in Economic Indicators section on the last page of every issue of Chemical Engineering.  
  
Register for free access at http://www.che.com (free access to issues of previous one year only).
Cooper Library has print issues for the past year; previous on microfilm.

Costs for Electricity, Natural Gas, Fuel Oil 

Consumer Price Index, Average Price Data  http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ap 
from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Information from the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration (DOE/EIA):

Natural Gas:
International and U.S. Gas Prices:   http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gasprice.html                                                                             
Petroleum Price Navigator:  
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_top.asp

Electricity:  Average Retail Price by Sector and State  http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html     

Coal:   Coal News and Markets  
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/coalnews/coalmar.html

Waste Treatment Design and Costing:

Predesign for Pollution Prevention and Control, article in Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP), June 2007, p.53-60.   Includes coefficients for calculating waste water and gas treatment costs.
  
Photocopy of article available on Reserve in the Cooper Library,  journal issue also available on Library shelf; or contact Carol Salomon for digital copy.  

Construction Costs:

ENR (Engineering News-Record) on Cooper Library shelves.  
  
Each issue has a section on Construction Economics that has price updates for four key construction materials and comments on recent trends. ENR's Quarterly Cost Reports provide in-depth analysis (usually published in the last weekly issue of March, June, September, and December). More details and instructions for using ENR’s Cost Reports at: http://enr.construction.com/features/conEco/default.asp

Equipment Costs:

Chemical Engineering Buyers’ Guide    http://www.cebuyersguide.com/public/
(free registration required)
Print version available alongside print Chemical Engineering issues at Cooper Union Library.

Matches' Process Equipment Cost Estimates:
http://www.matche.com/EquipCost/Index.htm

Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook (See Chapter 9 on Process Economics.)
Perry’s 7th ed. 1997  http://www.knovel.com/knovel2/Toc.jsp?SpaceID=10093&BookID=48
Perry’s 8th ed. 2008   Cooper Library:  Reference   TP151 .P45 2008

Chemical Pricing:    
See separate Research Guide
http://www.cooper.edu/facilities/library/research/guides_frameset.html

last updated December 10, 2007